PA daily op-ed accuses Hamas of being a “Zionist pawn,” whose suicide bombings were meant to harm the PA, Arafat was “assassinated”
Excerpt of an op-ed by Bassem Barhoum, regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: “The Zionist pawn destroys the PA TV offices”
“One who decides to break into the offices of the [Palestine] Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) while masked and to destroy and shatter everything inside it is certainly a Zionist pawn (refers to attack on PBC offices in Gaza on Jan. 4, 2019). This is because it is impossible that any patriotic Palestinian would commit this crime against a national institution whose main work is to defend the Palestinian people and its cause… Since nothing happens in the Gaza Strip without Hamas' knowledge, it bears the responsibility as the de-facto government… Let us ask ourselves in a moment of clear thinking: What has Hamas really achieved for the Palestinian people? …
As much as Hamas will attempt to hide behind the word ‘resistance’… its actual activity and its results on the ground are the destruction of the Palestinian cause. Is one who behaves this way not a Zionist pawn?
Let us recall how the timing of Hamas’ suicide operations (i.e., suicide bombings) served Zionism and gave it an excuse not to carry out the stages of withdrawal from the Palestinian territories; how the operation on March 28, 2002 in Netanya (i.e., Park Hotel suicide bombing, 30 murdered) gave [then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon an excuse to carry out Operation Defensive Shield (i.e., a counter-terror operation in response to the PA terror campaign 2000-2005; see note below), during which the infrastructures of the PA and the Palestinian people were destroyed, and which ended with the assassination of eternal leader [former PLO Chairman and PA President] Yasser Arafat in 2004 (sic., medical teams have refuted the PA libel that Israel poisoned Arafat; see note below).
This Zionist pawn, or this pawn that serves the Zionist plan, is the same one who broke into the Palestine Broadcasting Corporation offices and the offices of the [official PA news] agency WAFA. After all, who but this pawn could think to commit a crime such as this?”
Park Hotel suicide bombing - On March 27, 2002, Abd Al-Basset Odeh carried out a suicide bombing at a Passover dinner at the Park Hotel in Netanya. 30 Israeli civilians were murdered and 140 were wounded.
Operation Defensive Shield – a large Israeli military operation in April 2002 in response to the many suicide bombings during the PA terror campaign (the second Intifada, 2000-2005). Israel put Arafat under siege and invaded six of the largest West Bank cities in an attempt to destroy the terror infrastructure.
Yasser Arafat – Founder of the PLO and Fatah, former chairman of the PA. During the 1960s, 70s and 80s Arafat was behind numerous terror attacks against Israelis. Although he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 together with then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and then Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Shimon Peres “for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East" after signing the Oslo Accords peace agreement, Arafat launched a 5-year terror campaign - the second Intifada (2000-2005) – in which more than 1,000 Israelis were murdered. Arafat died of an illness in 2004. However, following his death, the PA created the libel that Israel murdered Arafat, and it has been spreading it since. In 2012, samples were taken from Arafat’s remains and tested for poisoning by Swiss, Russian, and French teams of scientists. The Swiss team concluded that the tests were "coherent with a hypothesis of poisoning" - but a member of the team also stated that "our study did not permit us to demonstrate categorically the hypothesis of poisoning by polonium." The Russian scientists concluded that "there was insufficient evidence to support the theory that Yasser Arafat died in 2004 by polonium poisoning." [Reuters, Nov. 8, 2013] In March 2015, three French judges ruled that "it has not been demonstrated that Mr. Yasser Arafat was murdered by polonium-210 poisoning." The French prosecutor stated that there was "not sufficient evidence of an intervention by a third party who could have attempted to take his life." [France 24, Sept. 2, 2015] The French prosecutor also explained that the polonium and lead found in Arafat’s grave were “of an environmental nature.” [Jerusalem Post, March 17, 2015].
Despite these results, the PA continues to blame Israel for Arafat’s death without any proof or backing for this claim.
