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Palestinian biologist Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh, founder of the first Palestinian Museum of Natural History, in Bethlehem, said that the Jews' connection to Palestine was a religious connection only, and that "they had to make up a story... of Jews leaving and Jews coming back." Qumsiyeh, a former assistant professor of genetics at Yale and Duke Universities and a faculty member at Bethlehem University, said: "Gaza is a holocaust. You are cooping up two million people, and you are subjecting them to starvation." He further said that leading Israeli politicians, academics, and military leaders identified demography and the BDS movement – but not Iran – as the two "existential threats" to Israel. Qumsiyeh's address was delivered on June 30 and was posted a week later on the YouTube channel of the Jerusalem Fund & Palestine Center.
Mazin Qumsiyeh: "The connection of the Jews to Palestine is a religious connection. It is the same connection as that of Christians to Palestine, or Muslims to Palestine, or any other religion to Palestine.
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"Our problem with Zionism is that it is a system predicated on ethnic cleansing and racism. It is not a system of Jews wanting to come back to Palestine. If that's back... Even though biologically – as I've said – that's not back, because a Jew from Germany or Poland is just as connected to Palestine as a Christian from Poland or Germany is connected to Palestine. Biologically, that is the connection. It is a religious connection."
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Audience Member: "I am just a little confused, because wouldn't you say that Jews have ancient origins in that area, just like the Palestinians do as well?"
Mazin Qumsiyeh: "No. The Jewish population around the world is like any other religious community around the world. It is religion. It is not that Jews went out of Palestine and came back to Palestine. European Jews are European.
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"Zionists, of course, don't want us to believe that. Because, if we... Because they couldn't... to be honest... And if I was them, maybe... and I wanted to do this so badly, I would have come up with the same story, because you couldn't say: 'I want to create a state for Jews as a religion.' Right? It wouldn't make sense, especially in the 20th century. So they had to make up a story and the story was the story of Jews leaving and Jews coming back. This is a story. It is mythology. It has nothing to do with actual history. Most European Jews are of the Khazar descendants, genetically.
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"There was large-scale conversion of Jews around the world in the eighth and ninth centuries AD. Just like with Christianity, it spread by conversion.
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"So, it is... Gaza is a... I hate to use the terminology – again, I should be guarded in what I say – but it is a holocaust, literally. I mean, it's a... You are cooping up two million people, and you are subjecting them to starvation.
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"If you look at the Herzliya Conference, for example, where Israeli politicians, academics and military leaders all get together to discuss things, they identify two of what they call 'existential threats' to the state of Israel. You know what they are: demography and BDS. Those are 'existential threats.' Iran is not listed. They are right to consider them existential threats to a racist Apartheid regime. Right? There is no way that they can solve these two threats. They can introduce all these laws to prevent people from participating in BDS etc., but what are they going to do? It is spreading, it is growing, and they are panicking about it."
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