Official PA Daily editorial: “The Martyrs today… most of them are members of Fatah”
Excerpt of an editorial by the official PA daily
Headline: “You will not find it”
“Who can show us one principled position – just one – of the Hamas Movement? Hamas carried out its violent and bloody coup in 2007 against the legal rule in the wounded Gaza Strip under the slogan ‘For the sake of Allah, and not for authority or respect’ (see note below -Ed.). And here, until now and for 15 years, it is holding onto the collar of rule and positions of respect by its teeth…
Even its position regarding the resistance – and it claims ownership of it (!!) [parentheses in source] - never was a principled position. Its understandings with the occupation state, Israel, eliminated all of the resistance’s meanings, its slogans, and its culture! And here, the resistance today exists throughout the occupied Palestinian West Bank, but Hamas is not here, and it also does not care about what is happening…
The Martyrs today [who are dying] during the struggle of the young people of Palestine against the Israeli occupation army’s invasions of their cities, villages, towns, and refugee camps in the occupied West Bank – most of them are members of the Fatah Movement and some of them are from the Al-Quds Brigades (i.e., Islamic Jihad’s military wing). Regarding the ‘Islamic Resistance Movement’ Hamas, it is in a deep sleep, because the bed of Israeli understandings is apparently a soft and comfortable bed!
Of course, the matter is not only connected to this embarrassing sleep; fundamentally it is connected to its true nature, which does not know adherence to any kind of principles. Yes, show us one principled position of Hamas, and we hope that you will find such a thing!”
2007 Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip - Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah won the 2005 Palestinian Authority Presidential election. However, Hamas won the 2006 parliamentary elections in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank, with a majority of 74 out of 132 seats, to Fatah's 45 seats. Fatah's rule of the PA Presidency and Hamas' rule of the PA government led to friction and eventually armed conflict between Hamas and Fatah. Hamas defeated Fatah militarily in the Gaza Strip in 2007, and since then Hamas has ruled in Gaza while the PA continues to rule the PA areas in the West Bank under Fatah.