Fatah official: “International legitimacy allows us to resist with all means”
Official PA TV Live broadcast a program under the heading, “What will happen after the negotiations?”
Deputy Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee Jibril Rajoub: “Had Fatah not taken decision-making and the Palestinian national will into its own hands using bullets, it would not have been possible for our cause to change from a refugee cause into a statehood cause. I’m not saying that on April 30 [2014] (i.e., when the negotiations with Israel are scheduled to end), we should pick up rifles and take to the streets, but neither do I rule this out – provided that the struggle be a means, and not an end. Therefore, the most important thing for us to do is… start an internal national dialogue to define our national agenda and our national strategy. In addition to the fact that the Palestinian cause, or Palestine as a state, is now on the international agenda, we have achieved something great and important over [the past] 50 years: We have attained moral supremacy over this criminal, fascist, Nazi occupation…
International legitimacy allows us to resist with all the means, including armed struggle – provided that it take place on the occupied lands, against the symbols of the occupation and the occupation, in order to bring about the end of the occupation. But this has to be a practical, realistic choice capable of harming the occupation. At the same time, I’m telling you, there will be those among us who will go out and start heating [things] up right now. Therefore, we must mold the Palestinian national consciousness in order to define the red lines. It is forbidden for anyone to define the Palestinian national agenda.” …
Rajoub: “According to you, would blowing up a bus in Tel Aviv, for example, serve [our interests]?”
Man from the audience: “No.”
Rajoub: “Then we must stand and say openly: ‘No.’ Not because we love them – no, no, no; but because we love ourselves; because we protect ourselves… We are the victims, not them. They are the hangmen… This image has to end… This image of them being the victims and us being the hangmen has to end. OK? I’m telling you, this is our strategy.”
Deputy Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee Jibril Rajoub: “Had Fatah not taken decision-making and the Palestinian national will into its own hands using bullets, it would not have been possible for our cause to change from a refugee cause into a statehood cause. I’m not saying that on April 30 [2014] (i.e., when the negotiations with Israel are scheduled to end), we should pick up rifles and take to the streets, but neither do I rule this out – provided that the struggle be a means, and not an end. Therefore, the most important thing for us to do is… start an internal national dialogue to define our national agenda and our national strategy. In addition to the fact that the Palestinian cause, or Palestine as a state, is now on the international agenda, we have achieved something great and important over [the past] 50 years: We have attained moral supremacy over this criminal, fascist, Nazi occupation…
International legitimacy allows us to resist with all the means, including armed struggle – provided that it take place on the occupied lands, against the symbols of the occupation and the occupation, in order to bring about the end of the occupation. But this has to be a practical, realistic choice capable of harming the occupation. At the same time, I’m telling you, there will be those among us who will go out and start heating [things] up right now. Therefore, we must mold the Palestinian national consciousness in order to define the red lines. It is forbidden for anyone to define the Palestinian national agenda.” …
Rajoub: “According to you, would blowing up a bus in Tel Aviv, for example, serve [our interests]?”
Man from the audience: “No.”
Rajoub: “Then we must stand and say openly: ‘No.’ Not because we love them – no, no, no; but because we love ourselves; because we protect ourselves… We are the victims, not them. They are the hangmen… This image has to end… This image of them being the victims and us being the hangmen has to end. OK? I’m telling you, this is our strategy.”