PMW: The great Palestinian dream: To liberate "Palestine" from the River to the Sea

Palestinian children are still being taught that “Palestine” includes all of Israel. Decades after the Oslo Accords, the PA and Fatah still don’t recognize Israel's existence.

The photo above is a prime example of this. The Palestinian Authority Presidential Guards posted this image of a young boy making the “V” symbol for “victory” while holding a Palestinian flag. Behind him is the PA map clearly named “Palestine” that includes all of Israel and the PA areas.

The names of the following Israeli cities and regions are written in the colors of the Palestinian flag on and around the map: “Haifa,” “Jerusalem,” “Safed,” “Nazareth,” “Jaffa,” “Tal Al-Rabia (i.e., Tel Aviv, see note below),” “Tiberias,” “Be’er Sheva,” “Ramle,” “Ashkelon,” “the Negev,” “Lod,” “Acre,” and “Beit Shean.” “Gaza” is also marked. The text on the image, states that Palestinians will “return”:

Posted text: “#Good_morning #The_Palestinian_Presidential_Guards”

Text on image: “Palestine We will surely return”

[Official Facebook page of the PA Presidential Guards, Nov. 25, 2018]

Another Palestinian way of saying that all of the State of Israel is “Palestine” is to describe it as stretching “from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.” This is one of the PA's popular slogans. Recently it was repeated by a university lecturer who described the “great Palestinian dream”:

Rector of Al-Istiqlal University in Jericho (The Palestinian Academy for Security Sciences) Saleh Abu Osba: "I always say that life without dreams is empty. As I see it, we the Palestinians have a great dream before us: To liberate Palestine from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea. This dream will remain before us and requires of us willpower. Our people’s willpower is strong. The proof of this is the thousands of prisoners and the thousands of Martyrs who have fallen to realize the dream of liberating Palestine."

[Official PA radio station The Voice of Palestine, Sept. 13, 2018]

Palestinian Media Watch has documented endless examples of PA and Fatah denying Israel's existence or right to exist in any borders. Recently, this was taught to children on official PA TV. A girl recited a poem stating that "a Zionist stole the land of Palestine." Upon hearing this and the rest of the poem, which encouraged Palestinians to “rebel” and “shoot” to be “victorious,” the PA TV children's host responded:

“We are returning. Soon, Allah willing, we will return to our land...” 

[Official PA TV, The Best Home, Nov. 1, 2018]

PMW: "Death to Israel" song on Hamas TV half-hour before station destroyed

"Death to Israel" song on Hamas TV  

half-hour before station destroyed 

 

By Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

About a half hour before Hamas' TV station in the Gaza Strip was bombed by Israel, the station broadcast a music video repeatedly announcing: "Death to Israel." The video shows footage from terror attacks and scenes from funerals and burials of Israeli terror victims. The words "DEATH TO ISRAEL" flash in Hebrew on the screen as the Arabic song focuses on that message:

Song: "Expel the thieving occupier from the enraged land of Jerusalem,

Rid your house of that one, that Zionist in his humiliation,

Write 'death, death, death to Israel' with flowing blood,

And with the bleeding body cause death, death, death to Israel"

Text on screen in Hebrew: "Death to Israel"

Hamas leader Nizar Rayan: "[Remember] Khaibar, Khaibar, O Jews. The soldiers of Muhammad have started to return."

Visuals: Funeral of Israeli terror victims

Song: "Be red death. Have no mercy on the army of aggression that wears the clothes of the soldier and the settler."

[Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), Nov. 12, 2018]

Embedded in the music video is a clip with Hamas leader Nizar Rayan chanting with the audience: "[Remember] Khaibar, Khaibar, O Jews. The soldiers of Muhammad have started to return." This slogan is often chanted as a threat to Jews that they should expect to be defeated and murdered again by Muslims, just as Muhammad murdered Jews at the village of Khaibar in the year 628.

That Hamas TV broadcast a song calling for the killing of Israelis/Jews is not surprising. Such music videos are common on Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV, as Palestinian Media Watch has documented.

In fact, Hamas broadcast a similar song calling for "death to Israel" after the terror organization had agreed to a cease fire with Israel in November 2014. Israel had launched an aerial offensive in the Gaza Strip called Operation Pillar of Defense, with the aim of crippling the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza and protecting Israeli civilians from Hamas rocket fire. On Nov. 22, 2014, one day after Hamas and Israel had brokered the ceasefire, Hamas broadcast the following music video with the words:

"Repeat in the name of your Jihad: Death to Israel! 

With blood and fire, resist until freedom 

Defeat the soldiers of aggression the enemies of humanity."

[Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), Nov. 22, 2014]

Despite the new ceasefire, which Hamas and Israel agreed on yesterday, Hamas - an Islamic terror organization that writes in its charter and declares openly that Muslims have a religious obligation to destroy Israel and exterminate Jews - will hardly change its hate messages.

The following are additional examples of Hamas TV music videos and messages encouraging violence and terror against Israel. The dates on the videos below show that Hamas' calls to kill Jews have not changed over the years:

Hamas TV music video (2016): "Strap on an explosive belt... O Martyrdom seeker, respond to Al-Aqsa's call... send them to Hell... Let fire burn them, turn them into body parts, roast them."

Hamas TV music video (2014): "Fire your rockets, make them explode... victory is from Allah... O Martyrdom-seeker, O blaze, hurry, blow up Tel-Aviv." 

Hamas TV music video (2012): Killing Jews is worship of Allah, "Repeat in the name of your Jihad: Death to Israel!"
 

Hamas to Israelis (2012): "We've missed the suicide attacks, expect us soon at bus stations and in cafés." 

Hamas TV animation (2016) encourages stabbings, shootings, and ramming attacks, shows daggers, butcher's knives, and guns, honors 3 murderers who killed 6. 

Khaibar is the name of the last Jewish village defeated by Muhammad's army in 628. Many Jews were murdered in the battle, which marked the end of Jewish presence in Arabia. There are Muslims who see this event as a precursor to future wars against Jews. At extremist Muslim gatherings and rallies, this slogan is often chanted as a threat to Jews implying that they should expect to be defeated and murdered again by Muslims.

ONE OF THE WORST CHAPTERS IN PALESTINIAN SCHOOLBOOKS So if it weren’t scary enough for the children to be told they have to go out and kill, PA educators teach them that “heroes” are willing to fearlessly die as martyrs.

If you want to know why Palestinian children believe that killing Israelis is model behavior, all you have to do is look at a chapter in one of their schoolbooks.

PA schoolbooks have been criticized ever since Palestinian Media Watch wrote the first report on them in 1998, and the newest books in some respects are the worst ever. However, one chapter stands out in its overt promotion of terrorism. This chapter, appearing in the fifth-grade Arabic Language book published in 2017, serves as a window to understanding the PA leadership’s profoundly twisted values.

The chapter starts innocently by stressing the importance of heroes to national identity and national pride: “Heroes have an important position in every nation… the people – even if they are divided over many things – they all agree regarding the pride in their heroes…”

The schoolbook continues and teaches students that feeling pride is not enough. Society takes numerous active steps to honor its heroes: “[We] sing their praise, learn the history of their lives, name our children after them, and name streets, squares, and prominent cultural sites after them…”

In short, society assures that heroes are never forgotten. They might have lived in earlier times, but by naming streets and squares after them and singing their praise, these heroes remain in Palestinian consciousness. 

The next message is most important: The children are taught that these heroes are not merely memories of the past they are the role models for the future: “Every one of us wishes to be like them.” 

Until now this messaging is not problematic, however, all that changes when the schoolbook presents the 10 people who PA educators promote as the role models Palestinian children should emulate. The list of Palestinian heroes includes no scientists, no doctors, no engineers, no singers, no athletes, nor any artists. There have been three Muslim Nobel Prize laureates in science and two in literature, but they are not on the list of Palestinian heroes. 

Who are the Palestinian heroes then according to the PA schoolbook? They are 10 Muslim combatants from the first century of Islam through the 21st century. And possibly the worst name on this list of role models is terrorist mass-murderer Dalal Mughrabi. 

Mughrabi led a team of terrorists who hijacked a bus in 1978 and murdered 25 adults and 12 children. Among those she murdered when she threw a hand grenade inside the bus was a young Israeli woman Rebecca Hohman and her two sons: Ilan, aged three and Roi, aged six. Mughrabi, a child murderer, is the person Palestinian educators are telling children to see as their role model, someone “everyone wants to be like.” 

After naming the 10 heroes, the PA schoolbook stresses that there is no one better than these fighters: “These heroes are the crown of their nation, they are a symbol of its glory, they are the best of the best, the best of the noble people.”

That’s not all that is horrific. Mughrabi was killed during her terrorist attack and others on the list were killed in battle. The PA schoolbook focuses on their deaths and glorifies their willingness to die: “They took their lives in their hands and threw them at the dangers, without losing their determination and without weakening and surrendering. Some of them died as martyrs, some of them died on the way to fulfilling their obligations, as heroes.”

So if it weren’t scary enough for the children to be told they have to go out and kill, PA educators teach them that “heroes” are willing to fearlessly die as martyrs. The final sentence of the chapter they are taught what this means for them if they don’t want to adopt this heroic behavior: “Bravo to the heroes, and scorn to the cowards!”

