Fatah announces “last warning,” threatens an “explosion” and “self-sacrifice,” if Israel annexes Israeli cities and Jordan Valley
Abbas in Fatah cartoon:
“Last warning, the evil deeds will return and harm the evil one”
PA called for “fighting this plan… regardless of the extent of the sacrifices and the quantity of the Martyrs’ blood… There can be no compromises of any kind.”
Fatah: “We are your loyal soldiers… obligated to the promise of Yasser Arafat and the Martyrs who drew and immersed the map of the homeland in their pure blood. We warn the occupation state… Fatah will watch you, and Fatah’s options will be completely open. Occupying invaders, we warn you not to put Fatah’s response to your aggression and violations to the test.”
PA Chairman Abbas has announced that the PA has absolved itself from “all the agreements and understandings with the American and Israeli governments… including the security ones” because of Israel's presumed future annexation - i.e., application of Israeli law - to the Jordan Valley and Jewish cities and towns in the West Bank:
Abbas: “The [Palestinian] leadership has today decided the following: First, the PLO and the State of Palestine are absolved, as of today, of all the agreements and understandings with the American and Israeli governments and of all the commitments based on these understandings and agreements, including the security ones.”
[Official PA TV, May 19, 2020]
On the day of Abbas’ speech, the official PA daily editorial also warned of impending violence. The editorial prescribed “fighting this plan… regardless of the extent of the sacrifices and the quantity of the Martyrs’ blood”:
“The possibility that stands before Palestine with its people, its leadership, and its factions… is either treason through silence over the destructive colonialist annexation plan, or fighting this plan… on the basis of resolve and perseverance in the paths of national struggle, regardless of the extent of the sacrifices and the quantity of the Martyrs’ blood. On these paths there can be no compromises of any kind; either the free and independent State of Palestine whose capital is East Jerusalem with a just resolution for the refugees’ problem, or ‘fire from generation to generation.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 19, 2020]
Abbas’ Fatah Movement has also threatened violence against Israel, promising “an explosion of the situation” and “self-sacrifice”:
Fatah, Jenin:
“We hold the Israeli occupation and the current American administration fully responsible for the explosion in the situation in the Palestinian territories, and say to them that the Palestinian people will defend its land and its right with self-sacrifice… We will not allow any occupying power to expropriate our historical Palestinian right, and we will all mobilize to fight with the sword of justice against the dark forces of occupation, until the occupation is defeated and independence is achieved.” (See full statement below)
[Official Fatah Facebook page, May 20, 2020]
Fatah in Hebron “warned” Israel that Fatah “will be watching” and that “options are completely open” – a Palestinian euphemism for threatening to use violence and terror. The Hebron branch further stressed its willingness to die for “Palestine” – defending Abbas’ decisions “with our lives, our blood, and our bodies”:
“Our people will know how to reject the shame and humiliation and push against the aggression… Your Honor the President [Abbas], we… announce that we swear allegiance to you and support you in all your positions and decisions. We are your loyal soldiers. We promise you that we are with you and behind you, and that we will remain obligated to the promise of [former PLO Chairman and PA President] Yasser Arafat and the Martyrs who drew and immersed the map of the homeland in their pure blood. We warn the occupation state that it will not carry out any unilateral step or aggressive act that will harm our lands, our holy sites, and the families of our brave Martyrs and prisoners. Fatah will watch you, and Fatah’s options will be completely open. Occupying invaders, we warn you not to put Fatah’s response to your aggression and violations to the test.
