Fatah on its anniversary: Murderers are role models; terror will enable “Palestine” to replace Israel
Fatah anniversary messages:
Abbas honors “brave” terrorist prisoner “heroes,” their “struggles are lofty medals of honor”
Fatah hasn’t abandoned terror
Abbas implies PA/Fatah are prepared to use terror to get rid of Israel - “regardless of the sacrifices”
Terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi, who led killing of 37, among them 12 children, paraded as role model at anniversary procession
Arch-terrorist Abu Jihad, who was responsible for the murder of 125, stars in anniversary music video
“O God take [the Jews] to hell… grant victory to the Muslims… and expel the despicable ones from my land and liberate it from the Jews” - student recites at PA school ceremony
Fatah’s vision for the future remains a world with no Israel: Maps of “Palestine” erase all of Israel
Songs broadcast by PA TV for Fatah anniversary:
“Wave the rifle… we won’t cast our weapons from our hands,”
“We waved the [machine gun] and the RPG“
“My machine gun and my bullets are the path to salvation”
Celebrating its 57th anniversary counted from its first terror attack against Israel on Jan. 1, 1965 when terrorists tried to blow up Israel's National Water Carrier, Abbas’ Fatah Movement reiterated its goals and ideologies.
Statements by top PA and Fatah leaders and top officials unequivocally show that terror is still on the Palestinian agenda. Posters used at public ceremonies and posted on social media make it clear that terrorists remain role models for Fatah and that the destruction of Israel remains the Palestinian goal.
Below are examples from Fatah’s celebrations of its anniversary, clearly communicating Fatah’s message of violence and terror to Palestinians. Israeli and world leaders would be wise to take note as well, since this shows that Fatah is far from the “moderate peace partner.”
In a speech at an event celebrating Fatah’s anniversary, PA and Fatah Chairman Mahmoud Abbas not only praised imprisoned, wounded, and dead terrorists as “brave” and “heroic,” but also implied that PA/Fatah won’t hesitate using violence and terror to get rid of Israel, i.e., “occupation and settlements remaining on our land.” To its own people, the PA and Fatah define all of Israel as an “occupation” and all Israeli cities as “settlements.” Only in international forums and when meeting Israelis does the PA accept Israel's existence:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: “We also send our brave prisoners a salute of honor and appreciation for their giving, their sacrifices, and their patience for the confrontation with the occupation and its prison guards, in order to defend their freedom, the freedom of the homeland, and the honor of our people and its rights. We also salute our heroic wounded and tell our heroes the prisoners and the wounded and their families and the families of the Martyrs that we won’t abandon you. Your struggles are lofty medals of honor that testify to your sacrifices for the sake of defending your homeland and your people. May you all be blessed.”
[Official PA TV, Dec. 31, 2021]
Abbas: “We say to Israel, to its leaders, to its settlers, and to its extremists that we won’t agree to your occupation and settlements remaining on our land, regardless of the sacrifices.”
[Official PA TV, Dec. 31, 2021]
Fatah’s Central Committee issued a parallel statement:
“The [Fatah] Central Committee… emphasized that we will not relinquish this land, and that we will continue to stand firm on it and adhere to our principles from which we will not deviate regardless of the cost.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 3, 2022]
Abbas’ Deputy Chairman of Fatah, Mahmoud Al-Aloul, confirmed that Fatah still sees terror and violence as a valid option and means of “resistance”:
Fatah Deputy Chairman Mahmoud Al-Aloul: “The fact that we are currently using the means of popular resistance does not in any way mean that we have abandoned any means of resistance… On the first page of [Fatah’s political] plan… [it says] that Fatah is still a national liberation movement. It is not a state... One of this announcement’s points says that Fatah believes that resistance with all its means (i.e., including terror) is a legitimate right of occupied peoples... Every stage has a particular means of resistance. Therefore, when we are relying on popular resistance now, this does not mean that we are abandoning any means.”
[Facebook page of Fatah Deputy Chairman Mahmoud Al-Aloul, Jan. 3, 2022]
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.