Tragically, presenting Dalal Mughrabi as a hero and role model is not accidental or in isolation but is part of a broad almost cult-like worship of Mughrabi directed by the Palestinian Authority. The PA Ministry of Education has named five schools as well as sporting events after Mughrabi. City squares and community centers bear her name. Videos with her picture and story are produced and appear regularly on Fatah and PA media channels. Every year on the dates surrounding her mass murder Fatah and the PA make sure her name and face appear regularly up in lights. There was a march in Bethlehem to celebrate the founding of Fatah and three giant posters led the parade. Two posters had pictures of Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas – internationally known and recognized leaders of Fatah and the PA. The third poster had the picture of Dalal Mughrabi. Dalal Mughrabi was not a leader. She was a terrorist murderer who did one thing in life to make her famous. And yet she completes the PA trinity with the PA leaders.

This cult-like worship of murderers is fundamental to the depraved value system that Palestinian leaders have promoted since the PLO’s founding in 1965, and upon which the PA has indoctrinated its children since 1994. It is not surprising that so many of the Palestinian terrorists in recent years have been teenagers, including the recent murderer of Israeli-American father of four, Ari Fuld. The Palestinian leadership has been transmitting its “kill an Israeli – be a hero” message for decades, and judging by the results, it is clear that Palestinian children have been listening.

So these are the choices racing through the minds of Palestinian children who just studied one of the worst chapters in their schoolbooks: If I, Palestinian child, am willing to kill Israelis and be a martyr, then I will then be the best of the best, the crown of my nation, streets will be named after me and I will be a Palestinian hero; if I am not willing to kill Israelis and be a martyr, then I am a coward.

If you were an impressionable child, which path would you choose?

The writer, director of Palestinian Media Watch, represented Israel in negotiations with the Palestinian Authority on incitement and co-authored with Nan Jacques Zilberdik, Deception: Betraying the Peace Process. 

PMW: Jews "dance and live on the body parts of others" and are behind "global corruption," says PA Islamic Judge on PA TV

A judge in the Palestinian Authority's Islamic court system taught that Jews "dance and live on the body parts of others, and on the blood of others," and that "there is no global corruption that their rabbis did not allow." The Antisemitic Shari'ah Judge, Muhannad Abu Rumi, spouted this hatred on official PA TV earlier this month.

Muhannad Abu Rumi: "[Khan Al-Ahmar is] holy land. We know its value, and not them [Jews], the foreigners, the fabricators of history, who dance and live on the body parts of others, and on the blood of others. Read their history: There is no global corruption that they are not behind. There is no global corruption that their rabbis did not allow..." [Official PA TV, Not a Neighbor, Oct. 5, 2018]

Later in his sermon, Abu Rumi echoed Mahmoud Abbas' advisor on Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash, who has stated that the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis/Jews is the battle between "good" vs. "evil," and that Israel represents the "culture of Satan" in the battle against "Islamic culture in all its splendor and human glory."

PMW: “Bring a knife, dagger, or handgun,” kidnap Israeli civilians, and murder soldiers and settlers - Instructions on Facebook to Gazans for “March of Return” by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Two Palestinian Facebook pages and a forum directing rioters in Gaza gave explicit instructions to murder and kidnap Israelis on May 14, the day the US embassy opened in Jerusalem, as well as suggestions on how to accomplish this goal. It is not clear if Hamas itself was the group sending these messages. What is critical is that Gazans were encouraged to bring weapons to the demonstrations and use these weapons to either murder or capture Israelis. Israeli soldiers may have been facing Palestinians who were using the cover of demonstrating civilians to attempt to break through the border with the goal of murdering and kidnapping Israelis.

 

The following are the instructions to bring weapons, murder "soldiers and settlers," and kidnap Israeli citizens for use as bargaining chips to impose conditions on Israel:

 

"Rebelling young people,

Treat seriously and do not take lightly the requests to bring a knife, dagger, or handgun, if you have one, and to leave them under your clothes and not use them or show them, except if you identify one of the [Israeli] soldiers or settlers. Do not kill Israeli civilians, instead hand them over to the resistance immediately, because this is the point that Israel fears, as it knows that the capturer can set any condition he wants."

[Independent Palestinian Facebook page 

"The Great March of Return", May 14, 2018]

 

The instructions also described how masses of Palestinians would "collectively" breach the security fence aided by bulldozers:

 

"At a certain time... there will be a collective advance towards the barbed wire fence until we remove it with our strong hands and exposed bodies all at once, while being aided by loudspeakers and calls of 'Allahu Akbar' (i.e., Allah is greatest) by the masses. Therefore, do not advance individually, make do with the collective advance according to the instructions, because there will be bulldozers at the back that will advance in order to completely remove the fence."

