Special Report: THE INCITEMENT REPORT, Volume 1, Issue 1: Incitement by the Palestinian Authority

THE INCITEMENT REPORT
VOL. I, ISSUE I

Incitement by the Palestinian Authority
November 2009 - January 2010

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q Al-Ayyam (PA), November 12, 2009, reported:#

“Mahmoud Abbas…spoke in favor of armed resistance at a rally marking the fifth anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death: ‘We will continue [Arafat's] long and exhausting struggle [that was] fraught with blood, sweat, and tears. The road [we are traveling] today is anchored in a noble heritage of struggle that we built with brave hands, an enlightened mind, and a national thinking [rooted in] long experience. We combined armed struggle with political activity. Our guns were not the guns of highway robbers. They were political guns [promoting] a noble goal.’


q According to El-Shourouq (Tunisia), November 15, 2009:#

Fatah Central Committee member Nabil Sha'ath said in an interview: "Today we have the right to return to the armed struggle in order to restore our rights. For 18 years we tried to negotiate, but Israel has continued its aggression, destruction, massacres and [construction of] settlements. Today we have the right to turn back to the alternative [routes]... If negotiations fail, we will turn to armed struggle. This is our right, as I have said... International law stipulates that, when an occupying [force] takes one's land and harms one's honor, one has the right to resort to armed struggle."


q Hafez Al-Barghouthi, editor of the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, wrote on November 15, 2009:#

"[We] must bring things to the point of no return: either [we obtain] a fully sovereign Palestinian state in the June 4, 1967 borders, or the flood will descend...

"The Palestinian people will not allow its tragedy to repeat itself without a reaction. If it must choose between a quick death and a slow one, it will choose the short road and set the land on fire everywhere...

"We owe nothing to anyone. On the contrary, it is others who owe us a huge debt. If the roads to peace are blocked by settlements and international conspiracies, we will turn ourselves into paragons of sacrifice... When we no longer have anything to lose, it will be [the Israelis] who will lose..."


q On December 24, 2009, three members of Al-Aksa Brigades killed Rabbi Meir Avshalom Chai in a drive-by shooting in Samaria and fled. Two days later, the IDF had tracked them to their homes, in the Nablus area . Two refused to come out of their homes and surrender; a third came out using his wife as a shield and was thought to be armed. They were all shot dead.
By December 27, the Palestinian Authority leadership and PA-controlled media had begun to refer to the three as shahids – holy martyrs:#

PA President Mahmoud Abbas sent a personal emissary – Secretary General of the President’s Bureau, Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim – to the homes of their families. He carried letters from Abbas that conveyed condolences and informed the families of his decision to name them “Shahids of the Palestinian Revolution” (PA TV)

Said Al-Rahim: "Without doubt, what the occupation authorities have carried out is a wild and barbaric act and a deliberate, malicious assassination in cold blood."

PA TV featured a poster of the three terrorists, expressing condolences from Abbas. The text on the poster read:

"With honor and admiration to those who are more honored than all of us.

"The Palestine Liberation Organization, Fatah, accompanies to their wedding [of martyrs with virgins in Paradise]:

“The Martyr, Commander, Hero: Rassan Abu Serah
”The Martyr, Commander, Hero: Ra'ed Al Aschregi
”The Martyr, Commander, Hero: Anan Sobh

The Director General of the Presidency expresses condolences to the Nablus Martyrs - in the name of the President [Abbas].”

Additionally, PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad personally visited the homes of the families of these men and conveyed condolences.

It should be noted that there was denial of what the three men had done. There was no claim that “innocent” men had been mistakenly killed by the IDF.

Maan News Agency on December 26 referred to the activity of these men, “which led to the death of the settler in a shooting operation."



q Dalal Mughrabi was a young female terrorist who led a party of 11other terrorists down from Lebanon into northern Israel, via the Mediterranean, in 1978. They first killed wildlife photographer Gail Rubin on the beach and then hijacked a bus. When the bus was stopped at a roadblock, and a gun battle ensued, she blew it up. In all 37 civilians, including 10 children, were killed and 71 wounded. This attack, which became known as the Coastal Road Massacre, is one of the worst in Israel’s history. Mughrabi herself was killed in the gun battle.

