Fatah: “The only way to liberate Palestine is the rifle”

• Fatah: “The Palestinian people will continue the path of revolution and will not avoid sacrificing the best of its sons”
   
• Abbas’ advisor stresses willingness to use terror: “Our people is determined to stand firm and resist the occupation by all means until it leaves, regardless of the sacrifices”

PA Chairman Abbas’ Fatah Movement has reiterated its policy that violence and terror is the only way forward. At a funeral of four terrorists, a Fatah spokesman from Jenin emphasized that “the only way to liberate Palestine is the rifle”:

Fatah Spokesman in Jenin Fares Abu Al-Wafa: “Our message to the occupation is that the only way to liberate Palestine is the rifle and there is no solution other than the rifle. This generation is continuing until the occupation leaves and Palestine is liberated.”

[Official PA TV News, Sept. 20, 2023]

A statement a few days earlier by Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Supreme Shari’ah Judge of Palestine Mahmoud Al-Habbash disclosed the same intention. Al-Habbash stressed that the Palestinians are “determined” to “use all means” against Israel. Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the PA uses the term “all means” and similar terms as  euphemisms for violence and terror. Al-Habbash’s statement also revealed another PA principle: That dying for the “liberation of Palestine” is considered part of the “resistance,” which is adhered to no matter the costs and “sacrifices”:

“Al-Habbash emphasized that our people is determined to stand firm and resist the occupation by all means until it leaves, regardless of the sacrifices.”

[WAFA, official PA news agency, Sept. 17, 2023]

As PMW has reported, in contrast to their statements to the international community, the PA and Fatah promote confrontations and terror attacks against Israel. In fact, they encourage Palestinians – and educate children - to seek “Martyrdom-death” for Allah and “Palestine.” This was underlined by another Fatah spokesman who stressed that the Palestinians are prepared to “sacrificing the best of its sons”:
 

“The Palestinian people will continue the path of revolution and will not avoid sacrificing the best of its sons for freedom and independence.”

[Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page,
Sept. 19, 2023]

The following are longer excerpts of the statements cited above:

Headline: “Al-Habbash warns against the occupation’s intentions to impose a new reality on the Al-Aqsa Mosque”

“[PLO] Supreme Shari’ah Judge of Palestine and [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas’] Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash warned against the Israeli occupation authorities’ intentions to impose a new reality that will violate the historical and legal status of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque by exploiting ‘the Jewish holidays’ to increase the invasions…

Al-Habbash called on the members of our people who are able to come to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to strengthen the Ribat there (i.e., religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic), and he also asked the peoples of the Islamic world and its governments to support the resolve of the residents of Jerusalem and to aid them in this battle by all means…

Al-Habbash emphasized that our people is determined to stand firm and resist the occupation by all means (i.e., Palestinian term that also refers to the use of violence and terror) until it leaves, regardless of the sacrifices.”

[WAFA, official PA news agency, Sept. 17, 2023]

Mahmoud Al-Habbash also serves as Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari'ah Justice.

The PA and its leaders misrepresent all of the Temple Mount as an integral part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Therefore, they vilify any presence of Jews on the mount as an "invasion." It should be noted that Jews who visit the Temple Mount only enter some sections of the open areas, and do not enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque or the Dome of the Rock. Israeli police ban Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount because of threats of violence by Palestinians.

The terms "all means,” “all means of resistance,” “all forms,” are ‎used by PA leaders to include using all types of violence, including deadly terror ‎against Israeli civilians such as car rammings, stabbings, and shootings, as well as throwing rocks and Molotov Cocktails.

Posted text: “Fatah Movement Spokesman Mundhir Al-Hayek:

Fatah eulogizes the Martyrs of Jenin who died as Martyrs due to the terror of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s government (refers to terrorists killed in violent confrontations during a counter-terror operation -Ed.).

The Palestinian people will continue the path of revolution and will not avoid sacrificing the best of its sons for freedom and independence.

We are saddened by the international policy of silence facing the [Zionist] entity state’s terror against the Palestinian people.”

[Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page, Sept. 19, 2023]

Mahmoud Al-Sa’adi, Mahmoud Ar’arawi, Rafat Khamaiseh, and Ata Musa