 

Gazans were instructed not to deal with "the wounded or the Martyrs" but to concentrate on "the battlefield":

 

"Do not busy yourselves with the wounded or the Martyrs (Shahids), as the medical teams behind us are ready for this. Just pay attention to the battlefield and act wisely and according to the instructions."

 

The portrayal of the events in Gaza by some news agencies as peaceful demonstrations is clearly false.

 

The Facebook page "The Great March of Return" was opened in March 2018 and states its goal as "live and continuous coverage of the activities of the Great March of Return." It posts updates from the march every few minutes and has around 6,000 followers. It is not clear if Hamas itself is involved in this page. The second Facebook page that ran the post is called "Gaza Now," [May 13, 2018] but the post was later removed from this page. Likewise, the instructions were shared in a forum thread on the "March of Return" protests on a Palestinian web forum named "PALDF." [May 13, 2018]

 

The following is the full translation of the instructions to Gazans to bring weapons, and murder and kidnap Israelis:

 

Posted text: "#IMPORTANT #Instructions for participants:

Rebelling young people,

Tomorrow, Monday [May 14, 2018], we will begin by standing along Jakkar Road from Beit Hanoun to Rafah at 10:00 a.m., and at a certain time that we will notify you about later there will be a collective advance towards the barbed wire fence until we remove it with our strong hands and exposed bodies all at once, while being aided by loudspeakers and calls of 'Allahu Akbar' (i.e., Allah is greatest) by the masses. Therefore, do not advance individually, make do with the collective advance according to the instructions, because there will be bulldozers at the back that will advance in order to completely remove the fence.

 

Rebelling young people,

Treat seriously and do not take lightly the requests to bring a knife, dagger, or handgun, if you have one, and to leave them under your clothes and not use them or show them, except if you identify one of the [Israeli] soldiers or settlers. Do not kill an Israeli civilian, instead hand them over to the resistance immediately, because this is the point that Israel fears, as it knows that the capturer can set any condition he wants.

 

Rebelling young people,

Disperse the [Israeli] snipers and make them leave their posts and run, and always check the area, and think what to do and then act. Do not busy yourselves with the wounded or the Martyrs (Shahids), as the medical teams behind us are ready for this. Just pay attention to the battlefield and act wisely and according to the instructions."

[Independent Palestinian Facebook page "The Great March of Return", May 14, 2018]

 

The same text was also posted on the independent Palestinian Facebook page "Gaza Now" on May 13, 2018, but was later removed. Likewise it was shared in a forum thread about the March of Return protests in Gaza on the Palestinian website PALDF on May 13, 2018.

PMW Bulletins Song on PA TV promises to attack Jews

Song on PA TV promises to attack Jews:

 

"We will raise the Fatah flag with the rifle...

We will come at you from the sea...

We are soldiers, until we break the Jews"

 

• Music video includes photos of terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi who led attack from the sea in which 37 Israeli civilians, among them 12 children, were murdered
   
• Song glorifies death for "the homeland"

By Nan Jacques Zilberdik

 

Official Palestinian Authority TV broadcast a music video promising to "break the Jews."

 

The song, which sings the praise of Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Movement, promises to "come at you from the sea like a wave." While these words are sung, photos are shown of terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, who led the murder of 37 Israelis, 12 of them children, in an attack launched by infiltrating Israel from the sea in 1978.

 

In addition, the song states that the Fatah flag will be "raised with the rifle," and quotes former PA and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat glorifying death for "Palestine": "For you O homeland, by Allah, death is sweet for me." Footage is included of armed Fatah fighters. The song ends by stating Fatah's goal is to "break the Jews":

"We will raise the Fatah flag with the rifle...

At Al-Karameh [battle] and Eilaboun (i.e., terror attack), for the homeland we will encircle the world

We will come at you from the sea like the wave...

Visual: Photos of terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi who attacked from the sea

Yasser [Arafat] said this statement in a loud voice:

For you O homeland, by Allah, death is sweet for me

Jerusalem is ours, and we are marching, and we will bring millions of Martyrs...

The love of Fatah unites us, and may Allah add to it

Whoever speaks about [Fatah's] division - by Allah, we will eliminate him

Our hearts are for [Fatah], and we are soldiers, until we break the Jews"

 [Official PA TV, Nov. 10, 2017]

Click to view

 

Palestinian Media Watch has documented similar songs on PA TV glorifying terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, and exposed a music video on Fatah's Awdah TV station earlier this year that paid tribute to Mughrabi. 