As we stand behind His Honor the president in all his steps and decisions, which we will defend with our lives, our blood, and our bodies, we call on all our people to unite and become unified around the president’s decisions.”[Official Fatah Facebook page, May 21, 2020]
A visual warning of the resulting “explosion” of the West Bank in case Israel annexes parts of it is expressed in this cartoon, posted by Fatah:
The cartoon shows Israeli PM Netanyahu wearing a blindfold with eye cutouts and a chain around his ankle – apparently a comment to the ongoing trial against Netanyahu, implying that he is a thief and a criminal. Behind him appears to be Alternate Prime Minister Benjamin Gantz who is cowering and sticking his fingers in his ears. Netanyahu is holding his finger to his mouth in contemplation while making a shocked expression and looking at a large grenade, whose top is in the shape of PA Chairman Abbas’ head, and whose pin forms a speech bubble in the shape of the West Bank with the words “West Bank” in English inside it. [Official Fatah Facebook page, May 28, 2020]
Another warning from Fatah came in the cartoon above, with Abbas pointing his finger and saying: “Last warning, the evil deeds will return and harm the evil one.” [Official Fatah Facebook page, May 20, 2020]
Similarly, another Fatah cartoon encouraged Palestinians to “declare a revolution”:
The cartoon shows US President Donald Trump driving a bulldozer with an Israeli flag on it and the head of Israeli PM Netanyahu in place of the front of the bulldozer. Netanyahu’s gaping mouth, which is lined with sharp fangs and dripping with blood and saliva, is being prevented from closing by the word “The West Bank.”
Text: “The occupation is preparing to annex parts of the West Bank to Israel’s territory. O pulse of the West Bank, declare a revolution!”
[Official Fatah Facebook page, May 20, 2020]
Fatah’s Jenin branch further promised to “continue on the path of struggle,” quoting a famous poem that encourages Martyrdom-death:
“Our people will continue on the path of struggle, not out of love for death, but rather in order to create a life for our children and the coming Palestinian generations, so that they will live with dignity in the lap of their independent Palestinian state… As Palestinian poet Abd Al-Rahim Mahmoud said:
‘I shall carry my soul in my palm and toss it into the abyss of destruction
And then either a life that will gladden friends, or a death that will enrage the enemies.’” (See rest of poem not cited by Fatah below)[Official Fatah Facebook page, May 20, 2020]
Similarly, PLO Executive Committee member Saleh Rafat encouraged Palestinians to use “all the types of popular resistance” against Israel – another term that includes the use of violence and terror:
“PLO Executive Committee member and Secretary-General of the Palestinian Democratic Union FIDA Saleh Rafat… called on all the Palestinian factions, the civil and official Palestinian institutions, and all our Palestinian people in Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank to come out against the Israeli steps that are meant to Judaize occupied Jerusalem, to tighten the siege of the Gaza Strip, and to annex the Palestinian territories, through all the types of popular resistance in all the Palestinian districts.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 29, 2020]
Likewise, Fatah in Lebanon called on Palestinians to engage in “popular resistance in all its forms” – yet another euphemism for violence and terror:
“The Fatah Movement leadership in Lebanon again emphasized its full support for the historical decisions announced by [PA] President [Mahmoud] Abbas… Fatah called on our people and all the forces and factions to unite around our legal leadership’s decisions at this important and critical stage of struggle in the history of our cause through popular resistance in all its forms in order to thwart the deal of the century.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 21, 2020]
Even before Abbas severed ties with Israel, Fatah warned that if Israel annexes “Palestinian lands,” it will lead Israel and “the entire region” into “a cycle of violence”:
“Official Fatah Movement Spokesman Hussein Hamayel said that if Israel annexes Palestinian lands in the West Bank and the [Jordan] Valley, it will lead itself and the entire region into a cycle of violence that will not end easily, and this is in the shadow of the state of agitation and rage at the Palestinian public and official levels since the announcement of the deal of the century.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 13, 2020]
These statements indicating Fatah’s preparedness to return to violence and terror against Israel are ironic and outrageous in view of Abbas’ own declaration in the very same speech mentioned above that the PA is against “international terror”:
Abbas: “We [the PA] reiterate our firm commitment to fighting international terrorism. We are against international terrorism. We are against international terrorism regardless of its shape or source.”
[Official PA TV, May 19, 2020]
But as Palestinian Media Watch has documented again and again, while the PA condemns terror abroad, it endorses and promotes Palestinian terror against Israelis.