On December 29, 2009, PA President Mahmoud Abbas honored Mughabri’s memory on the occasion of her 50th birthday. PA dignitaries and a children’s marching band were present for the ceremony.#

A very large banner was displayed at the ceremony. It had Mughrabi’s picture on it. The text read:

"Under the auspices of President Mahmoud Abbas
The Political and National Education Authority Ceremony on the anniversary of the birth of the bride of the cosmos The Shahida (Holy Martyr) Dalal Mughrabi."

Two PA TV broadcasts noted the ceremony.

Additionally, the governor of Ramallah announced the naming of Dalal Mughrabi Square.

While on December 30, 2009, PA spokesman Jamal Nazal, writing in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, referred to her as “the heroine of Palestine’s heroines.”


q Wafa Idris, the first female Palestinian suicide bomber, detonated a bomb in the center of Jerusalem in January 2002 that killed one and injured over 100.

During the first week of January 2010, she was honored as a Shahida (Holy Martyr) in a Fatah promotional video broadcast on PA TV.#


q On January 11, 2010, the following appeared in the PA paper Al-Ayyam:#

Headline: "The occupation accuses the Palestinian leadership of incitement because of Dalal Mughrabi Square -Minister of Culture: Honoring the Shahids is the least we can do, and resistance to the occupation is a legitimate right"

"The occupation government [the Israeli government] has reiterated its familiar tune of accusing the [Palestinian] National Authority of incitement within Palestinian culture. The Israeli Prime Minister... claims that the Palestinian leadership is encouraging terror in its culture.

”Netanyahu claims that the proof, which he presented to the members of his government, is the naming of a square in the region of Ramallah and El-Bireh after the Shahida (Martyr) Dalal Mughrabi. ...

”Netanyahu is reported as saying: 'Anyone who supports naming [the square] after Dalal Mughrabi, who was responsible for the murder of dozens of Israelis, is encouraging terror and pushing peace further off...'

”Netanyahu was referring to the operation of self-sacrifice led by Mughrabi in 1978, the ‘Coast Operation’ within Israel, which led to the deaths of 36 Israelis. Netanyahu accused the [Palestinian] National Authority of incitement in schools and in cultural activities in general.

”Minister of Culture Siham Barghouti said, in response to the Israeli claims, that 'It is our right to preserve and maintain [the memory] of our fighters who sacrificed their lives for our sake and for the sake of the Palestinian cause.'

”She added: 'Honoring them in this way [by naming public places after them] is the least we can give them, and this is our right, especially since we believe that resistance, in the shadow of the ongoing occupation, is a legitimate right, and we are proud and we pride ourselves on our heritage of struggle, which has been realized by our Shahids and fighters throughout history.'

q Al-Quds, Jerusalem, January 21, 2010, reported:#

“The concluding statement of Fatah's Revolutionary Council meeting said that there was a need to step up the popular resistance and to expand it to all Palestinian areas harmed by the settlements and by the separation fence.”

q On Friday, January 29, 2010, a sermon was broadcast on PA-controlled TV that said in part:

“The Jews, the enemies of Allah and of His Messenger, the enemies of Allah and of His Messenger! Enemies of humanity in general, and of Palestinians in particular - they wage war against us using all kinds of crimes, and as you see - even the mosques are not spared their racism...

