Did Fatah call for assassination of Israeli minister?
Did Fatah call for assassination
of Israeli minister?
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
Fatah’s military wing in Gaza, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, publicized a call “to respond in kind” to what they called the “assassination of [PA] Minister Ziad Abu Ein.” Calling to “respond in kind” to what Fatah calls an “assassination” of a Palestinian minister could be interpreted as a call to assassinate an Israeli minister.
Abu Ein collapsed and died of a heart attack during a demonstration against Israel last week. The Israeli coroner reported he died of a “stress-induced heart attack” while the Palestinian coroner said the heart attack “was caused by injury” a few minutes after a heated exchange with an Israeli soldier, in which the soldier had grabbed his neck.
Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the Palestinian Authority political establishment has decided to call his death “murder.”
Fatah’s military wing in Gaza released this statement yesterday calling to “respondin kind”:
Headline: "The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in Gaza call on activists in the West Bank to respond to Abu Ein’s death as a Martyr (Shahid)"
“Fatah’s military wing, the Al-Aqsa [Martyrs’] Brigades, called on its members in the West Bank to respond to the assassination of Minister Ziad Abu Ein.
In a statement, it said: ‘We call on the Al-Aqsa Brigades in the West Bank to respondin kind to the cowardly assassination crime,’ noting that Palestine would be liberated through the barrel of the rifle.
In addition, it demanded the cessation of all security cooperation with this treacherous enemy, and called on the masses of the Palestinian people to expand the Intifada and the resistance to the occupation.”
[Ma'an (independent Palestinian news agency) Dec. 10, 2014]
These kinds of threats must be taken seriously. When Israel killed terrorist leader Abu Ali Mustifa, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during the PA terror campaign in August of 2001, there were immediate calls for revenge. Abu Ali Talal, an executive committee member of the PFLP, said: "Our response will be harsh," and activists in the PFLPs military wing "swore to commit surprising and painful revenge attacks against the Zionists." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 29, 2001]. Two months later, Israeli Minister Rehavam Zeevi was murdered by the PFLP as he walked to a hotel room in Jerusalem. Ahmad Sa’adat, the leader of the PFLP who replaced Ali Mustafa and planned the killing, admitted it was a revenge murder:
“The assassination of Zeevi is in response to the killing by Israel of the Director General of the PFLP, Abu Ali Mustifa.”
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 31, 2001]