Because US President Trump and the American Administration has expressed support for Israeli PM Netanyahu’s annexation plans, Abbas also spoke out against the US in his speech:
Abbas: “We are making a distinction. We are not against America as a people, we are against colonialist America, the America of [Trump’s] administration, settlement America, and the America that is hostile to the Palestinian people and the peoples of the world. But we are not against the Americans or those who hold American citizenship. We are against those who stand against us.”
[Official PA TV, May 19, 2020]
The following are longer excerpts of the statements above and additional statements regarding the cessation of cooperation with Israel:
Text posted on the official Fatah Facebook page:
Posted text: “A statement from the Fatah Movement Jenin branch…
O heroic Palestinian people, our battle with this greedy and hateful occupier is growing and heating up. The hated Israeli occupation has crossed all the red lines and gone too far in its evil way and its Zionist expansion ideology, out of hostility towards humanity and the international conventions…
Therefore, in light of the blatant and insolent arrogance of the Zionist occupation, which has publicly targeted the Palestinian struggle (our prisoners and Martyrs) [parentheses in source], and targeted the land of our Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem by announcing its determination to annex parts of our Palestinian state’s land… a strong and moving Palestinian response has arrived from the Palestinian people’s leadership and His Honor [PA] President of the State of Palestine leader Mahmoud Abbas, who in a resounding voice declared the release from all the agreements with the occupation state and the American administration…
We hold the Israeli occupation and the current American administration fully responsible for the explosion in the situation in the Palestinian territories, and say to them that the Palestinian people will defend its land and its right with self-sacrifice… We will not allow any occupying power to expropriate our historical Palestinian right, and we will all mobilize to fight with the sword of justice against the dark forces of occupation, until the occupation is defeated and independence is achieved…
Our people will continue on the path of struggle, not out of love for death, but rather in order to create a life for our children and the coming Palestinian generations, so that they will live with dignity in the lap of their independent Palestinian state…
As Palestinian poet Abd Al-Rahim Mahmoud said:
‘I shall carry my soul in my palm and toss it into the abyss of destruction
And then either a life that will gladden friends, or a death that will enrage the enemies’ (see note below –Ed.).”[Official Fatah Facebook page, May 20, 2020]
The following is a longer excerpt of the poem referenced in the post:
“I shall carry my soul in my palm and toss it into the abyss of destruction...
And then either a life that will gladden friends, or a death that will enrage the enemies.
By your life! I see my death, but I hasten my steps towards it...
By your life! This is the death of men.
And who asks for a noble death - here it is.”
The poem was taught to Palestinian 7-graders until 2017 ("Our Beautiful Language for 7th grade," section 1, p. 81, in use until 2017)
Text posted on the official Fatah Facebook page:
Posted text: “In the name of All-Merciful Allah
A statement from the [Fatah Movement] North Hebron branch…
Our lauded people, O inheritors of the prophets, O those carrying out Ribat (i.e., religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic) in Jerusalem and its surroundings,
The state of evil and terror is continuing its imperiousness and arrogance, and is coming out against us with decisions and steps that are like a declaration of war against our people, our lands, our holy sites, our prisoners, and our Martyrs’ families, with the support of the White House’s terror and racism administration. His Honor [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas, may Allah protect him, has made decisions that will flip the table on the Zionist occupation state and all the forces of evil and aggression that support it. Yes, the brother president has announced them in a loud voice that echoed around the world. The Palestinian people will not agree to humiliation and disgrace, and will not submit until it achieves all of our goals: Liberating the land and people and establishing our free and independent Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem. Our people will know how to reject the shame and humiliation and push against the aggression. The brother president announced tonight (sic.) [May 19, 2020] that we are released from all the agreements with this occupying entity and the Americans, who are no longer sponsors of the peace process or partners in it…
Your Honor the President, we – your sons and your brothers in the Fatah North Hebron branch – announce that we swear allegiance to you and support you in all your positions and decisions. We are your loyal soldiers. We promise you that we are with you and behind you, and that we will remain obligated to the promise of [former PLO Chairman and PA President] Yasser Arafat and the Martyrs who drew and immersed the map of the homeland in their pure blood. We warn the occupation state that it will not carry out any unilateral step or aggressive act that will harm our lands, our holy sites, and the families of our brave Martyrs and prisoners. Fatah will watch you, and Fatah’s options will be completely open. Occupying invaders, we warn you not to put Fatah’s response to your aggression and violations to the test.
