Perfect Victims: And the Politics of Appeal

In this chapter, the author confronts a recurring accusation he often faces during public appearances: The question of whether he wants to “throw Israelis into the sea” (156). El-Kurd contextualizes the phrase as a long-standing, apocryphal trope used to portray Palestinians as “genocidal” aggressors. He references British MP Christopher Mayhew’s 1973 challenge, which offered a monetary reward to anyone who could produce credible evidence of “genocidal” rhetoric from Arab leaders. None could, and the accusation was denounced as a myth—yet it persists in popular discourse.

El-Kurd explains that such questions are rarely sincere inquiries. Instead, they function as hostile provocations that place Palestinians on the defensive and demand moral perfection before any claim to justice can be heard. He critiques the underlying presumption that simply wanting a future without Zionism is itself disqualifying, as though Palestinian dreams must first pass a settler-approved moral test. In the Zionist imagination, he argues, Palestinian aspiration itself—no matter how poetic, symbolic, or metaphorical—is reinterpreted as an existential threat.

The chapter draws attention to what El-Kurd regards as the double standards in public discourse: While Palestinians are accused of harboring genocidal fantasies, actual genocidal statements from Israeli officials are routinely ignored or excused.