"Oh Muslims! The Jews are the Jews. The Jews are the Jews. Even if donkeys would cease to bray, dogs cease to bark, wolves cease to howl and snakes to bite, the Jews would not cease to harbor hatred towards Muslims. The Prophet said that if two Jews would be alone with a Muslim, they would think only of killing him. Oh Muslims! This land will be liberated, these holy places and these mosques will be liberated, only by means of a return to the Koran and when all Muslims will be willing to be Jihad Fighters for the sake of Allah and for the sake of supporting Palestine, the Palestinian people, the Palestinian land, and the holy places in Palestine. The Prophet says: 'You shall fight the Jews and kill them…’”#

Incitement by UNRWA
January 2010

Karen AbuZayd has retired as Commissioner-General of UNRWA and has been succeeded by Filippo Grandi, who had been AbuZayd’s lieutenant.

Providing insight into the issue of UNRWA incitement we have Mr. Grandi’s inaugural letter to the UNRWA staff, dated January 26, 2010. It appeared on the UNRWA website.#

Mr. Grandi’s letter includes the following:

“I need not tell you how difficult this period is for the Palestinian people. We are all painfully aware of the counterproductive policies collectively punishing the people of the Gaza Strip; conscious decisions that have caused untold suffering and a dramatic deterioration in the lives of the population, in contravention of international law. One of my key priorities will be to continue to advocate strongly on behalf of the 1.5 million Gazans, and to do so not only until the end of the blockade and the occupation, but also until a just and lasting solution to the plight of the refugees is achieved.

“Despite some recent economic improvements for some, the lives of most Palestinians in the West Bank continue to be made almost impossible by obstacles, walls, movement limitations and other restrictions, and by the expanding threat of settler violence. For those residing in East Jerusalem, as I do, it is cause for daily anguish to watch the situation deteriorate rapidly under our very eyes, especially the ruthless evictions of Palestinians from their homes. UNRWA will continue to stand with the affected families and all of those in need of our protection and will tirelessly lend our voice to their calls for justice.”

There are several seriously tendentious statements – and, in fact, outright misrep resenta tions – included here. But this material is problematic for reasons beyond this: UNRWA’S mandate is purely humanitarian. Grandi is assuming a political stance that is absolutely beyond his purview. How does UNRWA come to “stand with affected families” who have been evicted in eastern Jerusalem?

View the full document at Israel Behind the News

Training the Palestinian Security Forces for What?

by Jonathan Rosenblum, Director of Jewish Media Resources

On Thursday afternoon December 24, Rabbi Meir Chai, a 45-year-old religious school teacher, was shot and killed as he left the Shomron settlement of Shavei Shomron, in which he lived with his wife and seven children. Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade claimed responsibility almost immediately, and promised “more quality operations from us.... “

Two days later, on Shabbos, Israeli forces blockaded Nablus and surrounded the homes where the three Al-Aqsa Brigade members who plotted the attack lived. None of the three surrendered in response to a demand from the IDF forces that they do so, and each was subsequently killed in gun battles with Israeli forces.

The response of the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian media to the murder of Rabbi Chai and to Israel’s subsequent killing of his murderers raises again troubling questions about the Palestinian security services forces currently being trained by American and European experts.

Since 2005, the Untied States and EU have spent hundreds of millions of dollars training thousands of members of the various Palestinian security forces on the assumption that those forces will constitute one of the key institutions of the Palestinian state in the making. Those forces have been trained both in the basic police work and tasked with anti-terrorist efforts (at least in the minds of the trainers), on the assumption that a reduction in anti-Israel terror is a key component in winning Israeli agreement to the creation of a Palestinian state.

The results so far do not justify the investment nor give much cause to hope that the Palestinians are any closer to creating a stable political entity capable of living in peace with Israel. In The Case for Democracy, Natan Sharansky argued that only a democratic Palestinian state, in which citizens are capable of freely proclaiming their views in the marketplace, offers any hope of long-term peace with Israel. The creation of a trained police force would not have been self-evidently the first item on the agenda in creating the basics of a civil society capable of evolving into a democratic state. Nor has the record of the Palestinian security forces provided much cause for optimism on this score. Palestinian human rights groups have raised constant complaints against the various security forces for arbitrary arrests, brutality, and shakedown operations.