 

During a period of intense violence and terror attacks in November 2014, Fatah posted on its Facebook page this song calling for murder: 

 

"I'm coming towards you, my enemy,

We're going down from every house with cleavers and knives,

With grenades we announced a popular war.

I swear, you won't escape, my enemy,  

from the revolution and the people.

How will you escape the ring of fire,

while the crowds are blocking the way?"

[Facebook, "Fatah - The Main Page," Nov. 22, 2014]

 

Dalal Mughrabi led the most lethal terror attack in Israel's history, known as the Coastal Road massacre, in 1978, when she and other Fatah terrorists hijacked a bus on Israel's Coastal Highway, murdering 37 civilians, 12 of them children, and wounding over 70.

 

The Karameh battle, or Al-Karameh - On March 21, 1968, Israeli army forces attacked the town of Karameh in Jordan, where Fatah terrorists had been launching attacks on Israel. Although Israel prevailed militarily, Arafat used the event for propaganda purposes, declaring the battle a great victory that erased the disgrace of the 1967 Six Day War defeat.

 

Bombing of Israel's National Water Carrier - On Jan. 1, 1965, Palestinian terrorists attempted to bomb Israel's National Water Carrier. This was the first attack against Israel carried out by Fatah. Fatah refers to the attack as the "Intilaqa", meaning "the Launch" of Fatah.
 

PMW Bulletins PA educator praises “blood of Martyrs” in broadcast on school radio

PA educator praises "blood of Martyrs" 

in broadcast on PA school radio

By Nan Jacques Zilberdik

On the annual day celebrating the Arab headdress, the keffiyeh, the director of the Qalqilya district Directorate of Education - which is a branch of the PA Ministry of Education - told Palestinian teenage girls that the blood of "Martyrs" is "the purest." His statement was broadcast on the school radio:

"Fahmawi reviewed the symbolism of the Palestinian keffiyeh... and added that the Palestinian keffiyeh has been colored with the purest blood, the blood of the Martyrs (Shahids) of Palestine during their resistance to the occupation, and the keffiyeh has become the shroud of the Palestinian fighter who has sacrificed his soul for the homeland." 

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 17, 2017]

This glorification of Martyrdom-death to Palestinian youth is in line with general PA education as Palestinian Media Watch has detailed in its report PA Education - A Recipe for Hate and Terror.

Two days ago, PMW reported on similar praise for "Martyrs' blood" expressed by parents of dead terrorists at another PA school.

The school at which the PA educator spoke of "Martyrs' blood" is named after terrorist Abu Ali Iyad who was appointed head of Fatah military operations in 1966 and was responsible for several terror attacks. The attacks included a bombing in the town of Beit Yosef in northern Israel on April 25, 1966 (injuring 3 people), and placing bombs in the town of Margaliot in northern Israel on July 19, 1966. He was killed in 1971 in Jordan by the Jordanian army when it forced Fatah members out of the country.

PMW has documented that the PA has named at least 31 schools after terrorists, and that 41 school names glorify Martyrdom - Read the full PMW report here.

The PA Presidential Guards also emphasized the spilling of Palestinian blood in a post on its Facebook page: 

Posted text and text on image: 

"A people like the people of Palestine that has watered freedom with the blood of its sons can nothing but triumph

#Yasser_Arafat"

[Official Facebook page of the PA Presidential Guards,
Sept. 24, 2017; July 29, 2017]

The image repeats the PA's replacement of Israel with "Palestine,"  showing the PA map of "Palestine" that presents all of Israel as "Palestine" together with the PA areas to the right. The map is in the colors of the Palestinian flag with former PLO and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's face overlaid on it. To the left a picture of Arafat is shown with the colors of the Palestinian flag over it. At the bottom appears the logo of the PA Presidential Guards.

The following is a longer excerpt of the report in the official PA daily:

Headline: "The homeland's schools are celebrating

Keffiyeh Day"

"Director of the [Qalqilya district] Directorate of Education (i.e., branch of the PA Ministry of Education) Naela Fahmawi Oudeh participated in the school radio broadcasts at the Ali Iyad High School for Girls, which were dedicated to Palestinian Keffiyeh (Arab headdress) Day and to Independence Day (declared by Arafat in Tunis in 1988 -Ed.) Fahmawi reviewed the symbolism of the Palestinian keffiyeh... and added that the Palestinian keffiyeh has been colored with the purest blood, the blood of the Martyrs (Shahids) of Palestine during their resistance to the occupation, and the keffiyeh has become the shroud of the Palestinian fighter who has sacrificed his soul for the homeland."

