PA daily: Gaza is “shaking the foundations of Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Rishon LeZion, Be’er Sheva, the Negev, the Gaza Envelope”
PA daily: Israel is committing a “holocaust”
“The scent of the Martyrs’ blood on the land is purer than the perfumes of the entire world”
“Palestine - the mother of self-sacrifice that only gives birth to heroes”
“The Zionists are running to [bomb] shelters”
Hamas' launching rockets against Israel the last 10 days was the terror organization’s attempt to establish itself as the protector of Jerusalem and “Palestine,” as opposed to the Palestinian Authority and Fatah. However, that didn’t keep the official PA daily from praising the rockets, cheering the fact that they sent Israelis “running to [bomb] shelters.”
The op-ed starts out describing a completely reverse “reality,” accusing Israelis – who are referred to as the “Jewish Zionist enemies” - of committing “a holocaust” by “bombing” Gaza with “thousands of rockets.” It then moves to praising the Gazans for sending “the Zionists” racing for shelter from rockets. Note, that the article in the official daily of the PA does not mention Hamas, with which it is in a continuous political competition; rather it praises the “Gaza Strip” for launching rockets:
“O Jerusalem, O pearl of existence, remain the symbol of rejection and resolve against your Jewish Zionist enemies.
Your children will stand with exposed chests to defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque… the Gaza Strip that is standing firm… is setting out on an operation, responding to the call, and firing rockets that are shaking the foundations of Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Rishon LeZion, Be’er Sheva, the Negev, the Gaza Envelope, and the like (i.e., Israeli cities and areas).The Zionists are running to [bomb] shelters and are afraid of the flood; all the [Palestinian] people are coming out in an operation from the north to the south in the occupied Interior.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 17, 2021]
As is PA ideology, the op-ed then glorifies the Palestinians who have died as “Martyrs-” The writer used language that recalls the PA’s cult-like relationship to martyrdom-death, establishing the superiority of the “scent” of blood spilled over that of “the perfumes of the entire world”:
“Palestine is history, civilization, and holy sites; it is the mother of self-sacrifice that only gives birth to heroes. The scent of the Martyrs’ blood on the land is purer than the perfumes of the entire world; it is a flower among thorns that is sacrificing its most precious sons for the sake of the approaching tomorrow.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 17, 2021]
Palestinian Media Watch has documented that Abbas and Fatah continue pushing for more violence inciting Palestinians to seek martyrdom through violence against Israel by using phrases like “The blood spilled for [your] sake is insignificant. Our lives are for your sake, O Jerusalem” and “Jerusalem – we’ll redeem it with our lives… We’ll sacrifice for Al-Aqsa until the last breath.”
The following is a longer excerpt of the op-ed by Mustafa Bakri
Headline: “The meaning of being Palestinian”
“O beloved Palestine, sleep has been stolen from my eyes for a number of days as the lowly ones (i.e., Israelis) bomb with thousands of rockets to harm my people, to kill my children, and to burn the women and the elderly. All the people are being thrown into a holocaust that the stories of history have not spoken about, but we are seeing it before our eyes! …O Jerusalem, O city that spreads prophets, O the shortest path between earth and Heaven, O Jerusalem, it is a beacon of the religious commandments; O beautiful girl with burned fingers whose eyes are sad, O Jerusalem, O pearl of existence, remain the symbol of rejection and resolve against your Jewish Zionist enemies.
Your children will stand with exposed chests to defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the first direction of [Muslim] prayer and the third holiest mosque. The Palestinian women call ‘O Al-Aqsa Mosque,’ and the Gaza Strip that is standing firm, the direction of prayer of the Martyrs, is setting out on an operation, responding to the call, and firing rockets that are shaking the foundations of Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Rishon LeZion, Be’er Sheva, the Negev, the Gaza Envelope, and the like (i.e., Israeli cities and areas).
The Zionists are running to [bomb] shelters and are afraid of the flood; all the [Palestinian] people are coming out in an operation from the north to the south in the occupied Interior (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel), young people who did not see the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) are coming out because they understand that their homeland is Palestine, all of Palestine, and that their grandparents left them the keys of their old homes…
Palestine, gentlemen, is not waste, Palestine is history, civilization, and holy sites; it is the mother of self-sacrifice that only gives birth to heroes. The scent of the Martyrs’ blood on the land is purer than the perfumes of the entire world; it is a flower among thorns that is sacrificing its most precious sons for the sake of the approaching tomorrow.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 17, 2021]
This op-ed was published during ongoing violent Arab riots in Jerusalem and other mixed Jewish-Arab cities in Israel, and while Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired thousands of rockets from the Gaza Strip at Israeli population centers.