Similarly, 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." At the time Abbas said this, 14 Israelis had already been murdered.
Fatah General Commissioner of International Relations and Central Committee member Rawhi Fattouh likewise stressed that Fatah has not abandoned any “options” – i.e., meaning they have not given up terror:
“Fatah General Commissioner of International Relations and Fatah Central Committee member Rawhi Fattouh emphasized that Fatah has not relinquished a single one of its options (i.e., including terror) and believes that resistance is a legal right against the Israeli occupier, and that it is the pioneer of the national struggle and is continuing to defend our land, our holy sites, and our Palestinian people.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 1, 2022]
During broadcasts focusing on the anniversary, official PA TV aired music videos and songs with footage of Palestinian military training and lyrics praising terror “operations” and lauding weapons:
Lyrics: “At the bases we waved the Degtyaryov [machine gun] and the RPG
We went into the midst of death with our bullets and we did not fear
We carried out the operation (i.e., terror attack) and returned home”Text on screen: “57 years
Ready in all the arenas of confrontation until realizing the dream”[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Dec. 30, 2021]
Palestinian Media Watch has exposed this song as part of Fatah celebrations in the past as well as part of PA TV Live’s repertoire.
Another music video showed images of arch-terrorist Abu Jihad - Arafat’s deputy and head of the PLO terror organization's military wing – who was responsible for the murder of 125. The song promised to continue violence, praising “the rifle, blood, and bullets”:
Caption on logo: “Al-Asifa Fatah - the Palestinian National Liberation Movement
The Launch
of the Fatah giant
57"Lyrics: “O our people, wave the rifle,
Let the world hear,
This is the sound of our bullets
We vow that we won’t cast our weapons from our hands
Except after we liberate you, our land
The people has burst out and cleared the path by force,
No force in the world can stop its revolution.
With blood and bullets it shows its force today.
The enemy shook from our advance and our determination.
O our people, wave the rifle.”Text on screen: “Fatah, the idea, the revolution, and the mother of the masses
57 years
Standing firm until realizing the dream”[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Dec. 30 and 31, 2021]
A third video broadcast by PA TV on occasion of Fatah’s anniversary praised the “machine gun” and its “bullets” as “the path to salvation”:
Caption on logo: “Al-Asifa - Fatah - the Palestinian National Liberation Movement 57”
Lyrics: “My machine gun is in my hand, and I want to continue marching
Our occupied land will not return for free…
My machine gun and my bullets are the path to salvation
Whoever stops my advance – I will shoot them in the head…
My machine gun is my friend, my brother, and my comrade …
My machine gun is on my shoulders, it is my mattress and my blanket
As long as we are together, we will never be afraid"Text on screen during the song: “Fatah - the birth of the revolution and the voice of the storm (i.e., "Al-Asifa," Fatah military unit) continue until freedom”
[Official PA TV, Jan. 1, 2022]
PMW has documented that the PA views these last two songs as “part of Palestinian culture” and among the songs that “fascinate with their values and meanings.”
