PA “renews their commitment” to struggle, carried out in the "mode of the first Intifada" terrorism
Text posted on the official Fatah Facebook page
Posted text: “The 34th anniversary of the first Intifada (i.e., Palestinian wave of violence and terror against Israel, during which approximately 200 Israelis murdered, 1987-1993)
By: [Fatah] General Commissioner of Political Affairs [and PA Security Forces Spokesman] Maj. Gen. Talal Dweikat
The first Intifada was an important turning point in the history of the Palestinian cause and a milestone in the history of the conflict with the occupation. It demonstrated force, the Palestinian people’s free will in fighting the occupation, and presented facts on the ground, the [Palestinian people’s] adherence to its rights, and its holding onto them.
Dec. 9, 1987 will remain a day engraved in the memory of the Palestinian people, which launched the popular revolution on every inch of the land of Palestine against the oppressive Israeli occupation. The first Intifada will remain the compass that guides our popular struggle against the occupation, and the models of mutual aid, solidarity, comradeship, and national unity that it embodied will remain the mode of action and groundwork for our resolve and determination on our land.
On this day we remember the heroic Martyrs who resisted with their pure rocksagainst the Israeli war machine in order to write a historic epic that all the free people in the world will praise, and so that the Palestinian people’s intifada would become a way and means of struggle and fighting for the resistance to the occupation.
Today we send our blessings to the tens of thousands of loyal fighters who swallowed the bitterness of imprisonment and torture that was implemented against them while continuing on the course of struggle for the sake of our Palestinian people, which became the standard for opposing humiliation and resisting persecution.
Today we remember the Martyr symbol, [former PLO Chairman and PA President] leader Yasser Arafat, and the Prince of the Martyrs, [Khalil Al-Wazir] ‘Abu Jihad’ (i.e., terrorist, responsible for the murder of 125 people), who forcefully and capably led the first Intifada, whose ember has grown from day to day.
Today we renew the commitment to our people that we will continue on the course of struggle until establishing the Palestinian state whose capital is noble Jerusalem.”
The first Intifada - Palestinian wave of violence and terror against Israel 1987-1993, approximately 200 Israelis murdered
Yasser Arafat – Founder of Fatah and former chairman of the PLO and PA. During the 1960s, 70s and 80s Arafat was behind numerous terror attacks against Israelis. Although he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 together with then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and then Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Shimon Peres “for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East" after signing the Oslo Accords peace agreement, Arafat launched a 5-year terror campaign - the second Intifada (2000-2005) – in which more than 1,000 Israelis were murdered. Arafat died of an illness in 2004.
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 most lethal in Israeli history - the hijacking of a bus and murder of 37 civilians, 12 of them children.