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 17, 2017]

Palestinian declaration of independence - On Nov. 15, 1988, before the Palestine National Council (PNC), the Palestinian parliament in exile in Algeria, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Yasser Arafat declared the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. Although the borders were not specified in the declaration, it recognized the UN partition plan of 1947, which called for the creation of a Jewish state and an Arab state in the former British Mandate for Palestine.

PMW Bulletins Proud Palestinian parents of "Martyrs": "The blood... made gardens bloom"

Proud Palestinian parents about their "Martyred" kids:  

•  "The blood of the Martyrs has watered the ground and made gardens bloom"

•  "The blood of the Martyrs is a beacon that lights the path to liberation and freedom"

•  Palestinian university honors terrorist "Martyrs" with memorial 

By Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

A private university in Ramallah held a memorial for five student terrorists who died as "Martyrs." At the event, a mother of one of the terrorists spoke on behalf of the families and stated:

"The blood of the Martyrs has watered the ground and made gardens bloom"

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 20, 2017]

The official PA daily further reported that she "expressed pride at being the mother of a Martyr who did not hesitate to sacrifice his blood and soul for his homeland and people."

Likewise a father of one of the terrorists "emphasized that the blood of the Martyrs is a beacon that lights the path to liberation and freedom."

Coordinator of the Fatah Shabiba Student Movement at Modern University College Hussein Ajouli "repeated the commitment and loyalty to... the blood of our people's Martyrs, among them the Martyrs of Modern University College who have ascended [to Heaven] in defense of the honor and for the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem, and Palestine." Fatah official Jamal Muhaisen was also present at the event.

Among the five terrorists, one attempted to ram his car into Israeli soldiers, another stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier, and a third attempted to stab an Israeli soldier. The fourth was injured during a confrontation with Israeli security forces and later died of his wounds, while the fifth died of a fatal disease after being released from an Israeli prison. (See details below.)
Palestinian Media Watch has reported on similar statements of pride by parents  and has documented an almost cult-like Palestinian fascination with Martyrs' blood.

The following is a longer excerpt of the report in the official PA daily:
Headline: "Memorial service for the Martyrs of Modern University College"
"The student council at Modern University College yesterday (Sunday) [Nov. 19, 2017] held a memorial service for its student Martyrs (Shahids) at the college's building in Ramallah, in the presence of Fatah Movement Central Committee member Jamal Muhaisen...
It should be noted that five students from Modern University College ascended [to Heaven] as Martyrs within a year, during the mass uprising that broke out in order to come to the aid of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and they are: Jaafar Awad (i.e., Palestinian prisoner who died of disease), Mahmoud Alyan (i.e., Palestinian injured in confrontation with Israeli forces), Ali Al-Kar (i.e., terrorist, wounded 1), Ahmad Jahajha (i.e., terrorist, attempted to ram his car into Israeli soldiers), and Muhammad Al-Jalad (i.e., terrorist, attempted to stab 1).
In his speech, Jamal Muhaisen spoke about the central stages of the Palestinian cause... He also emphasized the significance of the young Palestinian people's role in the struggle...
The mother of Martyr Mahmoud Alyan gave a speech on behalf of the families of the student Martyrs in which she said that 'The blood of the Martyrs has watered the ground and made gardens bloom'...
She expressed pride at being the mother of a Martyr who did not hesitate to sacrifice his blood and soul for his homeland and people.
The father of Jaafar Awad emphasized that the blood of the Martyrs is a beacon that lights the path to liberation and freedom.
Coordinator of the Fatah Shabiba [Student Movement] at Modern University College Hussein Ajouli repeated the commitment and loyalty to [former PA] President Martyr Yasser Arafat, founder of the Palestinian state, and to the blood of our people's Martyrs, among them the Martyrs of Modern University College who have ascended [to Heaven] in defense of the honor and for the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem, and Palestine."

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 20, 2017]

On Facebook, Modern University College lists itself as a "private university in Ramallah"

Jaafar Awad - 23-year-old Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jail who was released due to fatal disease. He died of it on April 9, 2015.

Mahmoud Alyan - 22-year-old Palestinian who was injured during a confrontation with Israeli security forces near Ramallah in November 2015, and died of his injuries a few days later.

Ali Al-Kar and Ali Takatka - Palestinian terrorists who stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier near Ariel on March 17, 2016. They were shot and killed during the attack by Israeli security forces.

Ahmad Jahajha - 21-year-old terrorist who attempted to ram his car into Israeli soldiers near Qalandiya, south of Ramallah, on Dec. 16, 2015. Jahajha was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers.

Muhammad Al-Jalad - Palestinian terrorist who attempted to stab an Israeli soldier with a screwdriver at Hawara checkpoint outside Nablus on Nov. 9, 2016. The screwdriver failed to penetrate the soldier's flak jacket, and Al-Jalad was shot and wounded by other soldiers at the scene. Al-Jalad died of his wounds at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva in Israel in February 2017.