Celebrations in Bethlehem and Beit Jala where participants carried posters of terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi, who led the killing of 37, 12 of them children, also underscored that mass murderers remain role models for Fatah and for Palestinians:
Text on poster of Dalal Mughrabi: “Fatah Movement – Bethlehem Branch
The self-sacrificing fighter of Palestine, Martyr Dalal Mughrabi”[Official PA TV News, Jan. 1, 2022]
The official PA daily also focused on terror as the essence of Fatah:
“The Palestinian people in the homeland and the diaspora is marking the 57th anniversary of the launch of the modern Palestinian revolution… Jan. 1, 1965 was the beginning and the first bullet was fired. The Fatah Movement’s first squad of self-sacrificing fighters infiltrated the occupied Palestinian land. It blew up (sic., attempted to blow up) the Eilabun tunnel (i.e., the Israeli National Water Carrier)… By doing this, it soaked the start of its struggle against the occupation in blood.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 2, 2022]
That the PA/Fatah focus is “liberation of Palestine” from “the Jews” was made clear by a female student at a PA school in Jenin who recited the following text during celebrations of the anniversary of Fatah. The text urges God to take the “thieving” Jews “to hell,” “grant victory to the Muslims” and “expel the despicable ones from my land and liberate it from the Jews”:
Female student: “O Balfour Promise…
You have caused us shame, O Balfour, we’ve had enough
Palestine was lost, you expelled our people
On my land you established for the despicable ones (i.e., the Jews) their little state
They have already stolen the homeland of the ancestors…
Jerusalem was lost, and was already sold to thieves by the greatest of our enemies
O God, O God take them to hell…
O God, grant victory to the Muslims, return them to the land…
And expel the despicable ones from my land and liberate it from the Jews, and from those who murdered the prophets”[Official PA TV Live, Dec. 28, 2021]
What is also entirely clear from Fatah’s anniversary celebrations is that Fatah’s vision for the future remains a world with no Israel. The poster below made for the anniversary features the PA map of “Palestine” that erases all of the State of Israel in the colors of the Palestinian flag, as well as a rifle. The visual message underscores Fatah’s message: That Fatah’s goal is to erase all of Israel by means of violence and terror in order to establish “Palestine” on the entire area:
Posted text: “On the first day of 1965 the self-sacrificing fighters opened their hearts over the land’s skies, brought about the launch of the Palestinian revolution through the glorious Intilaqa of the Fatah Movement, wrote Palestine’s name on the universe, and continued the Martyrs’ oath and the prisoners’ pledge for freedom and independence
Happy new year
Long live the anniversary”
[Facebook page of Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi, Dec. 31, 2021]
Fatah also posted another map with the same message:
At the bottom of the image are masked rioters throwing rocks and waving a Palestinian flag.
Text on image: “Long live the anniversary of the launch of the modern Palestinian revolution
1965-2022
Russian branch of the Fatah Movement”[Official Fatah Facebook page, Dec. 31, 2021]
The following are longer excerpts of the statements cited above:
Intilaqa - "the Launch" refers to the beginning of Fatah on Jan. 1, 1965, when it carried out its first terror attack against Israel, attempting to blow up Israel's National Water Carrier.
Headline: “Fattouh on the anniversary of the Intilaqa (i.e., the anniversary of “the Launch” of Fatah, counted from its first terror attack against Israel): Fatah is continuing its revolution until liberation”
“Fatah General Commissioner of International Relations and Fatah Central Committee member Rawhi Fattouh emphasized that Fatah has not relinquished a single one of its options (i.e., including terror) and believes that resistance is a legal right against the Israeli occupier, and that it is the pioneer of the national struggle and is continuing to defend our land, our holy sites, and our Palestinian people.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 1, 2022]
Official PA TV Live, on celebrations of the 57th anniversary of “the Launch” of Fatah, counted from its first terror attack against Israel, at the Omar ibn Al-Khattib School in Jenin.
Female student: “O Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), now you have returned to make us miserable
90 [years] have passed and five of our disasters
You have caused us shame, O Balfour, we’ve had enough
Palestine was lost, you expelled our people
On my land you established for the despicable ones (i.e., the Jews) their little state
Therefore, the ominous one settled in our State of Palestine
If only the wretched promise never was. They have already stolen
They have already stolen the homeland of the ancestors and our hope was lost
Its settlements on every hill, a fence of delusions that separates our people
No territory remains for me from my people’s land
I lived far from our lands
If only I had died, if only I had died without seeing the ones who placed a foot sole of occupation
On the Golan Heights together with the Sinai Peninsula
Jerusalem was lost, and was already sold to thieves by the greatest of our enemies
O God, O God take them to hell and gather them with the rebellious [such as] Abu Lahab and save us (Abu Lahab was the uncle of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, who is said to have opposed Islam and pursued material wealth -Ed.)
O God, grant victory to the Muslims, return them to the land
As when they lived happily
And expel the despicable ones from my land and liberate it from the Jews, and from those who murdered the prophets”[Official PA TV Live, Dec. 28, 2021]
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.
