Dead terror leader had called for “blowing up all of this Zionist entity’s cities”

• “Whoever lives on this land and does not merit Martyrdom, he has lost out”
• “We are educating our children to hate this entity”
• “We have no role in this blessed land other than Jihad”

PA Chairman Abbas’ Fatah Movement has published a video of terrorist Khalil Al-Bahtini, one of the three Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) top leaders Israel killed earlier this week. In it, Al-Bahtini calls for Jihad against Israel, praises “Martyrdom” for Allah, vows to educate Palestinian children to “hate the Zionist entity,” and urges to “blow up all of this Zionist entity’s cities.” Al-Bahtini also stressed that “negotiations” are not an option: 

Senior Islamic Jihad official Khalil Al-Bahtini: “What we were educated on, and [what] our culture is, is that whoever lives on this land and does not merit Martyrdom, he has lost out. Allah has honored us in this land with Ribat (i.e., religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic) and Jihad, and we have no role in this blessed land other than Jihad.It is our honor, all the honor, that we are fighting against Israel, this thieving entity, and that we are educating our sons to hate this entity.It is our honor that we are continuing with all our days, efforts, and intentions to blow up all of this Zionist entity’s cities. Thus we will record in history that the resistance fighters of Palestine, and the resistance fighters of the Gaza Strip, were like a thorn in the throat of this entity, and that they did not negotiate and did not renounce a [single] grain of soil of this land.”

[Fatah Movement – Bethlehem Branch, Telegram channel, May 9, 2023]

Significantly, even though these hate messages were made by a PIJ leader, Fatah publicized this speech on its Telegram channel. As PMW has documented, Fatah agrees with and disseminates all these identical hate messages.

The PA, Hamas, and PIJ all present dying as a “Martyr” as a positive achievement. In this video, Al-Bahtini said that failing to achieve “Martyrdom” is a loss: “Whoever lives on this land and does not merit Martyrdom, he has lost out.”

PA official TV recently broadcast a funeral at which a speaker said: “We love death like our enemies love life.” 

The video of Al-Bahtini shows that PIJ takes pride in its hate and terror education: “It is our honor, all the honor, that we are fighting against Israel, this thieving entity, and that we are educating our children to hate this entity.”

PMW’s report “Teaching Terror to Tots” shows that these ideologies are likewise fundamental messages in Fatah’s education of Palestinian children.

On May 9, 2023, Israel killed three senior officials of Islamic Jihad in targeted air strikes in the Gaza Strip: Khalil Al-Bahtini, Tareq Izz Al-Din, and Jihad Al-Ghannam. They were responsible for rocket attacks at Israel, including 104 missiles and rockets at Israeli civilian targets last week, and terror attacks in the West Bank.

Following Israel's killing of the three terror leaders, Palestinian Media Watch documented that the PA – as usual – sided with the terrorists, condemning Israel's action and referring to the terrorists as innocent “civilians.”

The following is the text posted with the video on Telegram by Fatah:

Posted text: “‘Whoever lives on this land and does not merit Martyrdom – he loses out.

It is our honor, all the honor, that we are fighting against “Israel.”’

Great commander Martyr Khalil Al-Bahtini (i.e., senior official of the Islamic Jihad terror organization), may Allah receive him [as a Martyr]”

[Fatah Movement – Bethlehem Branch, Telegram channel, May 9, 2023]

Khalil Al-Bahtini, Tareq Izz Al-Din, and Jihad Al-Ghannam – Senior officials of the Islamic Jihad terror organization who were involved in rocket attacks targeting Israel in April 2023, and were actively planning terror attacks in the West Bank. The three were killed together with 10 others, primarily their relatives, in targeted Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on May 9, 2023, as part of Israel’s Operation Shield and Arrow. The strikes also targeted Islamic Jihad terror infrastructure including weapons storehouses and weapons manufacturing sites.