Senior Fatah leader, Nabil Shaath – considered a “moderate” – speaking on behalf of Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah, which controls the Palestinian Authority (PA) last week said that Hamas, the genocide-seeking terrorist group that has controlled Gaza since violently seizing the territory in 2007, need not recognize Israel, nor stop murdering Jews in Israel, nor meet any other demands laid down by the Quartet (the U.S., European Union, Russia and the United Nations).

Hamas calls in its Charter to the destruction of Israel (Article 15) and the murder of Jews (Article 7) and has murdered over 600 Israelis in nearly a decade of suicide bombing, roadside bomb, sniping and rocket attacks. Yet the Quartet has demanded only the meager conditions that in order to be accepted as a legitimate party to negotiations, Hamas must recognize Israel, renounce the use of terrorism and accepting the existing Oslo agreements signed by the PA. Already in 2007, the ZOA argued that these conditions, even in the unlikely event that they were accepted by Hamas, are inadequate, as real change in Hamas could only be said to have occurred once it explicitly renounces its Charter, disarms terrorists, ends incitement to hatred and murder against Israel and ceases all violence for at least a year.

Asked in the Jordanian publication, Al-Dustour, to comment on claims by Hamas that the PA was demanding that the Islamist movement recognize Israel’s right to exist as a condition for achieving reconciliation between the two parties, Shaath said, “This is completely untrue. We have never asked Hamas to recognize Israel’s right to exist. Nor have we demanded that they accept the conditions of the Quartet … We want the proposed unity government to be committed to the PLO’s political program, as was the case with the unity government under Ismail Haniyeh … The peace negotiations will be conducted by the PLO. That’s all we’re demanding.” Shaath said that he has been urging European governments to drop their demand that Hamas accept the Quartet’s three conditions, saying, “All the Arab and Islamic states that don’t recognize Israel have agreed to the Arab Peace Initiative … Acceptance of the initiative and a cease-fire [with Israel] is therefore sufficient” (Khaled Abu Toameh, ‘Fatah: No need to end violence,’ Jerusalem Post, June 17, 2010).

In recent days, Shaath has also emphasized that terrorism against Israel is perfectly legitimate:

·        “MP Dr. Nabil Shaath, member Fatah Central Committee and Commissioner of Foreign Relations… emphasized that the Fatah’s stated strategy for the struggle is to adopt the growing popular and ‘non-violent’ struggle against Israel, because of the inability to engage in the armed struggle, which has become undesirable now, although it is the right of the Palestinian people, which all international treaties and resolutions have guaranteed” (PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 20, 2010).

·        “The current distancing from the armed struggle does not mean its absolute rejection… He noted that the difficulty of the conflict required the Palestinian people to diversify its activities of struggle – along with an emphasis on the importance of the armed struggle, which laid the basis for the existence of the state and contributed to maintaining the right and presenting it to the world – especially since the armed struggle at the present time is not possible, or is not effective, because of to the difficulties with which the Palestinian people contends” (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 21, 2010, translation courtesy of Itamar Marcus & Nan Jacques Zilberdik, ‘Abbas not truthful to Obama; denies PA incitement,’ Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin, June 10, 2010).

Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah also does not recognize Israel as a Jewish state, supports terrorism, incites the Palestinian population against Israel and Shaath’s latest statements mirror others by Abbas and other senior Fatah officials:

·        Mahmoud Abbas, PA president and Fatah chairman: “I say this clearly: I do not accept the Jewish State, call it what you will.” (Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, ‘Mahmoud Abbas: “I do not accept the Jewish State, call it what you will,” Palestinian Media Watch, April 28, 2009).

·        Abbas: “The Palestinians do not accept the formula that the state of Israel is a Jewish state.” (David Bedein, ‘Olmert reports to Israel Cabinet Meeting,’ Bulletin [Philadelphia], December 3, 2007).

·        Abbas: “It is not required of Hamas, or of Fatah, or of the Popular Front to recognize Israel” (Al-Arabiya [Dubai] and PA TV, October 3, 2006, Itamar Marcus & Barbara Crook, ‘Abbas dupes US: “Recognition” is functional, not inherent,’ Palestinian Media Watch, October 5, 2006).

·        Abbas: “[W]ith the will and determination of its sons, Fatah has and will continue. We will not give up our principles and we have said that rifles should be directed against the occupation…. We have a legitimate right to direct our guns against Israeli occupation” (Khaled Abu Toameh, ‘Abbas: Aim guns against occupation,’ Jerusalem Post, January 11, 2007).

·        Kifah Radaydeh, senior Fatah official:  “Fatah is facing a challenge, because [Fatah] says that we perceive peace as one of the strategies, but we say that all forms of the struggle exist, and we do not rule out the possibility of the armed struggle or any other struggle. The struggle exists in all its forms, on the basis of what we are capable of at a given time, and according to what seems right”  [PA TV July 7, 2009, translation courtesy of Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, ‘Fatah official: ‘Our goal has never been peace. Peace is a means; the goal is Palestine,’ Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin, July 12, 2009). 

·        Rafik al-Natsheh, senior Fatah official: “We will maintain the resistance [i.e. terrorism] option in all its forms and we will not recognize Israel …Not only don’t we demand that anyone recognize Israel; we don’t recognize Israel ourselves. However, the Palestinian Authority government is required to do it, or else it will not be able to serve the Palestinian people. I am certain that we will hinder all the traitors who wish to remove the resistance option from the movement’s charter” (Ali Waked, ‘Senior Fatah official: We won’t recognize Israel. Fatah official: Movement to display commitment to armed struggle in upcoming convention,’ Yediot Ahronot, July 22, 2009).

·        Muhammad Dahlan, former commander of Fatah forces in Gaza: “We do not demand that the Hamas movement recognize Israel. On the contrary, we demand of the Hamas movement not to recognize Israel, because the Fatah movement does not recognize Israel, even today” (Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, ‘Western funders misled: Fatah still refuses to recognize Israel, PA’s “recognition” only to receive international aid,’ Palestinian Media Watch, March 17, 2009).

·        Abu Ahmed, Fatah commander: ‘“The base of our Fatah movement keeps dreaming of Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa and Acco. …There is no change in our official position. Fatah as a movement never recognized Israel” (David Bedein, ‘The American Sanitizing of a Terrorist Group,’ Israel National News, October 5, 2006).

·        PLO foreign minister Farouk Kaddoumi: “The Palestinian national charter has not been amended until now … It was said that some articles are no longer effective, but they were not changed. I’m one of those who didn’t agree to any changes” (Khaled Abu Toameh, ‘Kaddoumi: PLO charter was never changed,’ Jerusalem Post, April 22, 2004).

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “Nabil Shaath’s latest statements underscore the fraudulence of Fatah’s claims in the West to being moderates and peace-seekers. It perfectly clear that Fatah itself does not accept Israel as a Jewish state, has not renounced terrorism or accepted the idea of a peaceful Palestinian state alongside Israel. Unsurprisingly, it does not expect Hamas to act differently. However now it is demanding explicitly of the Quartet that Hamas be accepted as it is without even its acceptance of the weak requirements of the Quartet.

“The Obama Administration should act on this irrefutable evidence of Fatah’s fraudulent peace pretensions by immediately condemning Abbas’ Fatah-controlled PA and cutting off U.S. aid to it until and unless Fatah renounces its own Constitution calling for Israel’s destruction and the use of terrorism as an indispensable element in the campaign to achieve that goal; arrest and jail terrorists; and end incitement to hatred and murder against Israel in its mosques, media, schools and youth camps.”