In the first wave of the COVID pandemic, Palestinian Authority senior official Saeb Erekat declared: "The Israelis are spitting on Palestinian cars and Palestinian property in order to spread the virus and fulfill their wild desire to be free of them in some way."
The first wave passed, the second arrived, and Erekat himself contracted the virus. But he, like the rest of his people, urged the "the [Israeli] government and the spitters and the disease spreaders" in Jerusalem to take him in at Hadassah Medical Center, he being a VIP.
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I have been studying the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for 40 years and many times, I have encountered cases of Israel providing medical treatment to its bitter enemies. Israel has made humanitarian gestures to the most loathsome of our enemies. Relatives of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders who had cancer or other terminal illnesses were given high-quality treatment in Israeli hospitals. The official reason was that they could not be given life-saving treatment in the "territories." A relatives of Hamas-in-Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh was treated at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, an arrangement made by the Physicians for Human Rights NGO. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas insisted on being treated in Tel Aviv, rather than in Jordan or Turkey.
In other words, Israel is exerting itself to save the lives of relatives of terrorist leaders. In any other place in the world, such gestures would create a human bridge for peace, but not here. It's frustration that no matter how much we try to express values such as "tikkun olam," "recognizing the good in others," "anyone who saves a human life saves an entire universe," the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over land – which over the years has expanded to include enmity, hostility, and even hatred – is never forgiven. Even if we saved all the Arab residents of the territories, they would still see us as Satan, and seek our destruction.
In Lebanon, our neighbor to the North, there has been a debate ever since the catastrophic explosion at the Port of Beirut about whether or not the country should accept aid from Israel. "Scum!" shouted one man who was arguing with the government. "If you at least had a good alternative to the Jews … but what do you have to offer? Incitement?"
Still, there is one bright spot – the Gulf states. They have realized the benefit they could gain from ties with Israel, and if that message is relayed to other Arab states clearly and honestly, they – who currently think that Israel is "spreading COVID" – might change their minds.
It seems to me that this man, Saeb Erekat, is the living representation of the Palestinians' tragedy. He is intelligent, well-spoken, accepted internationally, but also a politician who is unable to utter the truth. I remember Erekat, the Palestinians' PR man, from the days he was an administrative prisoner in the 1980s, when he was a Fatah operative at An-Najah National University. This is a man who throughout his career has made some of the most delusional claims about Israel. He lied outright and without blinking an eye. During the events in the Jenin refugee camp in 2002, he talked about "5,000 Palestinian casualties" to fan the flames in the territories.
If Saeb Erekat recovers, he will apparently give modest thanks to his doctors, who spared no effort to heal him, but I wouldn't be surprised if when speaking to the international media he makes an accusation: "Why should I thank Israel? They created this situation."
Wishing you a full recovery, Saeb.
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