PA Chairman Abbas: All of Israel is an "occupation"
PA Chairman Abbas:
All of Israel is an "occupation"
- "We have been under occupation for 67 or 68 years" - since Israel's establishment in 1948
- PA-funded magazine to kids: All of Israel is "Palestine." Different maps erase Israel. Symbols of Palestinian childhood include map of "Palestine" that includes the PA areas and all of Israel covered in Palestinian flag, a slingshot and a stone
- PA National Security Forces: Israeli city of Acre is "Palestine"
- PA Presidential Guards: All of Israel is Palestine. Photo of Abbas with map that erases Israel
Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas speaks in different languages to different audiences. To his own Palestinian population Abbas defines all of Israel as an "occupation." In an interview on official PA TV, Abbas stated that Palestinians have been occupied since Israel's establishment in 1948:
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"We have been under occupation for 67 or 68 years (i.e., since Israel's establishment in 1948). Others would have sunk into despair and frustration. However, we are determined to reach our goal because our people stands behind us."
[Official PA TV, March 11, 2016]
To foreign audiences, however, Abbas implies acceptance of Israel's legitimacy, pledging that he is in favor of the two-state solution with Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peace. Meeting with a delegation of Jews, Abbas said:
"We strive for peace through the establishment of the Palestinian state, which will live in peace and stability alongside Israel."
"We are experiencing difficult days, and despite all that is happening, we still hold our hand out to you, in order to establish peace and put an end to the loathing and [spilling] of blood between us. Therefore, we are trying to hold dialogue with all groups of the Israeli society."
"We are experiencing difficult days, and despite all that is happening, we still hold our hand out to you, in order to establish peace and put an end to the loathing and [spilling] of blood between us. Therefore, we are trying to hold dialogue with all groups of the Israeli society."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 29, 2016]
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Recently he repeated this to a Druze audience:
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Recently he repeated this to a Druze audience:
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"We must hurry building peace here, and find the ideal solution, which is simple - the Palestinians and the Israelis will live in two states that will exist side by side in peace and stability, because we want our children and grandchildren to live a good, normal, and prosperous life."
[PA official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 3, 2016]
Yet, Palestinian Media Watch has documented numerous times that to Palestinians Abbas communicates the opposite. He uses all the communication infrastructures under his control to emphasize the message that all of Israel is "Palestine." A PA-funded magazine for youth, Zayzafuna, showed the following drawing on its front cover. The image shows a young boy wearing a green sweatshirt with the word "Palestinian" in white. Symbols of Palestinian childhood surround the boy together with balloons, among them: The PA map of "Palestine" that includes the PA areas as well as all of Israel - covered in the Palestinian flag, a slingshot and a stone, and a key symbolizing the "return of Palestinian refugees." [Zayzafuna, April 2016] In the March and April issues of the magazine another version of the PA map appeared, the letters on the map spell "Palestine." [Zayzafuna, March and April 2016]
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Abbas' Presidential Guards posted his photo on Facebook with the outline of the PA map of "Palestine" that includes the PA areas as well as all of Israel, and a Palestinian flag behind him. Posted text: "Good morning O homeland, soaring to the top with all its glory
O land of beloved sand, foothills, seashores and plains."
[Official Facebook page of the PA Presidential Guards, April 3, 2016]
The PA National Security Forces presented the Israeli city of Acre as part of "Palestine":
Text on photo: "A grain of your soil, O home
Is worth more than the whole wide world
Good morning
Acre - Palestine"
Good morning
Acre - Palestine"
[Facebook page of the PA National Security Forces, March 31, 2016]
This is common practice by the PA Security Forces and numerous photos from all over Israel have appeared labelled "Palestine."Fatah Central Committee member Azzam Al-Ahmad also recently defined the "Israeli occupation" as having lasted since Israel's creation - "more than 60 years":
"We, as Palestinians, oppose the Israeli occupation, which has been one of the main sources of terror for more than 60 years."