Nor has the training proved successful in creating a national identity that supercedes various other identities. Almost all members of the security forces are simultaneously members of Fatah, the revolutionary Palestinian organization from which most of the current leaders of the Palestinian Authority were drawn, and profess loyalty to Fatah. In addition, American trainers are not sufficiently sensitive to the importance of clan loyalties in Palestinian society.

The latter may have played a key role in the total failure of the American and European-trained forces to prevent a Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, even though those forces enjoyed a vast numerical advantage over the Hamas forces. Many Palestinian Authority fighters simply deserted or joined with Hamas fighters. Low levels of loyalty and esprit de corps have also characterized the Palestinian Authority forces in confrontation with Palestinian gunmen on the West Bank since 2007. Palestinian Security forces proved incapable of evicting Fatah gunmen from the casbah. They proved similarly ineffective in operations against an Islamic Jihad group in the Kabatya refugee camp. And in a mock drill, fake “Hamas” operatives attacked a PA prison and freed all the prisoners after the Palestinian security forces fled the scene.

Most important from Israel’s point of view, the American-trained forces have proven to be indifferent as an anti-terrorist force. As Maj.-General Yaakov Amidror, the former head of the IDF Staff and Command College and former head of the IDF Research and Assessment Division, points out, police work may have legitimacy in Palestinian society, anti-terrorist activities do not. Israel continues to carry out 70-80% of the anti-terrorist actions in the West Bank. To the extent that the Palestinian Authority security forces have conducted such operations, it has been almost entirely out of a desire to prevent a repeat of Hamas’s takeover of the Gaza Strip in the West Bank, not out of any desire to protect Israel from terror attacks.

Indeed it would be impossible to expect Palestinian security forces to show any commitment to anti-terror action when the Palestinian Authority leadership continues to glorify terrorism. After the murder of Rabbi Chai, approximately 100 meters from the site of a recently removed security checkpoint, the Palestinian Authority issued no condemnation of his murder, even after the Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade claimed responsibility. Palestinian media described Anan Subbah as the mastermind of the murder of Rabbi Chai, after the former was killed by IDF security forces. And yet Palestinian Authority President Abbas sent personal condolences to “the holy martyrs of the Palestinian revolution,” and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salem Fayyad personally visited the families of the slain terrorists. Meanwhile the official Palestinian media denounced their deaths as “murder in cold blood” and an “assassination.”

The proclamation of Rabbi Chai’s murderers as “military commanders, brave heroes and fighters,” was of a piece with the Palestinian Authority’s consistent glorification of terrorists. In late December, Abbas sponsored a celebration of the 50th birthday of Dalal Mughrabi, the mastermind of the 1979 Coastal Road Massacre, in which 37 Jews were killed. The official proclamation described her as the “bride of the cosmos,” and the Palestinian Authority daily proclaimed her “the heroine of the Palestinian heroines.”

Two high schools, numerous sports competitions, a new computer center, a Palestinian summer camp and a town square have been named after Mughrabi to date. A one-hour Palestinian television special recently celebrated the 1979 attack. In a similar vein, the Palestinian Authority just issued a musical video celebrating Wafa Indris, the first Palestinian female suicide bomber.

But while the U.S.-trained Palestinian security forces have proven largely ineffective against Palestinian terrorists of various stripes, they do threaten Israel. Twice before have CIA-trained Palestinian security forces, with whom there was a façade of cooperation with Israel, turned their guns on Israelis - the first time during the Tunnel Riots of 1996 and the second time at the outset of the Second Intifada called by Yasir Arafat after the 2000 Camp David summit. The fear is that those being trained under the supervision of U.S. General Keith Dayton may prove more effective than their predecessors. Dayton has himself stated that U.S. training has lifted Palestinian expectations of receiving their state within two years, and he raised the spectre of the Palestinian security forces turning their guns on Israel if those expectations are not met.

