PA message to kids: “Palestine belongs to the Palestinians from the river to the sea”
“Pass this from generation to generation… Palestine belongs to the Palestinians from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea” - Fatah official
- Official PA TV promotes PA map of “Palestine” erasing Israel in fillers and programs
In a recent speech, a top PA official made it clear that the PA and Fatah are dishonest when they tell Israel and the international community that they want to live side by side with Israel and “only” aspire to a Palestinian state in the “1967 borders.”
Addressing a conference in Jenin, the region’s District Governor Akram Rajoub instructed Palestinians to teach their children that “Palestine” is exclusively for “the Palestinians.” He stressed that the message to “be sown in the minds of children” is that “Palestine” stretches “from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea.” Rajoub further clarified that while the Palestinians may have “agreed” to a “Palestine” in the “1967 borders,” what they really believe is that the entire area “belongs to the Palestinians”:
Jenin District Governor Akram Rajoub: “The Palestinian narrative that needs to be sown in the minds of our children in all fields, in economy, culture, heritage, struggle, and in raising the flag is: ‘Palestine for the Palestinians.’ Yes, Palestine for the Palestinians. From the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea. Yes! From the river to the sea. Your national responsibility is to pass this from generation to generation to our children: That Palestine belongs to the Palestinians from the river to the sea… We agreed to the 1967 borders, to establish our state in them, but in our minds and in the minds of our [future] generations, it needs to be established that Palestine [from the river to the sea] belongs to the Palestinians.”
[Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, June 15, 2022]
Rajoub’s remarks are in stark contrast to a recent statement by PA and Fatah Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Speaking to EU Representative to the PA Sven Kuhn von Bergsdorff and other ambassadors and representatives of European countries at the signing of a €224 million financing agreement for the year 2021, Abbas first mentioned that “Europe recognizes the vision of the two-state solution on the 1967 borders.” He then defined the PA’s desired “Palestine” as only 22% of “historic Palestine,” before upping the ante to 45%. He mentioned that he had also made this clear to “the American envoys.” His message to the international community: The Palestinians will be content with part of “historic Palestine”:
Abbas: "There are more than 700 resolutions in the United Nations General Assembly, 90 resolutions in the Security Council, and 90 resolutions in the Human Rights Council, all of them related to the Palestinian issue. We want the international community to implement only one of them, which was adopted during 74 years. This is what I told the American envoys who visited me. I told them that I want to see implemented one decision that you choose, and I will be happy with that…
These resolutions include the partition resolution, which gave us 45% of historic Palestine, and now we demand 22% and we are not getting it. What do we do? Is it not our right to demand implementation of the partition resolution and demand 45% of our land, which you and your countries have agreed belongs to us?”
[WAFA, official PA news agency, English edition, June 22, 2022]
This is the PA’s message to the international community, but as the statement by the PA district governor above proves in all clarity, the message to Palestinians is an entirely different one: All of “Palestine” – “from the river to the sea” – belongs to the Palestinians.
Abbas’ Fatah Movement takes this teaching seriously and propagates it in its magazine Waed to teach kids that the area of “Palestine” encompasses all of the State of Israel, as has been exposed Palestinian Media Watch. Fatah’s institution for young kids, “the Lion Cubs and Flowers,” which produces Waed, also promoted the well-known PA slogan, posting a video of a young girl prophesying Israel's end: “Palestine will be free/From the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea”:
Other expressions of the PA’s vision of a world without Israel include the following two recent examples from official PA TV. The opening of the program The City Center includes the PA map of “Palestine” that presents all of Israel together with the PA areas as “Palestine,” completely disregarding the existence of the State of Israel:
[Official PA TV, The City Center, June 14, 2022; June 16, 2022]
A series of PA TV fillers named “From Above” also includes the PA map of “Palestine” that erases all of Israel. Each filler features a different city and includes the map, which is colored in the colors of the Palestinian flag, indicating political sovereignty over the entire area:
[Official PA TV, June 3, 2022; June 15, 2022]
PMW recently exposed yet another way the PA promotes a world without Israel – in TV quizzes that rewarded the denial of Israel's existence with 20 Jordanian dinars, approximately $28. Around the same time, Fatah‘s Revolutionary Council Secretary stressed that Palestinians will “take this right” to “Palestine between the Sea and the River” from the Israelis:
Fatah Revolutionary Council Secretary Majed Al-Fatiani: “There will be no sovereignty over this land except for the Palestinians… even if there is a foreign and transient case as the transients who came in the history of Palestine and returned to where they came from… [The Israelis] must understand that Palestine between the [Mediterranean] Sea and the [Jordan] River- every Palestinian man and woman has a right to it, and we will pursue them to take this right … Every year a generation arises among us that says: My home is in Jaffa, my home is in Tantura, my home is in the Upper Galilee, in Al-Bassa, in Lod, my home is in Ramle, Umm Al-Rashrash (i.e., Eilat; all the places are in Israel), and everywhere.”