Links to the libel on PMW website:
http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=769
http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=21125
http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=10103
Headline: “The Zionist pawn destroys the PA TV offices”
“One who decides to break into the offices of the [Palestine] Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) while masked and to destroy and shatter everything inside it is certainly a Zionist pawn (refers to attack on PBC offices in Gaza on Jan. 4, 2019). This is because it is impossible that any patriotic Palestinian would commit this crime against a national institution whose main work is to defend the Palestinian people and its cause… Since nothing happens in the Gaza Strip without Hamas' knowledge, it bears the responsibility as the de-facto government… Let us ask ourselves in a moment of clear thinking: What has Hamas really achieved for the Palestinian people? …
As much as Hamas will attempt to hide behind the word ‘resistance’… its actual activity and its results on the ground are the destruction of the Palestinian cause. Is one who behaves this way not a Zionist pawn?
Let us recall how the timing of Hamas’ suicide operations (i.e., suicide bombings) served Zionism and gave it an excuse not to carry out the stages of withdrawal from the Palestinian territories; how the operation on March 28, 2002 in Netanya (i.e., Park Hotel suicide bombing, 30 murdered) gave [then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon an excuse to carry out Operation Defensive Shield (i.e., a counter-terror operation in response to the PA terror campaign 2000-2005; see note below), during which the infrastructures of the PA and the Palestinian people were destroyed, and which ended with the assassination of eternal leader [former PLO Chairman and PA President] Yasser Arafat in 2004 (sic., medical teams have refuted the PA libel that Israel poisoned Arafat; see note below).
This Zionist pawn, or this pawn that serves the Zionist plan, is the same one who broke into the Palestine Broadcasting Corporation offices and the offices of the [official PA news] agency WAFA. After all, who but this pawn could think to commit a crime such as this?”
Park Hotel suicide bombing - On March 27, 2002, Abd Al-Basset Odeh carried out a suicide bombing at a Passover dinner at the Park Hotel in Netanya. 30 Israeli civilians were murdered and 140 were wounded.
Operation Defensive Shield – a large Israeli military operation in April 2002 in response to the many suicide bombings during the PA terror campaign (the second Intifada, 2000-2005). Israel put Arafat under siege and invaded six of the largest West Bank cities in an attempt to destroy the terror infrastructure.
Yasser Arafat – Founder of the PLO and Fatah, former chairman of the PA. During the 1960s, 70s and 80s Arafat was behind numerous terror attacks against Israelis. Although he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 together with then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and then Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Shimon Peres “for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East" after signing the Oslo Accords peace agreement, Arafat launched a 5-year terror campaign - the second Intifada (2000-2005) – in which more than 1,000 Israelis were murdered. Arafat died of an illness in 2004. However, following his death, the PA created the libel that Israel murdered Arafat, and it has been spreading it since. In 2012, samples were taken from Arafat’s remains and tested for poisoning by Swiss, Russian, and French teams of scientists. The Swiss team concluded that the tests were "coherent with a hypothesis of poisoning" - but a member of the team also stated that "our study did not permit us to demonstrate categorically the hypothesis of poisoning by polonium." The Russian scientists concluded that "there was insufficient evidence to support the theory that Yasser Arafat died in 2004 by polonium poisoning." [Reuters, Nov. 8, 2013] In March 2015, three French judges ruled that "it has not been demonstrated that Mr. Yasser Arafat was murdered by polonium-210 poisoning." The French prosecutor stated that there was "not sufficient evidence of an intervention by a third party who could have attempted to take his life." [France 24, Sept. 2, 2015] The French prosecutor also explained that the polonium and lead found in Arafat’s grave were “of an environmental nature.” [Jerusalem Post, March 17, 2015].
Despite these results, the PA continues to blame Israel for Arafat’s death without any proof or backing for this claim.
Links to the libel on PMW website:
http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=769
http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=21125
http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=10103
» View analysis citing this item