There is evidence that those U.S.-trained security forces include members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade responsible for the murder of Rabbi Chai. PA Prime Minister Fayyad, the great “Palestinian moderate” in Western eyes, has previously offered shelter to Brigade members in the compounds of the Palestinian security forces and paid their salaries out of PA coffers. Dan Diker, one of Israel’s most respected political analysts, writes that senior Al-Aqsa Brigade commanders have been assigned senior positions in the PA security forces, such as Aba Jabbal, the senior Palestinian Authority officer in Nablus. The mastermind of the murder of Rabbi Chai’s murder, Anan Subbuh, was found with two M-16s in his possession, even though as part of a U.S.-brokered amnesty agreement, he had foresworn any future possession of such arms.

Senior members of the Israeli defense establishment point out that the Palestinian security forces are not only receiving training from the United States and Europe, but high quality equipment. For instance, advanced surveillance equipment capable of monitoring military communications networks, intelligence networks, and cellular phones has been employed against Israeli targets. Abu Yousuf, a senior officer in Abbas’s Force 17 Presidential Guard, told the New York Sun (August 21 2007), “I do not think the operations of the Palestinian resistance [a code word for terrorism] would have been so successful and would have killed more than one thousand Israelis since 2000... without these [American] trainings.”

After the IDF eliminated the three terrorists who murdered Rabbi Chai, the United States demanded public clarifications from Israel of what had taken place. No similar clarifications were sought from the PA after Rabbi Chai’s murder and the PA’s failure to condemn it.

Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice-president of Agudath Israel of America, wrote to Secretary of State Clinton, of Mr. Abbas’s failure to disassociate himself and the Palestinian Authority from Rabbi Chai’s murder, “There is something deeply wrong here.” When the recipients of half a billion dollars in aid under the 2010 foreign aid budget law “are linked to terrorists, and even have words of praise for terrorists, it is only logical to question the wisdom, not to mention the moral rectitude of our aid,” he continued.

Indeed.

Jonathan Rosenblum is the director of Jewish Media Resources, a leading media organization dedicated to furthering an understanding of Torah Judaism. Jewish Media Resources works with foreign journalists stationed in Israel and with local journalists by providing access to leading figures within the Orthodox Jewish community in Israel, and with information and insights about the community. Jonathan also serves as an English-language spokesman for the Orthodox Jewish community with foreign journalists.

View the Post at israelbehindthenews.com

Recent Official Incitement of the Palestinian Authority Media

With Renewed Talks in the Offing, This Report is Most Salient

Abbas sponsors birthday celebrations honoring "Martyr" Dalal Mughrabi, killer of 37 (Palestinian Media Watch)

Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
p: +972 2 625 4140 +972 2 625 4140 e: pmw@palwatch.org
f: +972 2 624 2803 w: www.palwatch.org

This week Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas once again honored the memory of the terrorist Dalal Mughrabi - this time by sponsoring a
ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of her birth. Mughrabi led the
worst terror attack in Israel's history in 1978, when she and other
terrorists hijacked a bus and killed 37 civilians. Present at the ceremony
were Palestinian dignitaries and a children's marching band. Earlier this
year, Abbas sponsored a computer center named after Mughrabi.

The PA further glorified Mughrabi on the date of her birth when the Governor
of Ramallah announced the naming of the "Dalal Mughrabi Square".

An article by Fatah spokesman Jamal Nazal in the official PA daily [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 30, 2009] defined the terrorist Mughrabi as "the heroine of Palestine's heroines."

The text on the giant banner carrying Mughrabi's portrait at the birthday
ceremony read:

"Under the auspices of President Mahmoud Abbas
The Political and National Education Authority
Ceremony on the anniversary of the birth of the bride of the cosmos
The Shahida (Martyr) Dalal Mughrabi."

