Senior Fatah official legitimizes violence: “Resistance in all of its forms is a legal right”

Headline: "Ramallah: The beginning of the First Fatah Conference for Popular Resistance"

Yesterday [Oct. 12, 2019] the events of the First Fatah Conference for Popular Resistance‎ (the term “popular resistance” is used by Palestinians to also refer to the use of violence and terror –Ed.) ‎began with the participation of members of the [Fatah] Central Committee and the [Fatah] Revolutionary Council, representatives from the [Fatah] branches and the villages, activists, and the popular resistance committees in the different areas.

Fatah Deputy Chairman [and Fatah Central Committee member] Mahmoud Al-Aloul said in a speech that "Resistance in all of 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.'

Al-Aloul added: 'The Fatah members are always at the head of the resistance, and it must be continued so that it will constitute a catalyst and pressure to end the occupation.' He explained that the Israeli occupation's actions make it necessary to resist it, and the decision has already been made at all levels to carry out popular resistance, whether by boycotting its merchandise or by popular resistance on the ground."

The terms “all means,” “all means of resistance,” and “all forms,” 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; and the terms "peaceful uprising/resistance,” and “popular uprising/resistance" are used by PA leaders at times to refer to peaceful protest and at times 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. Abbas said: "We want peaceful popular uprising, and that’s what this is."