[Ma'an, independent Palestinian news agency, March 21, 2016]
Note: Zayzafuna is a PLO magazine for children partially funded by the PA. The magazine, which includes material written by both the magazine's staff and child readers, represents the values of the educators and serves as a window into the minds of the Palestinian children submitting material to the magazine. Zayzafuna's website states that the magazine's advisory board is comprised of PA officials and educators, including Jihad Zakarneh, PA Deputy Minister of Education, and Abd Al-Hakim Abu Jamous, Head of the Media Department at the PA Ministry of Education. In May 2011, the Deputy Chairman of the Zayzafuna organization Abd Al-Karim Ziyada explained on PA TV that the PA gives "a monthly payment of 10,000 shekels ($2,700) to cover the magazine's [costs]." [Official PA TV, May 9 and 13, 2011]
Zayzafuna is a positive and educational magazine. It promotes family values, encourages children to read and to participate in building a modern, democratic society. However, these positive messages are directed at Palestinian society, Muslims, Christians and Druze. When it comes to portraying Israel and Jews, Zayzafuna changes its tone and includes items glorifying Jihad against Israel and praising Martyrdom-death for Allah, and the Martyrs themselves.
PMW's book Deception includes a chapter on Zayzafuna. Following PMW's exposure of Hitler glorification in the February 2011 issue, UNESCO halted its funding of the magazine. View UNESCO's statement and PMW's bulletin on the December 2011 issue of the magazine.
The following are longer excerpts of statements mentioned above:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: "As we are building up man and his health, we are building an economy, agriculture, industry, and laws. All this exists, praise Allah, and is moving ahead naturally. There are many obstacles. I do not deny that countless obstacles and difficulties stand before us, but all of these are no match against our will. We have been under occupation for 67 or 68 years (i.e., since Israel’s establishment in 1948). Others would have sunk into despair and frustration. However, we are determined to reach our goal because our people stands behind us."
[Official PA TV, March 11, 2016]
Headline: "The president [Abbas]: Time is passing quickly, and we must establish peace and put an end to the occupation"
"[PA] President Mahmoud Abbas warned that time is passing quickly, and therefore there is no other choice but to establish peace. He said: 'We strive for peace through the establishment of the Palestinian state, which will live in peace and stability alongside Israel.'
During the reception held yesterday evening [March 28, 2016] at the presidential headquarters for the delegation of the Coalition of Sephardi Jews, led by chairman of the World Federation of Moroccan Jews Sam Ben-Shitrit, the president added: 'We are experiencing difficult days, and despite all that is happening, we still hold our hand out to you, in order to establish peace and put an end to the loathing and [spilling] of blood between us. Therefore, we are trying to hold dialogue with all groups of the Israeli society.' Likewise, he noted that he makes sure to meet with the Jewish communities in every city in the world in order to discuss the common base for the establishment of peace, as there is no other option, and that none of us can cancel the other's existence, come what may...
The president emphasized: Peace is our gift to future generations, and if we achieve peace, the peace initiatives state that the 57 Arab and Islamic countries will normalize their relations with Israel. This is an opportunity for Israeli society to live in stability with its neighbors, without walls, and without isolation.' He also said: 'A just solution to the Palestinian problem will guarantee the end of all forms of terror, and deprive the extremists who use the Palestinian cause of the excuse for spreading terror and killing. We do not want ISIS, [Jabhat] Al-Nusra, Al-Qaeda, and others to come here, and therefore we must establish peace and put an end to the occupation'."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 29, 2016]
Headline: "The National Council demands the determination of a definition of terror and its reasons"
"Azzam Al-Ahmad, [Fatah Central Committee member and] head of the Palestinian National Council (i.e., the legislative body of the PLO) delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union taking place today [March 2, 2016] in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, demanded that a clear definition of the concept of terror and its causes be determined so that we will be able to specify the means to deal with it and remove all its causes...
Al-Ahmad emphasized that we, as Palestinians, oppose the Israeli occupation, which has been one of the main sources of terror for more than 60 years, and see how some of the international forces still hold double standards regarding global issues. Al-Ahmad demanded that the world apply international law to the Israeli occupation, which is one of the sources of terror in the Middle East, and wondered why some of the international powers insist on continuing to provide many Arab countries with reasons for anarchy and destruction, and to support the civil wars taking place within them."
[Ma'an, independent Palestinian news agency, March 21, 2016]