PA and Fatah called for “escalating the popular resistance,”

PA and Fatah called for “escalating the popular resistance,”

• Fatah in Nablus: “Escalate the resistance on the seam lines with the occupation and with the settlements… Let us set the ground on fire under the occupation’s feet”

Yesterday, the PA continued to compete with Hamas by encouraging more terror in “defense” of Jerusalem. One PA official urged Palestinians to expand the violent riots that have been raging in the name of Jerusalem for days. The official PA daily published the call of Qalqilya District Governor Rafe’ Rawajbeh after Hamas and Islamic Jihad launched hundreds of rockets from the Gaza Strip against Israeli population areas, and after rioting Israeli Arabs caused severe damage all across Israel:

“Qalqilya District Governor Rafe’ Rawajbeh emphasized the religious and historical status of Jerusalem and emphasized that we must escalate the popular resistance (i.e., term used by Palestinians, which also refers to the use of violence and terror) in order to deter the occupation from carrying out its plans to Judaize the city.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 11, 2021]

Fatah’s Nablus branch called to “set the ground on fire under the occupation’s feet” and “escalate the resistance on the seam lines with the occupation and with the settlements”:

Posted text: “The national action factions in the Nablus district call on you to escalate the resistance on the seam lines with the occupation and with the settlements. We call on the masses of Nablus to come to the Hawara military checkpoint tonight [May 10, 2021] at precisely 9:30 p.m. so that the occupation will be made to hear the voice of the resistance, in order to defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and in order to support its rebelling young people. The gathering will be in front of the Kia [car] company.
Let us set the ground on fire under the occupation’s feet.”

[Facebook page of the Fatah Movement – Nablus Branch, May 10, 2021]

While the PA and Fatah have not published any praise for Hamas’ launching missile attacks from Gaza, a Fatah official glorified the Palestinians in Gaza who are willing to die for Jerusalem:

Posted text: “Gaza is giving its sons over to eternal Paradise to be Martyrs for the sake of Jerusalem, Allah willing. The bride price [for Jerusalem] is worthy of sacrifice.
Allah’s mercy on the pure-hearted Martyrs”

[Facebook page of Fatah Central Committee member Rawhi Fattouh, May 11, 2021]

As PMW has been reporting, the current terror led by Abbas’ Fatah in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and by Hamas from Gaza, is actually a competition for popularity based on who fights more in defense of Jerusalem against Israel’s alleged “desecration.” This is why Fatah is willing to praise the Gazan “Martyrs” but not the missiles.

Rawhi Fattouh also serves as Fatah Commissioner of International Relations.

Palestinian Media Watch has documented the support for the riots from the PA top, including PA Chairman Abbas and his Fatah Movement who is now in a competition with Hamas over who is fighting Israel more.

The following are longer excerpts of the statements cited above:

Text posted on the Facebook page of the Fatah Movement – Nablus Branch

Posted text: “As a sign of support for the residents of Jerusalem who are rebelling and for the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and as a sign of resistance to the [Israeli] break-ins into it and its desecration by the extremist settlers, the national action factions in the Nablus district call on you to escalate the resistance on the seam lines with the occupation and with the settlements. We call on the masses of Nablus to come to the Hawara military checkpoint tonight [May 10, 2021] at precisely 9:30 p.m. so that the occupation will be made to hear the voice of the resistance, in order to defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and in order to support its rebelling young people. The gathering will be in front of the Kia [car] company.
Let us set the ground on fire under the occupation’s feet.”

[Facebook page of the Fatah Movement – Nablus Branch, May 10, 2021]

The PA and its leaders misrepresent all of the Temple Mount as an integral part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Therefore, they vilify any presence of Jews on the mount as an “break-in.” It should be noted that Jews who visit the Temple Mount only enter some sections of the open areas, and do not enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque or the Dome of the Rock. Israeli police ban Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount because of threats of violence by Palestinians.

Headline: “A picture is worth a thousand words”
“The pictures of glory and pride are continuing to arrive one after the other from Jerusalem, from the Al-Aqsa Mosque plazas, from the Sheikh Jarrah [neighborhood of Jerusalem], from the Damascus Gate [of Jerusalem’s Old City], and from all the arenas of confrontation with the occupation soldiers and the settler herds. Men, women, elderly, young people, and children are walking like lions with their heads held high, with defiant smiles, among cowards armed from head to foot…
The picture from Friday [May 7, 2021], in which tens of thousands of Palestinians are seen clearing the road to Jerusalem from all the Palestinian cities and villages between the [Mediterranean] Sea and the [Jordan] River is incredible, and heralds the unity of the people, its sensibilities, its fate, and its willingness to sacrifice that which is most precious to it in order to defeat the Zionist forces of evil. When the checkpoints of aggression stopped their buses they did not turn back, but rather got off of them and continued on their way by foot (r efers to Israeli Arabs blocking the main highway to Jerusalem after Israeli police prevented them from traveling to the Temple Mount following Arab rioting there -Ed.)…
Throats broke into calls for the sake of Palestine’s Arabness – a scene of victory on the ground – and the points of confrontation with the occupier ignited, which set the occupation army into a state of preparedness, and the settler herds into a state of fear from which they cannot get free, and the occupation forces also are not giving them a feeling of security. This is not a life of calm, and it will not be, regardless of how great their number may be, and regardless of how large the armies that protect them may be – simply because they are on stolen land whose owners are defending it and sacrificing their lives to take it back.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 10, 2021]

Video posted on the Facebook page of PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh

PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh: “Jerusalem is restoring the shine to the [Palestinian] cause today (refers to violent Arab riots -Ed.), and through its mosque minarets and church bells it is sounding the call to the prayer of its exaltedness, its stamina, and its glory against those who are vainly attempting to erase its identity, change its landmarks, and falsify its Arab, Islamic, and Christian history. On your behalf I bless our people in Arab Jerusalem who have restored the cause to the global agenda in order to aid the holy city and Palestine. We strengthen the hands of those carrying out Ribat (i.e., religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic) within [Jerusalem’s] walls – young, old, children, and women – who are defending it with their eyelashes , their bleeding wounds, and the pain of their suffering…
The [Jewish] calls to murder in Jerusalem express the spirit of crime and hatred in the partisan education in Israel, in the education in the schools, and in their curricula.”

[Facebook page of PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh, May 10, 2021]