Cooperation with Israel is “treason,” anyone who cooperates with Israel “should be shot”

PA: Cooperation with Israel is “treason”

“We should shoot” anyone who cooperates with Israel

- PA and Fatah against “normalization” with Israel

The Palestinian Authority and Fatah have always vocally condemned so-called “normalization” with Israel – i.e., any cooperation with Israel, be it in business, academia, culture, sports, or otherwise.

After PA Chairman Abbas’ announcement on May 19, 2020, that the PA had absolved itself from all agreements with Israel in response to Israel's plans to apply Israeli law to the Jordan Valley and the Jewish cities and towns in the West Bank, official PA TV has broadcast a filler against “normalization.” In it, the PA and Fatah announce that cooperating with Israel in any way is “treason”:

Texts on screen: “Fatah: Cooperation with the occupation and its institutions is treason”

“Fatah Revolutionary Council: We’ll strike with an iron fist and not go easy on those who agree to a truce with the occupation” …

“The Palestinian Federation of Industries stresses its commitment to the leadership’s position and its refusal to cooperate with Israel”

“The Private Sector Institutions Coordination Council: We support the leadership’s decisions, and won’t allow cooperation with Israel”

[Official PA TV Live, June 1, 6, 8, 9 (twice), 13, 2020]

Adding a death sentence to this, Fatah official Abbas Zaki stated that anyone who cooperates with Israel “should be shot”:

Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki: “In 1980 at the Amman conference and in 1990 at the Baghdad conference, it was said that if any state recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the ties with it should be cut - not to normalize with it... We’ve made a decision that Israel is not a state or a neighbor. It is an enemy, and we are treating it as such. Every day I ask all our institutions if we know that someone is cooperating [with Israel], we should shoot him. We should fire at him because [cooperation] is forbidden now.”

[Moroccan Center to Fight Normalization YouTube channel, June 14, 2020]

Another filler broadcast numerous times by the PA last month names as “deviant traitors” anyone who “agrees to the Jordan Valley being cut from our state”:

Official PA TV narrator: "O occupier, what you have plotted to do [with the Jordan Valley] will backfire on you. There is none among us who will agree to bargain [over it]. Whoever agrees to the Jordan Valley being cut from our state is not one of us. And he will be counted among the deviant traitors. The leader of the path [PA President Abbas] has said “No!”
Caption: “No to the deal of the century”
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas:“I absolutely will not agree to this solution.”
Narrator: “His voice rose throughout the world. We are loyal to it. We will defend it with spirit and blood. Therefore, [O occupier] – act wisely! Because your steps of annexation and Judaization will not pass.”

[Official PA TV, June 5, 6, 8, 12 (twice), 13 (three times), 14, 19 (twice) 20 (twice), 21, 24, 27 (three times), 29, 30, 2020]

Calling anyone who deals with Israel a “traitor” is not new. Palestinian Media Watch has documented that whoever sells land to Jews is considered a traitor, whoever shops in an Israeli supermarket is guilty of “economic normalization” and “treason.” Senior PA official Jibril Rajoub who is the Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee, has stated that “any activity of normalization in sports with the Zionist enemy is a crime against humanity,” and that “Normalization with Israel is treason.”

Earlier this year, top PA official and PA Supreme Shari’ah Judge and Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari'ah Justice, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, announced that anyone who accepts US President Trump’s Middle East peace plan “will pay the price of treason.”

The following is a longer excerpt of Zaki’s speech:

Fatah Central Committee member and Fatah Commissioner for Arab and China Relations Abbas Zaki: “There are decisions of the Arab Summit conferences. In 1980 at the Amman conference and in 1990 at the Baghdad conference, in both of them it was said that if any state recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the ties with it should be cut – not to normalize with it. What is this (apparently refers to Arab relations with the US following its recognition of Jerusalem; see note below –Ed.)? I want to ask you: We are the people of giants, and not all that glitters is gold! Our children, our women, our elderly made miracles happen in 1987 (i.e., refers to “first Intifada” Palestinian wave of violence and terror against Israel, approximately 200 Israelis murdered, 1987-1993). They broke the checkpoint of fear and took down the generals, including [later Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin, with rocks. The world is witness to how we won’t raise our hands and won’t surrender. [Former PLO Chairman and PA President] Yasser Arafat’s slogan is ‘Millions of Martyrs are marching to Jerusalem.’ …
We’ve made a decision that Israel is not a state or a neighbor. It is an enemy, and we are treating it as such. I tell you, every day I ask all our institutions if we know that someone is cooperating [with Israel], we should shoot him. We should fire at him because [cooperation] is forbidden now, and the cause is indivisible. Even when they said: ‘Take the tax money, you have no money, take the tax money,’ we said that it is forbidden for someone to take it. We want to clarify that our hunger is not a hunger for money or a hunger for relations. There is no coexistence with someone who has slaughtered our people… We have a great heritage of struggle, and we won’t abandon this heritage. Regardless of what people will call us, in the end they will apologize…
Jerusalem is the headline, and the one who is fighting for the sake of Jerusalem is the victor. All those who have turned their backs on Jerusalem – regardless of who it is – will go to the dustbin of history with their money and their authority. Jerusalem is what will determine in the future, and Allah willing, as Yasser Arafat said, if only we will be Martyrs for the sake of Jerusalem so that an awakening will take place in the nation as happened late for us. Thank you, may Allah wrap brother Ramadan Abdallah Shalah in His mercies; regardless of what we say, he is the loftiest example of Palestinian struggle and leadership.”

[Moroccan Center to Fight Normalization YouTube channel, June 14, 2020]

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.