Fatah disrupts meetings between Israelis and Palestinians
Hatem Abdel Kader, a senior Fatah official, made a statement over the weekend that Fatah declares war on all informal meetings between Israelis and Palestinians, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The statement comes in the wake of recent conferences planned by the Israeli Palestinian Confederation in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, where the participants intended to vote for a new joint parliament that would be suggested as a “third government” for the two peoples. However, both events were canceled due to angry Palestinian protests denouncing the events. The protesters explained that they support the strategy of the Palestinian Authority of banning any kind of normal relations with Israel, Hudson New York said.
“We will try to thwart any Palestinian Israeli meeting, even if it’s held in Tel Aviv or west Jerusalem,” said Abdel Kader, a former PA minister for Jerusalem affairs.
Al Quds University President Sari Nusseibeh chose not to attend the Jerusalem conference out of fears for his safety and Palestinian protesters stormed the conference hall, frightening Israeli representatives. A similar cancellation of another demonstration in the town of Bet Jalla near Bethlehem also occurred.
According to Kader, “these meetings don’t produce anything [for the Palestinians] and are only used by Israel for political gains …If all the meetings the Palestinian leadership has had with the Americans, Europeans and Quartet representatives haven’t achieved anything, how can these informal meetings lead to any results?”
PA music videos idolize Arafat and promote violence
Click photo to download. Caption: A Palestinian Authority TV music video that glorifies Yasser Arafat. Credit: Palestinian Media Watch.A new Palestinian Authority TV advertisement honors deceased PA leader Yasser Arafat and venerates violence, the Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported. Official Palestinian state television broadcasted it seven times last month.
“Engrave on the rifle butt the symbol of Fatah’s Al-Asifa [unit], my trigger makes sounds of joy to the Elder (Arafat), while the rifle sounds aloud, boom out loud, oh voice of the machine,” the words of the song state.
The song finishes with “oh action-spring, receive and shoot [bullets] continuously, change the magazine—there are hundreds [of them], load it into the chamber, oh AK-47, make sounds of joy and salute the Elder (Arafat).”
Earlier this year, PMW reported on another Palestinian music video in which the lyrics state: “We won’t throw down our weapons. We treat the rifle as a brother.”
Palestinians stone Israeli vehicle
Palestinian attackers on Monday morning hurled stones at an Israeli vehicle traveling near the Judea and Samaria community of Tekoa, south of Bethlehem. No injuries were reported in the attack, but the vehicle sustained some damage. IDF soldiers were searching the area for the perpetrators.
The stone-throwing incident came just a few hours after unidentified arsonists torched several Palestinian cars on Sunday night in the West Bank village of Beitin, in what police suspect was a “price-tag” attack.
“Police are searching for the suspects [in the arson]. It’s not clear exactly who was behind it, and the investigation continues,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told the French news agency AFP on Monday.