The following is a longer excerpt of the lyrics of the song about waving weapons:
“At the bases we waved the Degtyaryov [machine gun] and the RPG
We went into the midst of death with our bullets and we did not fear
We carried out the operation (i.e., terror attack) and returned home…
You’ll find us from Rafah (i.e., southern Gaza) to Rosh HaNikra (i.e., northern Israel)
Our revolution is in every village and city…
We’ll fight with short[-barreled rifles], daggers, and Martin [rifles]
All of the masses are self-sacrificing fighters
We are used to death and sacrifice...
This is our path, we’ll not desist from it
For your sake, our revolution, we are insignificant…
We are bold wherever the enemy is
O our revolution, strike with your legs, strike!
Escalate with our bullets and our bombs…
The blood of the Martyrs illuminates our path…
We pledge to the revolution - we won't relinquish our weapons.”
Abu Jihad (Khalil Al-Wazir) - was a founder of Fatah and deputy to Yasser Arafat. He headed the PLO terror organization's military wing and also planned many deadly Fatah terror attacks in the 1960’s - 1980’s. These attacks, in which a total of 125 Israelis were murdered, included the Coastal Road attack that (until Oct. 7, 2023) was the most lethal in Israeli history - the hijacking of a bus and murder of 37 civilians, 12 of them children.
“Following its series of meetings, the Fatah Movement Central Committee held a meeting yesterday evening [Jan. 2, 2022] at the offices of the [Fatah Commission of] Mobilization and Organization in Ramallah…
The Central Committee welcomed the resolve of our people throughout the homeland who responded to the call of the homeland and the land, and their stand against the occupation forces and the extremist settlers. It emphasized that we will not relinquish this land, and that we will continue to stand firm on it and adhere to our principles from which we will not deviate regardless of the cost.
The Fatah Central Committee also saluted our brave prisoners in the occupation’s prisons. It emphasized that their cause is the Palestinian people’s central cause, and that we will not agree to the harming of them or their rights, no matter how heavy the pressures may be.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 3, 2022]
Mahmoud Al-Aloul also serves as Fatah Central Committee member.
Headline: “The torch of the Palestinian right and the flame of the revolution burn in the skies of Lebanon from its north to its south”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 1, 2022]
The picture is from celebrations in Lebanon of “the Launch” of Fatah. A lit torch is seen, with pictures on it of former PLO and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on top of the PA map of “Palestine” that presents all of Israel together with the PA areas as “Palestine.” On the map is written: “The path continues,” and underneath it is the Fatah logo that includes a grenade, crossed rifles, and the PA map of “Palestine.”
Tawfiq Tirawi also serves as Fatah Commissioner of Popular Organizations.
Headline: “The anniversary of the launch of the Palestinian revolution and Fatah”
“The Palestinian people in the homeland and the diaspora is marking the 57th anniversary of the launch of the modern Palestinian revolution (i.e., the anniversary of “the Launch” of Fatah, counted from its first terror attack against Israel)…
Jan. 1, 1965 was the beginning and the first bullet was fired. The Fatah Movement’s first squad of self-sacrificing fighters infiltrated the occupied Palestinian land. It blew up (sic., attempted to blow up) the Eilabun tunnel (i.e., the Israeli National Water Carrier), through which the waters of the Jordan River were diverted to the Negev Desert in order to build settlements and house Jewish immigrants in them. The squad of self-sacrificing fighters returned to its bases after sacrificing its first Martyr Ahmad Musa Salameh (i.e., Fatah terrorist killed by Jordanian soldiers) during the operation (i.e., terror attack). By doing this, it soaked the start of its struggle against the occupation in blood.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 2, 2022]
The image shows a poster for the 57th anniversary of “the Launch” of Fatah, with a logo in the center featuring the PA map of “Palestine” in the colors of the Palestinian flag.
Posted text: “Gaza / the preparations at Palestine Square for lighting the torch of the 57th [anniversary of the] Intilaqa”
[Official Fatah Facebook page, Dec. 31, 2021]