The Zionist Organization of America has pointed to several stunning examples of the continuing hate propaganda, denial of Jewish history and incitement to hatred and violence suffusing Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority (PA) during the last two weeks. In this two-week period:

• The PA Minister of Social Affairs, Majida Al-Masri, called for Palestinian unity and reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas in order “to turn to the struggle for the liberation of Palestine – all of Palestine.” According to the official PA- daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Al-Masri said, “We demand of everyone to push ahead with reconciliation [between Fatah and Hamas] and to end the state of division, so that we will be able to stand against the occupation, to halt its activities against our prisoners, and to turn to the struggle for the liberation of Palestine – all of Palestine.” (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 9, 2012, translation in ‘PA minister: Palestinian unity needed to destroy Israel,’ Palestinian Media Watch bulletin, April 10, 2012)

• The PA closed down last weekend the office of the Palestinian Human Rights Foundation after it criticized Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmed, a close associate of Fatah/PA president Mahmoud Abbas. PA Interior Minister Said Abu Ali, who signed the closure order, said that the work of the Palestinian Human Rights Foundation monitor was “not consistent” with the interests of the Palestinians. The decision to shut down the foundation was taken following a recommendation by PA Foreign Minister Riad Malki. Malki recommended that the offices of the human rights group in the West Bank be shut down “due to differences between its representatives in Lebanon and the Palestinian embassy in Beirut.” Abdel Aziz Tarekji, the regional director of the human rights group, said that he did not receive a warning from the PA authorities before the closure (Khaled Abu Toameh, ‘PA closes West Bank human rights group office,’ Jerusalem Post, April 15, 2012).

• A Palestinian university lecturer, Dr. Omar Ja’ara, a lecturer at Al-Najah University in Nablus taught during an appearance on PA TV’s religion program that “We must make clear to the world that David in the Hebrew Bible is not connected to David in the Quran, Solomon in the Hebrew Bible is not connected to Solomon in the Quran, and neither is Saul or Joshua son of Nun [of the Bible]. We have a great leader, Saul, [in the Quran] who defeated the nation of giants and killed Goliath. This is a great Muslim victory. The Muslims of the Children of Israel went out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses, and unfortunately, many researchers deny the Exodus of those oppressed people who were liberated by a great leader, like Moses the Muslim, the believing leader, the great Muslim, who was succeeded by Saul, the leader of these Muslims in liberating Palestine. This was the first Palestinian liberation through armed struggle to liberate Palestine from the nation of giants led by Goliath. This is our logic and this is our culture” (PA TV (Fatah), Feb. 15, 2012, Translation in ‘Moses was a Muslim who led Muslims in Exodus from Egypt, says PA university lecturer on PA TV,’ Palestinian Media Watch bulletin, April 2, 2012).