As we stand behind His Honor the president in all his steps and decisions, which we will defend with our lives, our blood, and our bodies, we call on all our people to unite and become unified around the president’s decisions.”[Official Fatah Facebook page, May 21, 2020]
Headline: “Al-Qawasmi: The leadership’s decisions are not a maneuver or tactic, but rather are meant for implementation”
“Official Fatah Movement Spokesman and [Fatah] Revolutionary Council member Osama Al-Qawasmi emphasized that the leadership’s decisions regarding the connection and agreements with Israel and the US are decisions for immediate implementation, and are absolutely not a maneuver or tactic. Al-Qawasmi said that the meetings yesterday [May 21, 2020] of the relevant parties and the [PA] security establishment in particular come in the context of implementing the leadership’s decisions.”[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 22, 2020]
Excerpt of an editorial by the official PA daily
Headline: “The moment of truth”
“From now on, when the Israeli colonialist annexation plan is preparing to descend from the political text to the ground of reality… it is no longer possible – under any circumstances – that there be any relations with the Israeli side…
There is no doubt that the decision to cut the relations with the Israeli side will have a heavy price on all the levels, so let us prepare to tighten [our] belts, because from now on there is no other possible national decision other than this decision. The possibility that stands before Palestine with its people, its leadership, and its factions… is either treason through silence over the destructive colonialist annexation plan, or fighting this plan – and not on the basis of ‘I’m taking my enemies down with me,’ since we are not nihilists in any way, but rather on the basis of resolve and perseverance in the paths of national struggle, regardless of the extent of the sacrifices and the quantity of the Martyrs’ blood. On these paths there can be no compromises of any kind; either the free and independent State of Palestine whose capital is East Jerusalem with a just resolution for the refugees’ problem, or ‘fire from generation to generation.’ …
Of this decision it will be written in history that it is a decision of the moment of truth, which Palestine dealt with through the vision, position, and courage of its leader [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas. He has always been an ally of the truth… and has never tried to ignore or blur it. The option of peace, in whose path he has persevered for a long time, has been the option of [the truth], and thus it will remain…
However, this does not mean that this truth will not agree to other options, and currently it is presenting before us the option of decisive confrontation, in accordance with the decision that the Palestinian leadership will issue this evening [May 19, 2020] during its meeting.
The difficult [part] is [still] before us, there is no doubt. But we will not wait for anyone to manage this confrontation in our stead. We must strengthen our home front – foremost on the popular level with all its elements, its non-governmental organizations, the public, and the peaceful resistance (i.e., term used by Palestinians, which also refers to the use of violence and terror); and secondly on the level of the factions in the framework of the national unity.”[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 19, 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
Headline: “Rafat called to expand all the types of popular resistance in response to Netanyahu’s annexation plans”
“PLO Executive Committee member and Secretary-General of the Palestinian Democratic Union FIDA Saleh Rafat expressed his rejection and condemnation of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s recent statements, according to which he will begin steps of annexation and applying Israeli security sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territories from the Jordan River to the [Mediterranean] Sea (sic., Netanyahu has suggested annexing the Jordan Valley and Jewish communities in the West Bank), as an implementation of what appears in [US President Donald] Trump’s plan that is known as ‘the deal of the century’ (i.e., refers to Trump’s Middle East peace plan). In a statement yesterday, Thursday [May 28, 2020], [Rafat] called on all the Palestinian factions, the civil and official Palestinian institutions, and all our Palestinian people in Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank to come out against the Israeli steps that are meant to Judaize occupied Jerusalem, to tighten the siege of the Gaza Strip, and to annex the Palestinian territories, through all the types of popular resistance (i.e., term used by Palestinians, which also refers to the use of violence and terror) in all the Palestinian districts.”[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 29, 2020]