PMW Bulletins PA Government, PA TV, and Fatah all present a world without Israel

The Palestinian Authority and Fatah continue to present to Palestinians an image of a world without Israel, using a map that erases Israel and replaces it with "Palestine." This continues despite the PA and Fatah's numerous assurances to American and European leaders that they recognize Israel and support a two-state solution. 

Here are three recent examples of the use of this map in which "Palestine" replaces all of Israel.

An official announcement (image above) on the Facebook page of the PA government included the image of hands raising a Palestinian flag, beside the PA map of "Palestine" that presents all of Israel and the PA areas as "Palestine". The image is part of the PA Government's announcement of the 2017 general population census of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. [Facebook page of the PA Government, Nov. 13, 2017]

An official PA TV program I'm Palestinian displays a logo in the shape of the PA map of "Palestine" that erases all of Israel, and on it the words "I'm Palestinian." The first image below is from the opening of the program, and the following two images are from the studio and from a sequence in the program. [Official PA TV, I'm Palestinian, Nov. 18, 2017]

Fatah also uses this map of "Palestine," below wrapped in the Palestinian flag, symbolizing Palestinian sovereignty over the entire area, including over the State of Israel:

The image was posted on the official Fatah Facebook page with the text: "The Palestinian [Hamas-Fatah] reconciliation." The PA map of "Palestine" has an elongated Palestinian flag wrapped around it. Clasped hands on the map symbolize Palestinian unity and the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation. The Dome of the Rock appears behind the map. [Official Fatah Facebook page, Nov. 13, 2017]

Palestinian Media Watch has exposed hundreds of such maps, being used in official PA and Fatah contexts, such as in ministerial offices, at official events, and as gifts to foreign officials and others visiting the PA.

PMW Bulletins The PA libel lives on: "Israel poisoned Arafat" - and the US helped

• PA TV: "Israel... assassinated and murdered President Yasser Arafat... when it reached him and poisoned him" 
• Abbas' advisor: "The Israelis killed him with poison. I have no doubt of that" 
• Op-ed in official PA daily: "They [Israel]... poisoned him... with a green light from the US"

 

 

 

By Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Maintaining its long-lived tradition, the Palestinian Authority continued this year to spread the libel that Israel murdered Yasser Arafat with poison. On the occasion of the 13th anniversary of Arafat's death, a PA TV host stated:

Official PA TV host: "All the signs show that Israel is the one that assassinated and murdered [PA] President Yasser Arafat in some way, when it reached him and poisoned him."

[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Nov. 11, 2017]

The official PA daily also repeated the libel:

"The most prominent [Israeli assassination] was the assassination of Yasser Arafat with poison after laying siege to his headquarters in Ramallah."

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 28, 2017]

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' advisor on Foreign Affairs and International Relations Nabil Shaath stated earlier this year that he knows for a fact - without "a millionth of a doubt" - that the Israelis killed Arafat "with poison": 

Al-Arabiya TV host: "Did [Yasser Arafat] die due to the consequences of the [Israeli] siege, or was he killed by poison during the siege?"

PA Chairman Abbas' advisor Nabil Shaath: "No, the Israelis killed him with poison. I have no doubt of that, not even a millionth of a doubt!"

TV host: "Why are you so certain? Do you have information?" ...

Nabil Shaath: "...All food came through the Israelis. They besieged him from outside. Every cup of water came through the Israelis. Every pill of medicine... You can check the water before you give it to him... You can check the food, but the medicines?"

[Al-Arabiya TV, Political Memoirs, Aug. 25, 2017]

A columnist in the official PA daily added an extra twist to the libel, saying that the US had authorized Israel's alleged assassination of Arafat. PA and Fatah leaders have voiced this allegation in the past, as documented by Palestinian Media Watch. 

"Thirteen years have passed since the death of leader [and] symbol [former PLO and PA Chairman] Yasser Arafat. They [Israel] forced him to vacate the scene and poisoned him. The ones who were responsible for his treatment in France did not find the necessary antidote for his recovery from the premeditated murder, which was committed by the leaders of the Israeli ethnic cleansing state...

[Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon and the heads of his colonialist leadership are the ones who poisoned the Palestinian national symbol and murdered him, with a green light from the US."

