Palestinian leaders “demand” Palestinians “everywhere, act” to “thwart the [American-Israeli] plot to eliminate the Palestinian cause.”
By Nan Jacques Zilberdik and Itamar Marcus, Palestinian Media Watch
Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA) has announced that it is considering “recommendations to strengthen… home front and the popular resistance.”
The PA leadership issued this statement Tuesday following US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s announcement of a change in US policy which no longer considers “the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank… inconsistent with international law.” [CNN, Nov. 18, 2019]
The PA further “demanded” that “the masses of the Palestinian people in the homeland and everywhere act in order to thwart the plot to eliminate the Palestinian cause.”
The terms “peaceful uprising/resistance,” and “popular uprising/resistance” as used by the PA leadership refer to everything from peaceful protest to violence and terror.
Palestinian Media Watch has documented that these innocent sounding terms are also used by PA leaders to refer to deadly terror attacks and terror waves. For example, Mahmoud Abbas defined as “peaceful popular” the murderous terror during the 2015-2016 terror wave (“The Knife Intifada”), in which 40 people were killed (36 Israelis, 1 Palestinian, 2 Americans and 1 Eritrean) and hundreds wounded in stabbings, shootings, and car ramming attacks. After 14 Israelis had already been murdered Abbas went on TV and said: “We want peaceful popular uprising, and that’s what this is.”
Palestinians who now hear the PA leadership’s call for “popular resistance” – “everywhere” – to counter the US decision, may understand it as the PA’s endorsement of attacks on Israelis and Americans abroad, as well as in Israel and the West Bank.
“With the attendance of [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas, the [PA] leadership has… begun a series of special meetings in order to take the necessary steps to deal with the dangerous American decisions against the Palestinian cause, the latest of which was the statement of [US] Secretary of State [Mike] Pompeo regarding the settlements. The leadership emphasized that there will be activity…During its special meeting, the leadership demanded that the masses of the Palestinian people in the homeland and everywhere act to thwart the plot to eliminate the Palestinian cause.” [WAFA, official PA news agency, Nov. 19, 2019]
Support for violent “resistance” is not new and was recently expressed openly by a Fatah official. When the Gaza-based terror organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) last week responded to Israel’s targeted killing of one of its senior commanders by launching over 450 rockets.
Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki justified PIJ terror against civilian targets in Israel, stating that “the resistance’s response… was appropriate.” [Facebook page of Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki, Nov. 13, 2019]
Other Fatah officials also recently called for and emphasized the need for “resistance” and for “popular resistance.”
Fatah recently held the first Fatah Conference for Popular Resistance, under the auspices of Abbas in Ramallah. At that event, Abbas’ deputy in Fatah, Mahmoud Al-Aloul, explained that “resistance” is “constant and ongoing” and that it ”shouldn’t be stopped or postponed” for the sake of “an agreement [or] negotiations.” Only combined with “resistance,” Al-Aloul said, will negotiations with Israel be successful.
At the same conference, Fatah Central Committee member Jamal Muhaisen indicated his agreement that violence and terror are effective Palestinian tools when he urged Palestinians to “benefit from their experience” from the previous waves of terror attacks against Israel – the intifadas – which Muhaisen referred to as “popular resistance” and “national resistance.”
The silhouette of someone throwing a rock with a slingshot, and a logo with a raised fist on the welcome to the participants in Fatah’s conference shows an example of what Fatah means by “popular resistance” – and that it includes violence.
At the conference, Al-Aloul also repeated the PA’s claim that “resistance in all its forms is a legal right of occupied peoples.”
Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the terms “all forms” and “all means of resistance” are used by PA leaders to also include using all types of violence, including deadly terror against Israeli civilians such as stabbings and shootings, as well as throwing rocks and Molotov Cocktails.
Fatah Deputy Chairman [and Fatah Central Committee member] Mahmoud Al-Aloul said in a speech that “Resistance in all its forms (i.e., term used by Palestinians, which also refers to the use of violence and terror) is a legal right of occupied peoples, and popular resistance at this time in particular has a role in the mobilization of the world to the side of the Palestinian right.’
Baha Abu Al-Ata – senior commander of the Islamic Jihad terror organization in Gaza who was responsible for most of the organization’s terror activity and planned numerous rocket, sniper, drone, and other attacks against Israel. Abu Al-Ata was assassinated in an Israeli targeted rocket strike on Nov. 12, 2019. In response to Israel’s assassination Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired over 450 rockets at Israel over a period of 48 hours until a ceasefire was reached on Nov. 14, 2019, which Islamic Jihad promptly breached by firing 5 more rockets.
Abbas Zaki also serves as Fatah Commissioner for Arab and China Relations.
“I praise the current harmony between the resistance factions in the Gaza Strip.” [Facebook page of Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki, Nov. 13, 2019]
Resistance ‘Constant and Ongoing’
Fatah Deputy Chairman and Fatah Central Committee member Mahmoud Al-Aloul: “This resistance is a constant and ongoing action. It cannot be stopped or deferred in order to consider some other possibility such as an agreement, negotiations, or other things because [the resistance] is what guarantees victory. Any possibility, any negotiations that come together with the resistance guarantee that the occupier will be motivated to end the occupation.”
Fatah Central Committee member Jamal Muhaisen: “We must benefit from our Palestinian experience in what is connected to the first Intifada, and also benefit from the experience of the Tunnel Intifada and also the Al-Aqsa Intifada. Every day [we face] the American Zionist attack against us. The cruel attack that harms the entire Palestinian national project demands of us- I am certainly talking about the popular resistance, national resistance.” [Official PA TV News, Oct. 12, 2019]
Jamal Muhaisen also holds the positions as Fatah Commissioner of Mobilization and Organization in the West Bank, and PLO Central Council member.
The first Intifada – Palestinian wave of violence and terror against Israel 1987-1993, approximately 200 Israelis murdered
The Western Wall Tunnel Intifada – Three days of PA terror attacks on Israeli civilians and military in September 1996, to protest Israel’s opening an excavated tunnel adjacent to the base of the Temple Mount. The tunnel is an underground continuation of what is exposed today of the Western Wall. The terror was led by Arafat’s security services.
The Al-Aqsa Intifada – PA terror campaign 2000-2005, more than 1,100 Israelis murdered.