The Trump peace plan – US President Donald Trump announced his Israel–Palestinian peace plan "Peace to Prosperity" – commonly known as “the deal of the century” - on Jan. 28, 2020. Main points of the plan: 1- Israeli sovereignty would be applied to the Jordan Valley and all Israeli towns and cities in the West Bank. 2- Jerusalem, including all its holy sites, would remain under Israeli sovereignty with accommodations made to enable access for Palestinians. 3- The remainder of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and part of what is currently Israeli land in the Negev, the Galilee, and Jerusalem - creating a territory almost equal in size to the West Bank and Gaza Strip - would form the Palestinian state, with its capital in neighborhoods in East Jerusalem that are outside of Israel's security wall. 4- The Palestinian state would be demilitarized, with Israel responsible for external security and controlling all airspace. 5- All Palestinian prisoners except murderers, and those who attempted or conspired to murder would be released. 6- Palestinians in refugee camps would be absorbed into their host countries and, subject to certain limitations, into the Palestinian state. 7- Before becoming a state, the Palestinians would have to carry out extensive reform of their laws and institutions, including implementing a new governing system; granting its people due process and basic human rights and freedoms; end all incitement to and incentivizing of terror; end all glorification of terror and martyrdom; disarm Hamas; and adopt a culture promoting peace. The goal of the plan is to create a Palestinian state beside Israel, living in peace and security. The implementation would be facilitated through extensive international investment.
Headline: "The [PA] president: We will not sit idly by if Israel declares annexation of any part of our lands, and we will view all of the agreements and understandings between us and the governments of the US and Israel as null and void"
"[PA] President Mahmoud Abbas… said: 'No one should delude themselves that they can exploit the fact that the world is busy with the crisis of the current [Coronavirus] epidemic in order to harm our rights, as we are standing guard against anyone who would allow himself to manipulate our right, or to bypass our firm national decision to establish our independent state. We will make every necessary decision and take every necessary step in order to protect our rights and defend our national principles.' On the same subject, the president said: ‘We have informed all of the relevant international bodies, including the governments of the US and Israel that we will not sit idly by if Israel declares annexation of any part of our lands. We would view all the agreements and understandings between us and these two governments as null and void, in accordance with the decisions of the [Palestinian] National Council (i.e., the legislative body of the PLO) and the [PLO] Central Council on the matter.'
The president said for [Palestinian] Prisoner's Day: 'I say to our heroic prisoners, their families, and the families of our most honorable Martyrs – freedom is our fate and our promise. I swear by Allah that we will see free and sovereign Palestine beyond the horizon of these crises that are hovering over us.'"[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 23, 2020]
“The Fatah Movement leadership in Lebanon again emphasized its full support for the historical decisions announced by [PA] President [Mahmoud] Abbas…
Fatah emphasized that the brave decisions to be released from all the agreements that have been signed with the occupation state and the US obligate our people with all its groups and all the Palestinian forces and factions to take part in the struggle against the Israeli plans… to annex the settlements and parts of the occupied West Bank…
Fatah called on our people and all the forces and factions to unite around our legal leadership’s decisions at this important and critical stage of struggle in the history of our cause through popular resistance in all its forms (i.e., term used by Palestinians, which also refers to the use of violence and terror) in order to thwart the deal of the century (i.e., refers to US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan).”[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 21, 2020]
The terms “all means,” “all means of resistance,” “all forms,” are used by PA leaders to 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.
Headline: “Fatah: The annexation of Palestinian lands will lead the region into a cycle of violence that will not end easily”
“Official Fatah Movement Spokesman Hussein Hamayel said that if Israel annexes Palestinian lands in the West Bank and the [Jordan] Valley, it will lead itself and the entire region into a cycle of violence that will not end easily, and this is in the shadow of the state of agitation and rage at the Palestinian public and official levels since the announcement of the deal of the century (i.e., refers to US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan). In a press release yesterday evening, Tuesday [May 12, 2020], Hamayel added that our people will fight what Israel does, and that its extremist plans will not pass. He emphasized that the world must come out against the occupation state.”[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 13, 2020]