Less than a month before Hamas launched its terror war on Israel with the vicious attack and murders on Oct. 7, Palestinian Media Watch exposed the following statement by PA Chairman Abbas’ advisor Al-Habbash:
“We do not have military capabilities equivalent to the occupation, and if we confront it, we will all die.”
[Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash,
Al-Masry Al-Youm, independent Egyptian news website, Sept. 12, 2023]
In other words, were the PA able to attack Israel, it would do so. The only deterrent was the lack of “military capabilities.”
Obviously, Hamas did not have these concerns when it planned and set its murderous attack in motion on Oct. 7. Since then, Al-Habbash, who is arguably the most important religious figure in the PA serving as Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations, and as Supreme Shari’ah Judge, has been busy giving interviews in support of Hamas and the war.
In one statement after another, Al-Habbash has said that the PA shares Hamas’ goal of Israel’s destruction, looking to a future when “more than seven decades” of occupation, i.e., Israel “comes to an end.” He made the following statements six weeks into Hamas’ terror war on Israel, explaining that Israel’s counter-terror response is an expression of Israel’s alleged plan to “empty the Gaza Strip and afterward to empty the West Bank” of Palestinians:
Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “Without ending the occupation (i.e., Israel) we will continue to go from one cycle of violence to another. It is the problem. If there is occupation, there is resistance (i.e., violence and terror). The resistance is the result, and the occupation is the cause.”
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Nov. 10, 2023]
Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “The dream of the Zionist idea and the Zionist movement is to empty the Gaza Strip and afterwards to empty the West Bank to turn Palestine into a land without a people that will be settled by the foreign Israelis… Palestine belongs to its residents and its people, who have been living in it for more than 6,000 years (sic., the Palestinians have no history prior to the modern period)… We are in a long and bitter struggle of decades against this occupation (i.e., Israel), and we will continue this struggle. The Palestinian struggle, with all its forms, will not stop until we achieve what we want. What we want is the end of the occupation.”
Posted text: “[Abbas’ Advisor ] Al-Habbash to Al-Mashhad TV: The Palestinian struggle in all its forms (i.e., Palestinian term that also refers to violence and terror) won’t stop until the end of the occupation (i.e., Israel) and the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Nov. 14, 2023]
Al-Habbash has libeled Israel as carrying out this “satanic plan” together with the US, asserting the entire Arab world is their goal.
Moreover, Al-Habbash has stressed that Palestinian terror – “resistance” – is legal “self-defense”:
Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “The occupation (i.e., Israel) is the reason that makes the Palestinians resist. The resistance is self-defense. It is a legal right. The occupation is the one that contradicts international law.”
[Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Nov. 12, 2023]
During the war, Al-Habbash has defended Hamas’ massacre as “legitimate defense,” referred to it as holy war – “Jihad” – and referred to Abbas as “commander of the Jihad fighters,” while stressing the unity between the PA and Hamas:
Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “We are enacting our legitimate right in resisting these invaders defending ourselves, and defending our holy sites and our people… This occupation is temporary. Regardless of how long it takes, and regardless of how many sacrifices there will be, this occupation will leave sooner or later.”
[Official PA TV, Oct. 8, 2023]
Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “We will not leave Palestine. We will remain there as the olive tree remains… and they (i.e., the Israelis) will leave. They will leave… I bless you with a Palestinian blessing, a blessing of resolve and Ribat (i.e., religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic)… a blessing of those preserving the ember of resolve, who adhere to the land… who are carrying out Jihad for it on the path of Allah, and standing with bare chests, with unshakable faith, and with complete confidence in Almighty Allah… [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the State of Palestine and commander of the Jihad fighters in Palestine, said on behalf of all the Palestinians from the UN [General Assembly] podium: … ‘Whoever thinks that he can achieve peace without the Palestinian people’s rights is deluded’… Palestine is not just a cause of land and borders and a political cause. Palestine is a religious cause and a cause of faith… Would we abandon the legacy of Allah’s Messenger [Muhammad]?”
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Oct. 18, 2023]
Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “Since the start of the [Israeli] aggression (i.e., Israeli counter-attack against Hamas), has anyone heard from us, from the [PA] leadership, from President Mahmoud Abbas to the last of the people in the Palestinian leadership – has anyone heard from us one word against the Hamas Movement or against any Palestinian?”
Interviewer: “No, that’s correct.”
Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “Not under any circumstances. Even though we have many disagreements, my current mission is… to defend my people, to defend my Palestinian people. Hamas is part of the Palestinian people.”[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Nov. 6, 2023]
The PA and Hamas may be political rivals but when it comes to terror they are united. From these and other statements by Abbas’ advisor Al-Habbash and other PA/Fatah officials, Hamas’ massacre of Israelis and their continued terror war against Israel is clearly applauded by the PA. The question is whether the PA would launch a similar attack on Israel if they thought they had the “military capabilities”?
Hamas war on Israel October 2023 – At least 1,200 Israelis, including over 1,000 civilians, were murdered and over 4,800 wounded, in addition to at least 243 (including 74 later released or liberated and 2 found murdered) who were abducted into the Gaza Strip, in a Hamas terror war that began when approximately 3,000 Hamas terrorists broke through Israel’s security fence at the Gaza Strip border and launched a surprise attack, taking control of several Israeli towns and attacking a music festival on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, which fell on the Sabbath, Oct. 7, 2023. During the massacre the terrorists tortured, raped, shot, beheaded, and burned their victims alive, murdering entire families and leaving at least 21 children without parents. Hamas terrorists also fired at least 5,000 rockets at Israeli population centers. In response, Israel launched Operation Iron Swords to counter the Hamas terror threat. Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon joined Hamas’ terror war starting from the following day, attacking Israel from the north. Occasional rocket launches and shootings continued from Lebanon throughout the war. A ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal began on Nov. 24, 2023, in which Israel agreed to release 150 terrorist prisoners, pause drone surveillance in the Gaza Strip, and allow movement between the northern and southern Gaza Strip, in return for 50 Israeli female and child hostages held by Hamas.
{Written by Nan Jacques Zilberdik and reposted from the PMW site}