[Fatah-run Awdah TV, Special Coverage, May 29, 2022]
Jenin District Governor Akram Rajoub made the statement above at a conference of the Jenin Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the Jenin Shopping Festival 2022.
The following is a longer excerpt of the statement by Abbas:
Headline: “President Abbas at the signing of a €224 million EU financing agreement: Implement only one UN resolution”
“Under the auspices of President Mahmoud Abbas and in his presence, Palestine and the European Union last night signed at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah a €224 million financing agreement for the year 2021 during which the President urged the international community to implement only one of the dozens of the United Nations resolutions related to Palestine.
The agreement was signed by Minister of Finance Shukri Bishara and EU Representative Sven Kuhn von Bergsdorff in the presence of Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, and ambassadors and representatives of European countries accredited to the State of Palestine.
‘On behalf of the State of Palestine, we thank the European Union and its member states for this support provided to us. We are very close to each other in many areas,’ said President Abbas at the signing ceremony, noting that ‘Europe recognizes the vision of the two-state solution on the 1967 borders, and it recognizes Israel, and we hope that it recognizes the State of Palestine because that helps push the peace process forward.’
With regard to the legislative elections, the President said: ‘You promised us as the European Union to pressure Israel to hold them in Jerusalem, but unfortunately this did not happen. We cannot hold these elections without Jerusalem because we have already held them in Jerusalem in three previous elections.’
He added, ‘There are more than 700 resolutions in the United Nations General Assembly, 90 resolutions in the Security Council, and 90 resolutions in the Human Rights Council, all of them related to the Palestinian issue. We want the international community to implement only one of them, which was adopted during 74 years. This is what I told the American envoys who visited me. I told them that I want to see implemented one decision that you choose, and I will be happy with that.’
He added, ‘These resolutions include the partition resolution, which gave us 45% of historic Palestine, and now we demand 22% and we are not getting it. What do we do? Is it not our right to demand implementation of the partition resolution and demand 45% of our land, which you and your countries have agreed belongs to us?’
The President went on to say, ‘It is sad that we are the only people who did not see one UN resolution implemented. There is also the UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which was adopted unanimously, and the main supporters of it were the United States and Britain, yet this resolution was not implemented.’
He added, ‘We did not get justice in the Security Council, the General Assembly, or the Human Rights Council. So where do we go?’
The President stressed that ‘despite all the injustices committed against us, we adopt the policy of popular resistance because we want justice. But if we do not get that, where do we go?’
He added: ‘US President Biden will visit us, and I will ask him only one thing and that is to implement what he promised. I will not ask him for anything new. I will only ask him what he and his Secretary of State Blinken pledged to me on a set of points, namely he said we are partners and we believe in the two-state solution. But we are still on the terrorist list in the US Congress, despite the fact that there is a security agreement between us and them and with many of your countries to combat global terrorism.’
He added, ‘President Biden also told me that he is against the displacement of Palestinians and changing the historical status quo at the Holy Sanctuary, against settlement expansion and against unilateral actions by both parties, which is the most important clause of the Oslo agreement. Then he also said that the US Consulate must return to East Jerusalem. So I am going to tell President Biden: please do one of the things you said so that I can be assured that things are moving forward.’
He continued, ‘I know that Israel, especially its outgoing government, and the one before it and before it, does not want a political solution. But at least we want confidence-building steps in preparation for a political solution.’
The President indicated that, ‘Before President Biden's visit, Blinken informed me that these promises will be implemented when President Biden visits, and the Assistant Secretary of State came to tell me that when President Biden comes, these promises will be fulfilled. But if I do not get anything from President Biden's visit, and if you were in my place, what would you do?’
The President stressed: ‘We want peace based on international legitimacy to live in peace and stability alongside Israel. I address the countries of Europe because I know that they are countries that respect law, peace and justice. The assistance they provide us is excellent, but you can also help us on the American and Israeli sides to walk the path of peace and justice before it is too late.’
Speaking at the ceremony, Prime Minister Shtayyeh touched on the importance of signing the financing agreement without conditions, expressing hope that the financing agreement for the year 2022 will be expedited.
He stressed that the agreement covers funding for social affairs, hospitals and institutions in Jerusalem, energy and water for Gaza, health aid to combat Corona, and only €55 million for salaries.
For his part, the European Union Representative thanked President Mahmoud Abbas for overseeing the signing of the agreement, stressing the European Union's continued support for building Palestinian institutions.
The signing ceremony was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Abu Amr, Presidential Spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh, Diplomatic Adviser to the President Majdi al-Khalidi, and Chief of Staff in the President’s Office Intisar Abu Amara.”
[WAFA, official PA news agency, English edition, June 22, 2022]