Fatah Condemns Hamas Decrease In Terror Attacks On Israel
The Palestinian Authority (PA) presided over by Fatah co-founder Mahmoud Abbas, frequently described as moderate peace-seekers, recently broadcast on PA-controlled TV an event in which Fatah bragged of committing more terrorist acts against Israelis than Hamas. The broadcast included a mock debate between Fatah and Hamas partisans in which the savage October 2000 murder and mutilation of two Israeli reservists by a frenzied mob of Palestinians was celebrated and lauded as an example of national pride and duty. (The two Israelis – Vadim Nurzhitz and Yossi Avrahami – had unintentionally entered PA-controlled Ramallah and were arrested by PA police before a murderous mob seized them, brutally murdered them, threw them from the second floor police station window to a savage throng below that proceeded to tear their bodies apart and mutilate them beyond recognition. While the picture of a Palestinian celebrating the killing by waving his bloody hands to the mob horrified the world, the murder remains a source of pride for Fatah).
The broadcast event was attended by senior PA/Fatah leaders, including Muhammad Dahlan, former head of PA security; Kadura Faras, head of the PA Prisoners’ Association; Nasser Al-Qidwa, former PA Minister of Foreign Affairs; and Samir Al-Mashharawi, a senior Fatah official. It includes a segment in which Fatah mocks and criticizes Hamas for a decrease in its terrorist attacks upon Israel, glorifies Fatah’s own campaign of terrorist murder, and ends with Fatah boasting that they “arrested two soldiers in Ramallah,” a reference to the lynching. (Dahlan recently said explicitly in an interview that Fatah has never accepted Israel’s existence and demanded that Hamas never do so).
In the debate scene between Fatah and Hamas, the competition between Fatah and Hamas supporters is based not on who has built more Palestinian infrastructures, nor on who has promoted peace, but rather on who can take credit for more terror. The broadcast transcript reads:
Fatah student taunts Hamas: “Since Hamas seized power, we haven’t heard of any Martyrdom operation [suicide-bombing].”
Hamas teacher: “It’s called ‘fighter’s rest’.”
Fatah student: “A Hamas fighter needs rest, but a Fatah fighter doesn’t need rest?!”
Hamas teacher: “Every fighter has the right to rest.”
Fatah student: “Why is it that when Fatah stops fighting, you [Hamas] say they’re cowards, but when Hamas stops fighting, you say it’s ‘fighters’ rest’?”
Hamas teacher: “I don’t know much about resistance [terror] and fighters…”
Fatah student: “The first shot was fired by the PLO; the first Jihad was carried out by the PLO [audience applauds], with all the other factions – but Hamas always opposed.
Hamas student: “What do you say about Hamas having kidnapped the [Israeli] soldier Shalit [still held hostage – Ed.]?”
Hamas teacher: “Ahaaa!”
Student: “By Allah, it’s good.”
Hamas student: “Did Fatah ever capture a soldier?!”
Fatah student: “It was the [other] brigades who captured him [Shalit] and sold him to you [Hamas]. It’s a deal that you [Hamas] made for your own benefit, not for the [Palestinian] people’s benefit. [Applause]
Fatah student: Remember, in Ramallah the [PA-Fatah] police arrested two soldiers – have you forgotten, teacher?!” [PA-TV June 17, 2009]
(A report based on Palestinian Media Watch bulletin can be found in Maayana Miskin, ‘Abbas’s Fatah Brags About Anti-Israel Terror,’ Israel National News, June 26, 2009).
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “This PA-TV broadcast provides a perfect example of the culture of terrorism and glorification of murder that permeates Mahmoud Abbas’ PA. Instead of a genuine debate on which movement, Fatah or Hamas, have educated their peoples for peace, built vital infrastructures or worked for prosperity, we see rather that the central preoccupation of the two largest Palestinian movements is which can claim to have murdered more Jews. Any decline in the murder of Jews by either party is one that has to be explained away and excused.
“Can there be any greater lack of realism or commonsense in the notion that the PA and Fatah represent genuine peace partners for Israel to whom Israel should make concessions and to whom the U.S. and the world should give financial and other aid?
“The ZOA has been drawing attention for years to the duplicity and unreconstructed extremism of Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah. In particular, we have highlighted innumerable times Abbas’ own 2006 admission (repeated since) that Fatah has not in reality accepted Israel and that the PA only formally does so for the purpose of receiving international aid and Israeli concessions. We have also stressed the fact that the Fatah Constitution remains unaltered and therefore still calls for the destruction of Israel (Article 12) and the use of terrorism as an indispensable element in the strategy to achieve this goal (Article 19). It is also noteworthy that before, during and since the 2007 Annapolis conference, Abbas and other senior PA officials explicitly repudiated accepting Israel as a Jewish state.
“This broadcast is an important additional piece of data exposing what should be the obvious fact that Fatah does not accept Israel’s legitimacy as a Jewish state and that it does not mean to conclude a serious and durable peace agreement with Israel. All the diplomatic flurry for a peace settlement negotiated with Abbas’ PA is simply an illusion built on sand.
“The immediate practical ramification of this should also be obvious: Any of the U.S. $900 million aid for the Palestinians, as well as negotiations with the PA, should be conditioned on Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah explicitly and clearly stating their acceptance of Israel as a Jewish state, rescinding the Fatah Constitution, dismantling the terrorist groups and arresting their members, and reforming the PA broadcasting, textbooks curricula, mosques and media so as to eliminate the incitement to hatred and murder within the PA that feeds continued extremism and terrorism.”