Israeli "prisons are ugly copies of Auschwitz and Bastille” says senior Fatah official
Video posted on the Facebook page of Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub
Video:
The video shows an interview of Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub on Fatah-run Awdah TV.
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “The legitimate institutions of the UN issued two birth certificates in 1947: A birth certificate for Israel and a birth certificate for Palestine (refers to UN partition plan; see note below -Ed.). Israel took control of what was allocated for it, and this is not just, and it took control of half of what was allocated as part of the Palestinian state (sic., Israel took control of territory in a war of defense after being attacked by Arab neighbor states in the 1948 War of Independence). And Jerusalem, of course, was under international auspices (sic., the UN partition plan to have Jerusalem under international control was not implemented due to the war)…
[PA President Mahmoud Abbas] also spoke about the issue of the refugees [in his UN speech]. He spoke about [UN Resolution] 194 (see note below -Ed.), okay? The essence of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the issue of the refugees. You have 7 million Palestinians who are outside of Palestine. You have 40% of the Palestinians in the 1967 territories (i.e., the West Bank and Gaza Strip) who are refugees from 1948. On this basis, he put the ball in the court of the international community…
The topic that we think is important to all of us is the way in which [Abbas] presented the issue of the prisoners and Martyrs. Regarding this matter, you are speaking about victims. And instead of speaking about victims, they went ahead and defined who the criminal is. A discourse with this kind of language about the topic of the bodies? This has not happened in history. These prisons are ugly copies of Auschwitz and the Bastille. I think that this matter also reflected the opinion of the officials and high ranking members of all the Palestinians. We will not bow, and let no one think that he has us under his thumb when he says that he will prevent money from us if we give [it to the prisoners]… this is a right that we have gained nationally (refers to Israel’s Anti “Pay-for-Slay” Law to deduct PA terror salaries; see note below -Ed.). For us, this is an inherent cause that is not up for debate.”
Jibril Rajoub also serves as Head of the PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, Chairman of the Palestinian Football Association, Chairman of the Palestine Olympic Committee, and Chairman of the Palestinian Scout Association (PSA).
UN Resolution 181 (the UN partition plan for Palestine) was passed by the UN General Assembly in 1947. It called for the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem as a separate entity under the rule of a special international body. The Arab state was meant to be comprised of the western Galilee, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, and the remaining territory of the Mandate west of the Jordan River would be the state of Israel - Jordan (known at the time as Transjordan) had already been established in what had been the part of the Mandate that was east of the Jordan River. The resolution was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, but Arab leaders and governments rejected it, and launched a war to destroy Israel.
UN Resolution 194 (Chapter 11, Dec. 11, 1948) states that "refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return." Palestinian leaders argue this means that all Arabs who left Israel during the war (hundreds of thousands) and their descendants (a few million) have a "right of return" to Israel. Israel argues that the resolution only calls for a limited return and only under certain conditions, especially focusing on the words "wishing to return... and live at peace with their neighbors."
Israel's Anti "Pay-for-Slay" Law - Israeli law stating that the PA payments to terrorists and the families of dead terrorists is a financial incentive to terror. The law instructs the state to deduct and freeze the amount of money the PA pays in salaries to imprisoned terrorists and families of "Martyrs" from the tax money Israel collects for the PA. Should the PA stop these payments for a full year, the Israeli government would have the option of giving all or part of the frozen money to the PA. The law was enacted by the Israeli Parliament on July 2, 2018. During the parliamentary vote, the law's sponsor Avi Dichter said: “The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee received much help in its deliberations... from Palestinian Media Watch who provided us with authentic data that enabled productive and professional deliberations, nuances that are very difficult to achieve without precise data.” [Israeli Parliament website, July 2, 2018] In accordance with the law, as of September 2021 Israel’s Security Cabinet had ordered the freeze of 1.857 billion shekels ($580.15 million) - the sum equivalent to the PA payments to terrorists in 2018, 2019, and 2020.