Fatah: Abbas presents fighting Israel as religious "war for Allah"
Fatah: Abbas presents fighting Israel as
religious "war for Allah"
Fatah claims to have killed soldier;
calls for increased violence
Fatah student movement:
"Let's turn the land into hell for the enemy"
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
[Facebook, "Fatah - The Main Page," July 23, 2014]
This week, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas ended a speech about the current conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza with a quote from the Quran justifying war. His Fatah party interpreted Abbas' statement to mean that fighting against Israel is justified on religious Islamic grounds:
"[PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas] concluded his brief speech with the first verse of the Quran that permits Muslims to wage war for Allah."
[Facebook, "Fatah - The Main Page", July 22, 2014]
Presenting a conflict as a religious war can have dangerous implications. In September 2000, Yasser Arafat said that then-Israeli MP Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount defiled the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He used this claim as a guise to launch the “Al-Aqsa Intifada” (i.e., second Intifada) terror campaign, which led to the deaths of over 1200 Israelis and tourists and 4000 Palestinians.
In 2012 the PA’s highest PA religious leader, the Mufti Muhammad Hussein, presented the killing of Jews by Muslims as a religious Islamic goal.
Fatah also claims to be currently participating in fighting against Israel and announced that they have killed a soldier near Hebron. In addition, Fatah is calling on its members to engage in violence. Palestinian Media Watchdocumented earlier this week that Fatah glorified nine female terrorists, including eight suicide bombers, who all together killed 75 Israelis.
Now, Fatah Commissioner for Mobilization and Organization and Fatah Central Committee member Mahmoud Al-Aloul stated on his Facebook page that Fatah's military wing has announced "a general draft for their ranks":
"The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (Fatah's military wing) claims responsibility for the attack on a Zionistmilitary vehicle near Gush Etzion, south of Bethlehem. The [Brigades'] cell returned safely to its base. [The Brigades] announce a general draft for their ranks in the occupied West Bank, to respond to the occupation's crimes."
[Official Facebook page of Fatah Central Committee member Mahmoud Al-Aloul,
July 22, 2014]
The following are some of the posts on the official Fatah Facebook "Main Page" yesterday, July 23, 2014:
Text: "The Al-Aqsa [Martyrs'] Brigades (Fatah's military wing) claim responsibility for the killing of an Israeli soldier during clashes in Hebron."
(Note: Israel has not reported any soldiers killed or missing in that area.)
Text: "The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, our military wing - now [we] count on you"
Text: "They were never late to respond to the call - The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah's military wing"
"The old man's [Yasser Arafat's] Shabiba [Fatah youth movement] - set the land on fire!"
2. To the masses of our proud Palestinian people: More national unity [is required], because unity is the condition for victory. Let each one of us fight in his own field, for each of us has a function, and every [form of] resistance has a role in liberation. Boycott, confront, declare revolution! This is our land. We will either live on it in dignity, or be gathered into the bosom of its beloved earth as Martyrs...
Start by yourself, come to the aid of your people [by]
- Destroying settlers' property
- Blocking settlement roads: stones, nails, tinder, tires
- Destroying settlement power, water and telephone lines
- Breaking the occupation's security cameras and attacking military observation posts
- Destroying the [separation] wall and cutting the barbed wire fences
- Israeli products are bullets with which it [Israel] kills your people
- Chase the settlers on your land at places of contact"
Text: "The PLO leadership calls out to the resistance and supports the fighters on the battlefield, which protect not only Gaza, but all of Palestine. It demands increased popularactivity against the criminal Israeli aggression."
[All above posts from Facebook, "Fatah - The Main Page," July 23, 2014]
Note: The Facebook page where these item were posted, called "Fatah - The Main Page," is an official Fatah Facebook page. The page defines itself as belonging to the Fatah Mobilization and Organization Commission, and the commission's official website links to this Facebook page.