by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
Fatah’s Bethlehem branch has glorified the Palestinian Authority’s terror campaign (2000-2005), the second intifada, posting the below photo on Facebook this photo with the text:
“A souvenir picture from the Al-Aqsa Intifada
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades – Bethlehem.”
[Facebook page of the Fatah Movement – Bethlehem branch, Oct. 26, 2017]
Over 1,000 Israelis, of which the vast majority were civilians, were murdered during the PA terror campaign, mostly in suicide bombings by Hamas and Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades is considered a terror organization by the US and the EU.
The image shows rows of masked men, apparently belonging to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, dressed in black clothes, wearing keffiyehs (Arab headdresses) and yellow Fatah headbands, and carrying various types of rifles.
Palestinian Media Watch has documented numerous times that Fatah continues to promote violence and refuses to lay down its weapons. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor Sultan Abu Al-Einein wrote: “The only way to freedom and liberation is resistance to the occupier… There is no honor for the weak
.” [Facebook page of Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor to NGOs Sultan Abu Al-Einein, Nov. 2, 2017]
“Resistance” is in Palestinian Authority terminology often a euphemism for violence and terror.
Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi concurred in a post on Facebook where he called for continued “resistance”:
Posted text: “This anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) marks 100 years since the colonialist crime and the liberation resistance that the Palestinians have been forced to carry out on the homeland in all of Palestine and the diaspora, [and] our statement still remains the same: ‘No to apology, no to compensation, and no to compromise, rather resistance until the return [of the refugees], the state, and self-determination.'”
[Facebook page of Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi, Nov. 2, 2017]
Along with the text, Tirawi posted an image of former British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour and the English text of the Balfour Declaration.
In another show of the adherence to violence and the use of weapons against Israel, Abbas’ Fatah’s Bethlehem branch posted an image of an AK-47 assault rifle, a handgun, and bullets against a background of the Fatah logo that includes a grenade, crossed rifles, and the PA map of “Palestine” that presents all of Israel as “Palestine” together with the PA areas.
Posted text: “Fatah member, raise your forehead ”
Text under the logo: “Fatah Movement, Bethlehem branch”
[Facebook page of the Fatah Movement – Bethlehem Branch, Oct. 27, 2017]