Fatah threatens anyone supporting the deal of the century - in song on Fatah Facebook
“We are trampling the deal of the century...
[and] everyone who has signed it and everyone who adheres to it…
We have experienced men, who undergo training alongside death… Their weapons are in their hands, beware not to come near them…
You seem to have forgotten their actions
and even their terrifying deeds…
If talking does not help, we will erase it with cannons”
• The PA about Jews visiting the Temple Mount:
“Jerusalem will not be defiled” – in filler on official PA TV
Yesterday, when US President Trump revealed his Middle East peace plan – the deal of the century – Abbas’ Fatah posted a song that threatens anyone who supports and follows the plan. Singers dressed in military uniforms and carrying handguns and assault rifles sing that they have “experienced men who undergo training alongside death,” with “weapons in their hands,” and promise that “if talking does not help, we will erase it with cannons” - all while stepping on binders labeled “the deal of the century”:
Song lyrics: “We are trampling it, trampling it, by Allah we will trample it
We are trampling it, trampling it, trampling the deal of the century...
[We will trample] everyone who has signed it
and everyone who adheres to it
We are trampling it, trampling it, trampling the deal of the century
We have experienced men, who undergo training alongside death
We are trampling it, trampling it, trampling the deal of the century
Their [the men’s] weapons are in their hands,
beware not to come near them…
You seem to have forgotten their actions
and even their terrifying deeds…
If talking does not help, we will erase it with cannons”Posted text: “We will trample it”
[Official Fatah Facebook page, Jan. 28, 2020]
Palestinian Media Watch documented that the PLO called for terror to protest the deal prior to Trump’s announcement of it.
Two days before Trump revealed his plan, official Palestinian Authority TV broadcast a filler between programs showing footage of Jews visiting the Temple Mount while text announced that they were “invading the Al-Aqsa Mosque” and that that “Jerusalem will not be defiled”:
Text on screen: "The occupation's forces and its settlers invade the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Jerusalem will not be defiled."
[Official PA TV, Jan. 26, 2020]
The PA has repeatedly rejected the US’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital (December 2017) and constantly emphasizes that it will reject any deal that suggests leaving any part of Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty. The PA and its leaders misrepresent that all of the Temple Mount is an integral part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and an Islamic waqf – an inalienable religious endowment in Islamic law. Therefore, they vilify any presence of Jews on the mount as an "invasion" and “defilement.” 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.
Fatah also used Facebook to urge Palestinians to participate in “mass rallies of rage” against “the deal of shame” – rallies which PMW has documented are seen by PA and Fatah leaders as lead-ups to campaigns of violence and terror – “intifadas.” Fatah published pictures of Palestinians burning pictures of Trump at such a rally in Ramallah, and called Trump “the leader of the colonialist gang” in one of its rally invitations:
Posted text: “The burning of pictures of American President [Donald Trump] during the demonstration of rage in Ramallah.”
[Official Fatah Facebook page, Jan. 28, 2020]
Text on poster: “The PLO factions, Nablus’ institutions, and its activists invite you to participate
In the mass rally of rage
Against the publication of the deal of the century
Time: Tuesday Jan. 28, 2020 at 7:00 p.m.
Location: Martyrs’ Square
No to the deal of the century”[Official Fatah Facebook page, Jan. 27, 2020]
Posted text: “An invitation from the Fatah Movement’s Jenin Branch”
Text on image: “In the name of All Merciful Allah
‘O you who have believed, take your precaution and [either] go forth in companies or go forth all together.’ [Quran, Sura 4:71, Sahih International translation] Allah spoke truth
Fatah’s Jenin branch calls on you for general mobilization and participation in the rally of rage against the deal of shame and the deal of the century, which leader of the colonialist gang [US President Donald] Trump is threatening with, and this is today, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020, at exactly 7:00 p.m. at the late Martyr Yasser Arafat Square, across from the Jenin district building.
Your presence constitutes loyalty to the sacrifices our people has made, resistance against the injustice in the deal of the century, and support for the legal Palestinian government and the national principles.
Eternity and glory to the righteous Martyrs
Freedom to the prisoners
A full recovery to the wounded
This is a revolution until victory, until victory
Fatah’s Jenin Branch”[Official Fatah Facebook page, Jan. 28, 2020]
Reactions to the deal of the century following Trump’s announcement were also expressed in two op-eds in the official PA daily. One regular columnist stated that the Palestinian “no” to the deal is what caused it “to die in its filthy womb,” and that the lack of Palestinian acceptance of it makes it look like “one of the expressions of the mental disability characterizing the American presidency, which is represented by [US President] Donald Trump.” [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 28, 2020]
Another columnist referred to Trump as “the new colonialist emperor and the second [former British Foreign Secretary Arthur] Balfour” and called on Palestinians to “defend our president and defend our people’s hopes and goals… through our peaceful popular resistance” [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 28, 2020] – a term PMW has shown is used by Palestinians to also refer to the use of violence and terror.
The following are longer excerpts of the op-eds cited above:
Excerpt of an op-ed by Yahya Rabah, regular columnist for the official PA daily
“The word ‘no’ that the legal Palestinian leadership that is leading our Palestinian people has voiced is what caused the deal of the century (i.e., refers to US President Donald Trump's at the time unpublished Middle East peace plan, which he revealed together with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on Jan. 28, 2020) to die in its filthy womb. The attempts to deliver it anew were sentenced to total and shameful failure, because Israel, the US, and all those who they can recruit through various ways and ruses are one side, while the Palestinian people and its legal leadership are the other side. Without [the Palestinian people] and without its agreement, the deal of the century looks like one of the expressions of the mental disability characterizing the American presidency, which is represented by [US President] Donald Trump.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 28, 2020]
Excerpt of an op-ed by Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: “Our president is in danger, however!”
“It may be that we are not exaggerating if we say today [Jan. 28, 2020] that our [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas is in danger. This is natural, especially since the president is uncompromisingly, uprightly, and proudly standing in the front line and at the front of the Palestinian people…
But what is not natural and not obvious is that they are letting the new colonialist emperor and the second [former British Foreign Secretary Arthur] Balfour, [US President] Donald Trump, do as he pleases with the Palestinian people and its leadership…
We will defend our president and defend our people’s hopes and goals through our national unity, through our peaceful popular resistance (i.e., term used by Palestinians, which also refers to the use of violence and terror), and through our loyalty to the Martyrs whose souls have ascended to Heaven on the way to achieving our national enterprise. We will defend our president with a firm faith that we have a present and future only on our land.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 28, 2020]
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." https://palwatch.org/page/9276