PLO and Fatah celebrate the terrorists who are part of the PA Security Forces

• PLO commission announces hundreds of PA Security Forces members in prison for terror offenses they committed during the 5-year PA terror campaign (The second Intifada, 2000-2005)
   
• Are donors to the PA like the US who pay for training of the PA Security Forces aware of the high - and growing - participation of the PA Security Forces in terror? And if so, are they demanding any accountability from the PA, or are they just accepting the fact that the PA Security Forces they pay to train, are now again actively involved in terror?   

As a general rule, most societies are horrified when members of its security forces engage in simple crimes, and are shaken to the core when those same security forces participate in violent acts of terror. The Palestinian Authority is an exception to the rule. In the PA, the participation of members of the PA Security Forces in acts of terror against Israel, Israelis, and anyone else who happens to be in their path, is the source of tremendous pride.

While Palestinian Media Watch has regularly exposed the involvement of members of the PA Security Forces in terror, it is sometimes difficult to quantify just how many of the PA security force personnel have taken an active part in terror.

A statement released by the PA-funded Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs clarified that no fewer than 355 members of the PA Security Forces have actively participated in terror and been arrested by Israel:

“In an official statement… the [PLO] Commission of Prisoners’ [Affairs] revealed that the number of prisoners from the Palestinian Security Forces has reached 355 prisoners who are scattered in all the Israeli occupation’s detention facilities and prisons.”

[Facebook page of the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Oct. 12, 2022]

The statement shamelessly continued to declare that the reason there are so many members of the PA Security Forces being held in prison, is because they “led … the Al-Aqsa Intifada”. The Al-Aqsa Intifada is the name the PA gives to the 2000 – 2005 PA-initiated terror wave during which Palestinian terrorists carried out thousands of terror attacks, including dozens of suicide bombings, which resulted in the murder of over 1,100 Israelis and the injury of tens of thousands more.

“The commission explained that a large percentage of prisoners being detained from among the Security Forces members were sentenced to long terms and life sentences based on the principle of deterrence, and this is because they led those who rose up to defend our people and resist the occupation’s crimes, especially at the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada.”

[Facebook page of the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Oct. 12, 2022]

The Palestinian pride in the participation of the PA Security Forces in terror is not new. Last year, senior PLO and Fatah official, Jibril Rajoub, who sees himself as a potential replacement for Mahmoud Abbas, used the participation of the PA Security Forces in terror as a means to repel claims from Hamas, that it is Hamas that is leading the “resistance to the occupation”:

Jibril Rajoub: “12% of the prisoners (i.e., terrorists) in the [Israeli] prisons are members of the PA Security [Forces]. 12% of the total are security members. So no one should lecture Fatah or its institutions.”

[Official PA TV, July 13, 2021]

As PMW has shown, in the most recent terror wave, members of the PA Security Forces have again taken a major role. Glorifying their double role, PA, PLO, and Fatah have praised the terrorists, highlighting that by day they are members of the Security Forces and by night they are terrorists – so-called “self-sacrificing fighters”

Posted text: “Our heroic prisoners and Martyrs."

Text on screen: “By day [PA] Security Forces [members], and by night self-sacrificing fighters”         

 [Official Fatah Facebook page, May 25, 2022]

Fatah also dedicated a video and special praise to terrorist murderer Ahmed Abed, calling him “heroic,” and bragging that he is a member of the PA Security Forces “by day” and a member of Fatah’s terror wing the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades “by night.” In the eyes of Fatah, Abed is a “knight” deserving of this praise for murdering Israeli officer Major Bar Falah:

Lyrics: “When the land calls for its men, it will meet us like shining swords. For its sake that which is precious is insignificant, and we will bend our knees before no one but the Creator”

Text on screen: “A member of the [PA military] intelligence killed a Zionist officer and died as a Martyr"

A knight of the Security Forces, Ahmed Ayman Abed

"He died as a Martyr in a confrontation with the occupation army, during a high-quality operation (i.e., terror attack) against the soldiers at Jalame checkpoint in Jenin, in which a Zionist officer in the occupation army was killed.”

[Official Fatah Facebook page, Sept. 14, 2022]

Since the end of the 2000-2005 terror wave, the international community, led by the United States, has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to professionalize and train the PA Security Forces. Considering the high - and growing - participation of the PA Security Forces in terror, the question begs: Are the donor countries demanding any accountability from the PA, or are they just accepting the fact that the PA Security Forces they pay  to train, are now again actively involved in terror?    

The following is a longer excerpt of the report cited above:

Posted text: “The [PLO] Commission of Prisoners’ [Affairs]: 355 prisoners from the [PA] Security Forces are being held in the Israeli occupation prisons

In an official statement today, Wednesday [Oct. 12, 2022], the Commission of Prisoners’ [Affairs] revealed that the number of prisoners from the Palestinian Security Forces has reached 355 prisoners who are scattered in all the Israeli occupation’s detention facilities and prisons.

The commission explained that a large percentage of prisoners being detained from among the Security Forces members were sentenced to long terms and life sentences based on the principle of deterrence, and this is because they led those who rose up to defend our people and resist the occupation’s crimes, especially at the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada (i.e., PA terror campaign 2000-2005, more than 1,100 Israelis murdered).

The commission explained that the targeting of the Palestinian National Authority headquarters, the destruction of the headquarters and its institutions, and the arrest of its work staff comes as part of a policy to weaken it, and in order to take revenge on the heroes of the Security Forces for their position that is full of honor in resistance to the occupation army’s invasions of all the Palestinian areas. The commission emphasized that the attack is still ongoing against the Palestinian people with all its layers, as in the last few months the Security Forces members have been blatantly targeted – whether this was done through assassination or arrest, particularly in the Nablus and Jenin districts – in an intensification whose results will be borne by Israel soon, if its crimes against the Palestinian people continue. The commission sent its greetings to all our male and female prisoners and to their parents, foremost among them the prisoners of the Security Forces who swore a pledge of loyalty to their people and their homeland, and every day they emphasize that they hold onto the demands and freedom of their people, and their lives and souls are insignificant for the sake of this.”

[Facebook page of the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Oct. 12, 2022]

Ahmed Abed and Abd Al-Rahman Abed - Palestinian terrorists and members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (Fatah's military wing) who shot and killed Israeli army officer Maj. Bar Falah, deputy commander of the Nahal brigade, at Jalame checkpoint near Jenin on Sept. 14, 2022. Other soldiers returned fire, killing the two terrorists. Ahmed Abed was an officer in the PA Security Forces. Fatah officially took responsibility for the attack in a Facebook post that was subsequently removed.