Fatah doesn’t recognize Israel and never did! – Fatah spokesman

Fatah children's education:

• Israel is the "thieving entity," "the artificial state," the "Jewish invaders"

• Fatah will destroy Israel by "liberating Palestine from the thieving Zionist entity"

• "The period of Zionism will eventually pass"

• "The Zionist invaders will go to the garbage can of history"

• "Algeria's experience assures that the Jewish settlers in Palestine will disappear in the end"

• "The liberation of Palestine will only be achieved through armed struggle"

One of the most embarrassing condemnations a Palestinian can level at the Palestinian Authority and its main party, Fatah, is that they sincerely recognized Israel and its right to exist when the PLO signed the Oslo Accords in 1993.

Palestinian Media Watch has been documenting for years that the PA openly denies Israel's right to exist and anticipates its destruction, and now, in case there were any doubts, Fatah's spokesman has said it outright.  

After the PA was accused of demanding that anyone running in the upcoming PA elections recognize Israel, Fatah spokesman Jamal Nazzal hurried to deny any such allegation, stressing that even his and Mahmoud Abbas' party, Fatah, "has never recognized Israel."

Nazzal posted a screenshot with a giant red X through the post claiming to quote him demanding recognition of Israel (text on black background). In his own posted text, he stressed that this allegation is "fake news and nonsense":

Posted text: "These are fake news and nonsense. Fatah as a movement has never recognized Israel and respects the commitments of the PLO, but it is not within the authority of movements to recognize states."

Text in image on black background that is Xed out: "Fatah spokesman Jamal Nazzal: 'Anyone participating in the elections must recognize international legitimacy which includes recognition of Israel.'"

[Fatah spokesman Dr. Jamal Nazzal, Facebook page, Sept. 13, 2026]

Nazzal's recent refusal to recognize Israel is not a single nor sudden glimpse of a hidden truth. Over the last few decades, Palestinian Media Watch has exposed thousands of examples of the PA's denial of Israel's right to exist including the following by a different Fatah spokesman, who told Hamas: Don't recognize Israel; Fatah doesn't and never will!

Fatah-run Awdah TV host: "Has the Fatah Movement recognized Israel in its political platform until now?"

Fatah Spokesman Osama Al-Qawasmi: "Certainly not. This is not required, and we will not recognize Israel...  I declare this clearly and in a satellite channel broadcast: 'My friends, Hamas, you should not recognize Israel, you are not required to. The PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, sent a letter of mutual recognition of the State of Israel, on Sept. 12, 1993. You are not required to.'"

[Fatah-run Awdah TV, Aug. 23, 2017]

Fatah's children's education is even more explicit so that Palestinian children never should have any doubt that Israel has no right to exist and that it will be destroyed. Fatah's Waed Magazine teaches that Israelis are foreign colonialist invaders with no right to exist. Israel is coined the "thieving entity," "the artificial state," and Israelis are demonized as the "Jewish invaders." Fatah proclaims it will destroy Israel by "liberating Palestine from the thieving Zionist entity." Israel's destruction is packaged in various euphemisms such as "the period of Zionism will eventually pass" and "the Zionist invaders will go to the garbage can of history."Fatah assures that after Israel's destruction, all the Jews will then be expelled. Fatah presents Algeria as the historical precedent: "Algeria's experience assures that the Jewish settlers in Palestine will disappear in the end." Finally, how will this happen? Fatah teaches terror: The Palestinian "absolute right" to destroy Israel creates the "right" to use terror, coined the "right to wage an armed struggle to take back its stolen homeland." Moreover, "theliberation of Palestine will only be achieved through armed struggle."

See PMW's full report on Fatah children's education.