Fatah Constitution calls for Israel’s destruction
A cartoon published in the Palestinian Authority (PA) newspaper, Al Hayat al-Jadida, controlled by PA president Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah, shows a Muslim kneeling at prayer while looking towards an American Stealth bomber, praying as follows: “Allah, scatter them! And turn their wives into widows! And turn their children into orphans! And give us victory over them!” (Al Hayat Al-Jadida, October 9, 2007 translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch , October 9, 2007).
This cartoon in the official PA daily newspaper is only the latest example of anti-American incitement to hatred and violence contained in official PA publications.
Some previous examples of anti-American incitement in PA-controlled media:
The Acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Dr. Ahmad Bahar, broadcast on PA TV: “Be certain that America is on its way to disappear, America is wallowing [in blood] today in Iraq and Afghanistan, America is defeated and Israel is defeated, and was defeated in Lebanon and Palestine… Make us victorious over the infidel people… Allah, take hold of the Jews and their allies, Allah, take hold of the Americans and their allies… Allah, count them and kill them to the last one and don’t leave even one” (PA TV, April 20, translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch, April 30, 2007).
Sermon by Dr. Ismail Radwan, broadcast on PA TV : “O Allah, strengthen Islam and Muslims, and bring victory to your Jihad-fighting worshipers, in Palestine and everywhere… Allah take the oppressor Jews and Americans and their supporters!” (PA TV, March 7, 2007, translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch , April 30, 2007).
Cartoons in Al Hayat Al Jadida: Celebrated the losses of American servicemen and women in Iraq in a cartoon showing the stripes of the American flag replaced by skulls, with Uncle Sam looking on and weeping. The caption for the cartoon read, “More than 100 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq this past month!” (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, October 30, 2006, translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch, November 2, 2006).
Hafez Barghouti, editor, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida: “The extremism in Arab societies is an outcome of American policy … Washington has its own agenda, distinct domineering and imperialistic aspirations. The service of democracy is not among them …” (March 8, 2006, quoted in Jerusalem Newswire, March 10, 2006).
Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris, broadcasting from the Ijlin Mosque in Gaza on PA TV: Official PA Television on April 18, 2003, broadcast a sermon by Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris, from the Ijlin Mosque in Gaza, in which he said that “America organizes the systematic destruction of Iraq. America organizes the looting, plundering, and destruction operations.” He concluded with a prayer for Allah to give victory to the Iraqis and the Palestinian Arabs “against the Jews, Britain, and the United States, and their allies” (PA TV, April 18, 2003).
Sheikh Yusuf Abu-Sneinah, in the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, broadcast on PA Radio: “Tomorrow, Iraq will witness a civil war encouraged by imperialist circles, because the United States wants to mutilate Iraq, wipe it off the map, plunder its resources, and achieve security for Israel” (PA Radio, April 18, 2003).
In addition to Fatah promoting anti-American hatred, the Fatah Constitution to this day calls for the “demolition” of Israel (Article 12); the use of terrorism as an indispensable part in the strategy to obtain that goal (Article 19); condemns Zionism as racist (Article 7); calls on countries to prevent Jews from moving to Israel (Article 25); and opposes any political solution whatsoever (Article 22). Since September 2000, Fatah has been responsible for as many murders of Israelis as Hamas: the terror groups having murdered nearly 500 Israelis each since that date in scores of suicide bombings, hundreds of roadside bombs, and thousands of shootings.
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “The record is clear — the PA and its official organs, all of which remain under the control of the allegedly moderate, peace-seeking Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah terror organization that he co-founded with Yasser Arafat, broadcast blatant hatred of America and incitement to murder Americans. As the examples we provide show, this has been happening repeatedly for years.
“It is truly astonishing that the Bush Administration thinks it owes Mahmoud Abbas and the PA any sort of political support and over $1 billion in US taxpayer-funded aid that it has lavished on this undeserving, extremist, terrorist-sponsoring and violence-advocating regime. Rather than pursuing the futile and counter-productive path of praising and funding a terror regime, the Bush Administration should be making it clear that it will neither deal with nor fund the PA until and unless it finally fulfills its 14-year-old signed commitments under the Oslo agreements and the 2003 Roadmap peace plan to jail terrorists, confiscate their weaponry, and end the incitement to hatred and murder in the PA-controlled media, mosques, schools, and youth camps that feed terror.”
The Zionist Organization of America, founded in 1897, is the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States. The ZOA works to strengthen U.S.-Israel relations, educates the American public and Congress about the dangers that Israel faces, and combats anti-Israel bias in the media and on college campuses. Its past presidents have included Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and Rabbi Dr. Abba Hillel Silver.