Fatah and PA journalists forbid peace-building

Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik | Jan 20, 2019

Fatah official: "Normalization with the Zionist entity is the greatest danger to our Arab nation"
The Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate called on all media outlets "to settle accounts with anyone who has participated in a visit to and any activity of normalization with the occupying entity"

Fatah official repeated PA libel that Israel was established to steal the resources of the Arab region: "The Palestinian people, through its struggle, has always constituted an impregnable wall against the colonialist Zionist project that wants to take over the resources of the Arab peoples, and against the spread of Zionism towards the Arab region"

Op-ed in official PA daily: "Western colonialism in general, and British colonialism in particular - in cooperation with the Zionist movement, and later with its physical base, the colonialist State of Israel - attempted... to erase the Palestinian identity, history, and existence, and to establish the rogue state [Israel]. This was in order to serve the goals of the capitalist West at the expense of the Jews, who were misled in the name of religion"

The Palestinian Authority explains the establishment of the modern state of Israel as follows: First, the PA denies all of Jewish history in the region, including denying the thousands of archaeological finds that testify to Jewish history. Second, to explain why Jews moved to Israel they claim that Zionism was a European colonialist idea in order to get rid of Jews because "their character traits were unbearable," as well as to establish a Western stronghold in the Middle East to "steal the region's resources" and prevent the Arab nations from uniting:

"[Fatah Central Committee member Abbas] Zaki emphasized that normalization with the occupation under any pretext constitutes part of the growing plot against our people's struggle. He explained that the Palestinian people, through its struggle, has always constituted an impregnable wall against the colonialist Zionist project that wants to take over the resources of the Arab peoples, and against the spread of Zionism towards the Arab region."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 11, 2019]

In the same speech, Zaki called on Palestinians and Arabs to act against "normalization" and stop Arab countries from visiting "the Zionist entity" as it is "the greatest danger to our Arab nation":

"[Zaki] also noted that there is a need for popular action against the process of normalization, by means of Arab forces and parties that need to raise their voices in order to stop this official running towards the Zionist entity, which is still occupying the country and constitutesthe greatest danger to our Arab nation."

Earlier this week, Palestinian Media Watch reported on the PA's message to Palestinians that peace-building is "treason." A cartoon on official PA TV the cart of a woman shopping in an Israeli supermarket famous for being a place where Palestinians and Israelis work and shop together was pictured full of skulls. This is one example of many showing that the PA categorically rejects coexistence with Israel and condemns what it terms "normalization with the enemy."

The Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate recently followed this policy outlined by the PA when it supported a French Arab magazine's decision to fire a journalist who had visited Israel. The Syndicate further called to "settle accounts with" and "ostracize" any journalist who engages in "any activity of normalization with the occupying entity":

"The [Palestinian Journalists'] Syndicate again called on all of the media outlets, professional syndicates, and Arab associations to settle accounts with anyone who has participated in a visit to and any activity of normalization with the occupying entity, and to ostracize them."

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 23, 2018]

PMW has documented that a fundamental component of PA and Fatah ideology is to claim that Israel is a "colonialist implant" and that Europeans supported the establishment of Israel because they were "sick of the behavior of the Jews" as claimed by a PLO official in this video posted by PA Minister of Education Sabri Saidam:

PA Education Minister posts video on Balfour Declaration: Europe was sick of the Jews' behavior

The claim that "Western colonialism in general, and British colonialism in particular" used the Jews to serve their goals in the Middle East was also recently voiced by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, a regular columnist for the official PA daily:

"Western colonialism in general, and British colonialism in particular - in cooperation with the Zionist movement, and later with its physical base, the colonialist State of Israel- attempted... from 1917 to 1948, to change the social, demographic, economic, and legal systems on the ground in order to erase the Palestinian identity, history, and existence, andto establish the rogue state [Israel]. This was in order to serve the goals of the capitalist West at the expense of the Jews,who were misled in the name of religion, and in the name of slogans preparing the groundwork for negating the other - such as 'a land without a people for a people without a land,' 'the promised land,' and 'your land, Israel, from the Nile [River] to the Euphrates [River].' Simultaneously, hundreds of thousands of Jewish, Zionist, and other immigrants, some of whom were escaping - to anywhere - from the tragedy and hell of European fascism and Nazism, were brought [to Palestine]... They established the colonialist State of Israel."

