Palestinian officials reacted furiously to Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's assertion that they are an "invented" people.
A senior Arab League official immediately condemned Gingrich’s claim that Palestinians are "invented,” calling the claim racist and a cheap stunt to get votes.
Israeli Cabinet minister Uzi Landau said Gingrich was right. He claimed the Palestinians do not have their own language or culture, and are instead part of the broader Arab world.
Gingrich also called Palestinians "terrorists." The comments struck at the heart of Palestinian sensitivities about the righteousness of their struggle for an independent state. Using the word "invented" suggests that the Palestinian quest for independence is illegitimate.
In a statement, Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said that "to understand what is being proposed and negotiated, you have to understand decades of complex history - which is exactly what Gingrich was referencing."
Those comments appeared unlikely to calm the uproar among Palestinian officials, as Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad demanded that Gingrich "review history."
"From the beginning, our people have been determined to stay on their land," Fayyad said in comments reported by the Palestinian news agency Wafa. "This, certainly, is denying historical truths."
This heated historical debate raises important theological issues in the Quran, such as whether the Quran recognizes the Palestinians as a nation?
Surprisingly; the Quran supports Gingrich’s views on this issue at three different levels:
1. The word “Bani Israel” (Children of Israel) is mentioned 40 times in the Quran, while the word Palestinians or Palestine is never mentioned, not even once, in the Quran.2. The Quran considers the Lord as the only one who has the right to give land to people as inheritance {Quran -Al-A'raf 7:128 Said Moses to his people: "Pray for help from the Lord, and (wait) in patience and constancy: for the Land is his, to give as an inheritance to whoever He wanted}.
The only verses in the Quran that mentioned giving land to people as inheritance by the Lord are the following two verses:
{Quran- Al-A’raf 7:137 And We made people, who were considered weak (and of no account) [The Children of Israel], inheritors of lands in both east and west, - lands whereon We sent down Our blessings. The fair promise of thy Lord was fulfilled for the Children of Israel, because they had patience and constancy.}{Quran -Ash-Shu'ara 26:59 Thus it was, but We made the Children of Israel inheritors of it [the Land]}.
It is clear that the Holy Land – according to the Quran- was given as inheritance to the Children of Israel.3. The ONLY verse in the Quran that describes the people who used to live in the Holy Land during the time of ancient Israelites described them as being “Tyrants”.{Quran Al-Ma'idah 5:22 they said: "O Moses! In this land are tyrants.}In this context, it is important to mention that the same Quran described the Children of Israel as follows: {Quran Al-Baqara 2:122 O Children of Israel! Call to mind the special favor which I bestowed upon you, and that I preferred you to all mankind}.Though these Quran verses could be shocking for many Palestinians to read, changing the Quran or deleting these verses from its text is virtually impossible. It is fair to say that, while Gingrich’s comments could be seen as racist by many, they are supported by the Quran. It seems that Arabs need to read the Quran more carefully before criticizing Gingrich!
The writer is an Islamic thinker and reformer, and a one-time Islamic extremist from Egypt. He was a member of the terrorist organization JI with Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, who later became the second-in-command of al-Qaida. He is currently a senior fellow and chairman of the study of Islamic radicalism at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. www.tawfikhamid.com.