PLO/Fatah planning violent “comprehensive intifada”
Fatah threatens: “Don’t try the Palestinians’ patience. Whether this gun is empty or fully loaded, we have a gun in our hand”
PA decision: Coming actions will “be based on” previous terror waves
“A popular uprising that will result in a comprehensive intifada” is being planned by representatives from Fatah, the PLO, and other Palestinian groups according to a statement they issued after a meeting last week. Asked by the PA TV host if this would be a “peaceful” and “non-violent intifada,” PLO Executive Committee member Wasel Abu Yusuf answered in the negative, saying that what Fatah and the PLO are planning is based on the previous two intifadas – i.e., PA terror campaigns in which over a 1,300 Israelis were murdered - because “the first Intifada and the second Intifada achieved a lot for the Palestinian cause”:
Official PA TV host: “The statement issued after the [PLO - Fatah] meeting, spoke about ‘developing and implementing coordination on the ground between all the political forces, popular committees, institutions, and activists of the resistance, and working to establish a united national front for popular resistance resulting in a comprehensive intifada.’ I am quoting from the statement…”
PLO Executive Committee member Wasel Abu Yusuf: “We cannot agree to [Israel] establishing facts on the ground…”
Host: “A comprehensive intifada as part of the non-violent popular uprising? Peaceful. A non-violent Intifada.”
Wasel Abu Yusuf: “No. Of course [it will be] a comprehensive intifada, a national rebellion, and everything connected to ending this criminal occupation… This is something necessary, and actually this is all being developed. The first Intifada and the second Intifada achieved a lot for the Palestinian cause…”
Host: “The international community that still is calling for dialogue and negotiation as a path to resolution - do you think it will accept a new Palestinian intifada in 2020, 2021, or 2022? …”
Wasel Abu Yusuf: “Of course. … When we talk about intifada we are talking about the way to escalate the situation.”
[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, July 28, 2020]
Later in the interview, Abu Yusuf again stressed that the PA leadership is now “acting based on” the two previous intifadas:
PLO Executive Committee member Wasel Abu Yusuf: “When the Palestinian people set out on its first Intifada in response to an attempt to erase the Palestinian cause, and also when it set out on its second Intifada in response to the attempt to harm Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine, and when eternal Martyr President Yasser Arafat at Camp David 2 rejected the harming of the Palestinian refugees’ right of return – the Palestinian leadership is currently acting based on this.”
[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, July 28, 2020]
A Fatah official made a similarly threatening statement in June in the context of Israel's presumed “annexation” - i.e., application of Israeli law to the Jordan Valley and Jewish towns in the West Bank – which was scheduled to take place on July 1, 2020. He threatened Israel, warning not to “try the Palestinians’ patience”:
Fatah Revolutionary Council Secretary Majed Al-Fatiani: “We say to [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu and his Zionist right-wing, and we say to [US President] Trump… don’t try the Palestinians’ patience. Whether this gun is empty or fully loaded, we have a gun in our hand. Even if you think that we are waving this gun [in vain], don’t try the Palestinians’ patience. How do you know whether this gun is empty or full of bullets? The decision [on how to oppose annexation] is Palestinian… We [Fatah Revolutionary Council] have already said, and the Central Committee and the Palestinian leadership have already said that the Palestinian popular resistance… will escalate and be proportional to the scope of the Zionists’ steps on the ground. If this occupier’s behavior will develop on the ground with a decision on actual annexation or with implementation of actual annexation – then this Netanyahu and this Zionist band of settlers on our lands will see what the Palestinian response is.”
[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, June 22, 2020]
As Palestinian Media Watch has documented, for the past few months the PA has attempted to heat up the atmosphere among Palestinians so that they will be prepared to engage in violence and terror against Israel when the PA leadership wishes them to do so. The PA has broadcast numerous music videos calling for terror and encouraging martyrdom-death.
The following is a longer excerpt of the interview with PLO Executive Committee member Wasel Abu Yusuf:
Official PA TV host: “The statement issued after the [PLO - Fatah] meeting, spoke about ‘developing and implementing coordination on the ground between all the political forces, popular committees, institutions, and activists of the resistance, and working to establish a united national front for popular resistance resulting in a comprehensive intifada.’ I am quoting from the statement. Is this possible? What is the possibility on this topic?”
PLO Executive Committee member Wasel Abu Yusuf: “There is no possibility at all that we will accept and that the Palestinian people will accept- the Palestinian people has great capabilities. The Palestinian people is here in the occupied Palestinian lands, and also is- More than half of it is outside, in the refugee camps in the world. This also constitutes a fundamental lift for the Palestinian national struggle. And therefore we also cannot agree to [Israel] establishing facts on the ground. We will not accept harming the Palestinian people’s rights.”
Host: “A comprehensive intifada as part of the non-violent popular uprising?”
Wasel Abu Yusuf: “Of course.”
Host: “Peaceful. A non-violent intifada?”
Wasel Abu Yusuf: “No. Of course [it will be] a comprehensive intifada, a national rebellion, and everything connected to ending this criminal occupation, which is implementing all its crimes and aggression against the Palestinian people. This is something necessary, and actually this is all being developed. The first Intifada (i.e., violence and terror, approximately 200 Israelis murdered, 1987-1993) and second Intifada (i.e., PA terror campaign 2000-2005, more than 1,100 Israelis murdered) achieved a lot for the Palestinian cause, and everyone thought that the Palestinian cause was diminishing, but it always was in the international community’s priorities. Therefore the Palestinian cause is the basis in this matter.”
Host: “The international community that still is calling for dialogue and negotiation as a path to resolution - do you think it will accept a new Palestinian intifada in 2020, 2021, or 2022? I am asking and not determining.”
Wasel Abu Yusuf: “Of course. In other words, I think that the Palestinian people will not sit idly by given what the occupation is carrying out, and the escalation of its aggression and crimes against the Palestinian people. When we speak about this escalation – the policy of demolishing homes, holding the Martyrs’ bodies, daily invasions, collective arrests that take place daily, the talk about the occupation’s policy of annexation that means erasing the Palestinian rights – in light of all this, the Palestinian people cannot be silent. Therefore, when the Palestinian people set out on its first Intifada in response to an attempt to erase the Palestinian cause, and also when it set out on its second Intifada in response to the attempt to harm Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine, and when eternal Martyr President Yasser Arafat at Camp David 2 rejected the harming of the Palestinian refugees’ right of return – the Palestinian leadership is currently acting based on this… When we talk about intifada we are talking about the way to escalate the situation. We are talking about dealing with the occupation, which is increasing its crimes and aggression against the Palestinian people. There is no possibility of being silent over this.”
[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, July 28, 2020]