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 8, 2019]

The following is a longer excerpt of the report on Zaki's statements against Arab countries' "normalization" with Israel:

Headline: "Zaki: Normalization with the occupation is a severe blow and deep stab to the national struggle"

"Fatah Movement Central Committee member and [Fatah] Commissioner for Arab and China Relations Abbas Zaki said that the reports in the Israeli media about the visits of official Arab delegations to the Israeli entity (apparently referring to reports in January 2019 that at least 3 delegations from Iraq visited Israel in 2018 -Ed.) , 'if their validity is proven,' constitute a deep stab to the heart of the Palestinian national conflict and a severe blow to the legal rights of the Palestinian people in its country and homeland.

Zaki added that 'these reports' are arriving in the shadow of the large battle that our people is waging in Jerusalem - which the settlers are treating as they please under the protection of the occupation forces, the American administration's recognition of Jerusalem as the Zionist entity's capital, the Israeli Parliament's laws about annexing Jerusalem and Judaizing it, and the desecration of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque plazas by the settlers through recurring invasions...

Zaki emphasized that normalization with the occupation under any pretext constitutes part of the growing plot against our people's struggle. He explained thatthe Palestinian people, through its struggle, has always constituted an impregnable wall against the colonialist Zionist project that wants to take over the resources of the Arab peoples, and against the spread of Zionism towards the Arab region... He also noted that there is a need for popular action against the process of normalization, by means of Arab forces and parties that need to raise their voices in order to stop this official running towards the Zionist entity, which is still occupying the country and constitutes the greatest danger to our Arab nation."

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 11, 2019]

US recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel - On Dec. 6, 2017, US President Donald Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Trump added that the final borders of Jerusalem will be determined during negotiations. The US embassy was transferred from Tel Aviv and opened in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018, the anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence in 1948 according to the Gregorian calendar.

Break-in/Invasion/attack of Al-Aqsa Mosque - The PA and its leaders misrepresent all of the Temple Mount as an integral part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Therefore, they vilify any presence of Jews on the mount as an "invasion." It should be noted that Jews who visit the Temple Mount only enter some sections of the open areas, and do not enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque or the Dome of the Rock. Israeli police ban Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount because of threats of violence by Palestinians.

Headline: "The [Palestinian] Journalists' Syndicate supports Koul Al-Arab's decision"

"The Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate expressed its support for the decision of the management of the magazine Koul Al-Arab, which is published in the French capital Paris, to fire journalist Khaled Zaghloul from the magazine and cut all connection with him. This was because of his participation in a visit to the occupying entity [Israel] and its racist parliament, which is called 'the Knesset.' ... The syndicate again called on all of the media outlets, professional syndicates, and Arab associations to settle accounts with anyone who has participated in a visit to and any activity of normalization with the occupying entity, and to ostracize them."

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 23, 2018]

Excerpt of op-ed by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, regular columnist for the official PA daily

"Western colonialism in general, and British colonialism in particular - in cooperation with the Zionist movement, and later with its physical base, the colonialist State of Israel - attempted during the 30 years of the Mandate, from 1917 to 1948, to change the social, demographic, economic, and legal systems on the ground in order to erase the Palestinian identity, history, and existence, and to establish the rogue state [Israel]. This was in order to serve the goals of the capitalist West at the expense of the Jews, who were misled in the name of religion, and in the name of slogans preparing the groundwork for negating the other - such as 'a land without a people for a people without a land,' 'the promised land,' and 'your land, Israel, from the Nile [River] to the Euphrates [River].' Simultaneously, hundreds of thousands of Jewish, Zionist, and other immigrants, some of whom were escaping - to anywhere - from the tragedy and hell of European fascism and Nazism, were brought [to Palestine]...

They established the colonialist State of Israel, and did not allow the establishment of the Arab State of Palestine, even though international [UN] Resolution 181, which was published in November 1947, connected the establishment of the State of Israel to the establishment of the Arab Palestinian state (sic., Arab leaders and states rejected the resolution; see note below)."

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 8, 2019]

UN Resolution 181 (the UN partition plan for Palestine) was passed by the UN General Assembly in 1947. It called for the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem as a separate entity under the rule of a special international body. The Arab state was meant to be comprised of the western Galilee, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, and the remaining territory of the Mandate west of the Jordan River would be the state of Israel - Jordan (known at the time as Transjordan) had already been established in what had been the part of the Mandate that was east of the Jordan River. The resolution was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, but Arab leaders and governments rejected it, and launched a war to destroy Israel.

Fatah and PA journalists forbid peace-building

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