Fatah: Israel "Judaizing" Jerusalem will bring new violence
Official PA TV program State of Politics, on the new US administration's support of Israel and its position on negotiations and settlements, UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ comments about the Jews' connection to the Temple Mount
Hosting: Fatah Spokesman in Gaza and Deputy Director of the Fatah Revolutionary Council Fayez Abu Ita
Fatah Spokesman in Gaza and Deputy Director of the Fatah Revolutionary Council Fayez Abu Ita: "(Abu Ita mentions the PA Ministry of Foreign Affairs' efforts to deal with Israeli settlement through the International Criminal Court –Ed.) I want to say that not only Israel is sensitive to [complaints against it submitted to] the International Criminal Court, [but] also the US, Israel's ally. I think that there is a clear and embarrassing bias [in favor of Israel], and that unfortunately we are in the shadow of a new [US] administration that until now, both its statements and actions, do not bode well [for the Palestinians]. However, it is best we wait and not get ahead of ourselves, especially [in light of] its position on everything regarding transferring the embassy to Jerusalem, and it is of course known how sensitive this situation is for the Palestinians. However, in all of these I think we are moving toward a confrontation, whether with Israel or with the US, who wish to deny us our right to pursue our legal right to turn to the International Criminal Court…
Therefore I say, there are two options before us, and we will make use of them simultaneously. First the option of popular resistance (i.e., including violence),which the Palestinian leadership has demanded, and which is the responsibility of Fatah, as we have said, because it is the movement that is leading the Palestinian scene, and this is demanded of it as a pioneering movement. However, when we talk about popular resistance, the meaning is all of the people, all the factions, and all of the groups from all social and popular levels are meant to be ready for the escalation of the possibility of popular resistance against the Israeli occupation…
(Abu Ita says the international position regarding Jerusalem, which acknowledges the Palestinian right to Jerusalem and denies the right of the Zionist movement, and considers settlement illegal, should be clear to UN Secretary-General António Guterres –Ed.) Jerusalem is our battle, the battle of the Palestinian leadership, and the settlement is an additional battle, and these are the most prominent matters this year. If we do not succeed in stopping the American and Israeli madness and the threats we have heard – which we hope were only moments of, in other words part of the election campaign, we do not want them to be realistic – I think that if they continue this policy and the matter of settlement, I think that they will take this entire battle to a new vortex of violence that does not serve the peace process, calm, or the two-state solution…
(Abu Ita reiterates that UN Secretary-General António Guterres' statements should have represented the international decisions regarding Israel –Ed.) [UN Secretary-General António Guterres] wants to pave the way for Israel through these remarks and to add legitimacy to the illegitimate and Illegal Israeli presence in Jerusalem. Israel is voraciously acting to Judaize, to Israelize the holy city [of Jerusalem] through a few of the buildings that it is transferring to this city, by construction of some of the institutions, through ongoing invasions, the 'Wailing Wall,' and the like, and strengthening their presence in this holy city. I think that [Guterres’] remark is ethically, humanly, and diplomatically unjustified, and a direct attack against the right of the Palestinian people to this holy city, and is even considered as siding with the occupation state, and denies the international decisions and legitimacy on a basic level, which the secretary-general was meant to defend. Therefore he should not have made statements like these. However, in any case, I think that such statements will complicate the matter, as their goal is to encourage Israel to commit terror against the Palestinian people - committing terror in the sense of attacking our holy sites in this criminal manner, under the guise and slogan that they have a right to the holy city, or by continuing the settlement project in the Palestinian territories, which makes the two-state solution nearly impossible…
(Abu Ita argues that the Palestinian protests against the transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem caused the US administration to reconsider and wait –Ed.) Therefore, I think that the message has been conveyed to the American administration, as we have agreed upon in our discussion, that we will not accelerate matters, we will wait – but this will not prevent [us], but rather will obligate us to continue with ongoing activity until we are certain that the American administration has retreated from this ominous promise, which in other words is not very far from the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), as its promise to transfer the embassy - basically these are the territories of the State of Palestine, and [the American administration] does not have the right to transfer the embassy to them, and this is part of the decisions of the international authority… Therefore this is a promise of one who is not the owner, to one who has no right."
The Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917 was a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Baron Rothschild stating that "His Majesty's government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." In 1922, the League of Nations adopted this and made the British Mandate "responsible for putting into effect the declaration," which led to the UN vote in favor of partitioning Mandatory Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state in 1947. In response, Britain ended its mandate on May 15, 1948, and the Palestinian Jews, who accepted the Partition Plan, declared the independent State of Israel. The Palestinian Arabs rejected the plan and together with 7 Arab states attacked Israel, in what is now known as Israel's War of Independence.