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Op-ed by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, 

Nov. 11, 2017]

Fatah Movement Central Committee member and Director of the Yasser Arafat Institution Nasser Al-Qidwa also reiterated the claim, stating that Israel has "full political and criminal responsibility for the assassination of Martyr Yasser Arafat." He mentioned the "clear and repeated Israeli statements that demanded the removal of Martyr Yasser Arafat from the Palestinian political arena" as proof of his allegation. [Ma'an, independent Palestinian news agency, Nov. 9, 2017]

Following PLO and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's death in November 2004, the PA created the libel that Israel murdered Arafat, and PA and Fatah leaders have been spreading it ever since, as PMW has documented. Swiss, Russian, and French medical teams have studied these claims. In 2012, samples were taken from Arafat's remains to be tested for poisoning, and Swiss and Russian teams afterwards published the results of their tests: The Swiss team concluded that the tests were "coherent with a hypothesis of poisoning" - but a member of the team also stated that "our study did not permit us to demonstrate categorically the hypothesis of poisoning by polonium." The Russian report concluded that "there was insufficient evidence to support the theory that Yasser Arafat died in 2004 by polonium poisoning." [Reuters, Nov. 8, 2013] In March 2015, three French judges ruled that "it has not been demonstrated that Mr. Yasser Arafat was murdered by polonium-210 poisoning." The French prosecutor stated that there was "not sufficient evidence of an intervention by a third party who could have attempted to take his life." [France 24, Sept. 2, 2015] The French prosecutor also explained that the polonium and lead found in Arafat's grave were "of an environmental nature." [Jerusalem Post, March 17, 2015].

Despite these results, the PA continues to blame Israel for Arafat's death without any proof or backing for this claim.

The following are longer excerpts of the statements above:

Headline: "The 17th anniversary of the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada (i.e., PA terror campaign 2000-2005)"

"Martyr [former PLO and PA Chairman Yasser] Arafat was accused of not making concessions that could lead to the signing of an agreement that outlined the character of the independent Palestinian state. On Thursday afternoon, Sept. 28, 2000, confrontations were recorded between [Palestinian] worshippers and young angry people and the occupation police, its border guard, and its special forces,

which broke into the Al-Aqsa Mosque plaza in order to guard its defilement by the leader of the extremist Likud party, [later Israeli Prime Minister] Ariel Sharon, and a number of right-wing people from his party... The occupation escalated the type of confrontations, and its airplanes killed a prominent leader in the Fatah Movement, Hussein Abayat (i.e., terrorist, involved in numerous attacks), on Nov. 9, [2000,] after his car was blown up by rockets in Bethlehem... Later the rate of Israeli assassinations - including most of the Palestinian factions and their commanders - increased, the most prominent being the assassination of Yasser Arafat with poison after laying siege to his headquarters in Ramallah."

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 28, 2017]

Excerpt of an op-ed by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, regular columnist for the official PA daily

Headline: "Arafat who remains among us"

"Thirteen years have passed since the death of leader [and] symbol [former PLO and PA Chairman] Yasser Arafat. They forced him to vacate the scene and poisoned him (see note below -Ed.). The ones who were responsible for his treatment in France did not find the necessary antidote for his recovery from the premeditated murder, which was committed by the leaders of the Israeli ethnic cleansing state...

[Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon and the heads of his colonialist leadership are the ones who poisoned the Palestinian national symbol and murdered him, with a green light from the US."

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 11, 2017]

Headline: "Nasser Al-Qidwa: Israel is politically and criminally responsible for the murder of Arafat"

"Fatah Movement Central Committee member, Director of the Yasser Arafat Institution, [and Fatah Commissioner of Information, Culture, and Indoctrination] Nasser Al-Qidwa said that 13 years after the assassination of leader [and] symbol [PLO and PA Chairman] Yasser Arafat, Israel's full political and criminal responsibility for the assassination of Martyr (Shahid) Yasser Arafat shouldn't be diminished - especially in the shadow of the clear and repeated Israeli statements that demanded the removal of Martyr Yasser Arafat from the Palestinian political arena."

[Ma'an, independent Palestinian news agency, Nov. 9, 2017]

Official PA TV host: "Of course we will not forget that all these years an open issue has remained regarding the murder of late Martyr [Yasser Arafat]. Naturally all the signs show that Israel is the one that assassinated and murdered [PA] President Yasser Arafat in some way, when it reached him and poisoned him. But this issue remains on the agenda until Israel is put on trial and gives an accounting for this crime that led to the Martyrdom-death of President Yasser Arafat."

[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Nov. 11, 2017]

In the interview with Abbas' advisor Nabil Shaath, the interviewer referred to "the siege." In response to the many suicide bombings during the PA terror campaign in 2000-2005 (the second Intifada), and as an attempt to destroy the Palestinian terror infrastructure, Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield in April 2002 - a large Israeli military operation - during which Israel also put Arafat under siege in the PA headquarters in Ramallah and invaded six of the largest West Bank cities.