Two PA TV news broadcasts focused on the celebration:
"Under the auspices of President Mahmoud Abbas, the Political and National
Education Authority held a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the
Shahida (Martyr) Dalal Mughrabi, commander of the Coastal Operation (i.e.
hijacking of bus and killing of 37 civilians)."

[PA TV (Fatah), Dec. 29, 2009]
==========================================

Abbas and PA turn latest terrorist murderers into Palestinian national heroes
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
p: +972 2 625 4140 +972 2 625 4140 e: pmw@palwatch.org
f: +972 2 624 2803 w: www.palwatch.org

Rabbi Meir Avshalom Hai -- a 45-year old Israeli and father of seven
children - was killed in a drive-by shooting last Thursday. The Al-Aqsa
Martyrs' Brigades, part of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's
Fatah movement, took responsibility for the killing. On Friday night,
Israeli forces located and killed three of the terrorists involved in the
attack. The fourth surrendered to the PA police.

The response of the PA has been unequivocal support and backing for the
terrorists. Since Friday, the leadership of the PA, the heads of Fatah, the
heads of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and the PA-controlled media have
continuously portrayed the killers as Palestinian heroes and Shahids -- holy
Martyrs -- while describing Israel's killing of the three terrorists as
"murder in cold blood" and "assassination."

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas declared the killers "Shahids" (holy Martyrs) and
sent his personal emissary to visit the families:

"Secretary General of the Presidents Bureau, Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim, conveyed condolences on behalf of President Mahmoud Abbas to the residents of Nablus
and to the families of the three Shahids [Martyrs] for the Martyrdom of
their sons, who were assassinated by Israeli occupation forces yesterday
morning. He conveyed to the fighting families letters of condolences from
the President [Abbas] and updated them as to [Abbas's] decision to declare
them as Shahids [Martyrs] of the Palestinian revolution..."

Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim:

"Without doubt, what the [Israeli] occupation
authorities have carried out is a wild and barbaric act and a deliberate,
malicious assassination in cold blood."

[PA TV (Fatah) News, Dec. 27, 2009]

PA Prime Minster Salam Fayyad went even further, personally visiting the
families of the terrorists along with other senior PA officials.

"Prime Minister visits Nablus and conveys condolences to the families of the Shahids (Martyrs). Prime Minister Dr. Salam Fayyad today visited the city of
Nablus in the wake of the Israeli military operation, and presented
condolences to the families of the three Martyrs who were murdered by the
occupation forces.

Dr. Fayyad was accompanied by Internal Affairs Minister Dr. Said Abu Ali,
leaders of the security agencies, and Police Director-General Major General
Hazem Atallah, and they visited the house of mourning, which was held in the
Trade Unions compound in the city... The Prime Minister condemned the
Israeli military operation in the city."

[WAFA news agency, Dec. 26, 2009]

The Fatah movement is glorifying the terrorists:

"Mahmoud Al-Aloul, member of the Fatah Central Committee, said that the occupation murdered these three young men as well as another three in Gaza,
in cold blood. He described them as '[military] commanders, brave heroes,
and fighters.'"

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 27, 2009]



PA TV focused on the Fatah poster (above), signed with condolences of PA
Chairman Abbas, honoring the three terrorists. The following is the text on
the poster with pictures of the terrorists:

"With honor and admiration to those who are more honored than all of us." [Reference to supreme honor of Shahids - Martyrs in Islam] (http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=110)

"The Palestine Liberation Organization, Fatah, accompanies to their wedding:"
[Reference to Islamic belief that Martyrs marry virgins in Paradise]

The Martyr, Commander, Hero: Rassan Abu Serah
The Martyr, Commander, Hero: Ra'ed Al Aschregi
The Martyr, Commander, Hero: Anan Sobh

The Director General of the Presidency expresses condolences to the Nablus
Martyrs - in the name of the President [Abbas]

It's important to note that in condemning Israel's killing of the
terrorists, the PA is not denying that those killed were responsible for the
murder of Rabbi Hai:

"The Shahid Imad Mughniyeh group [named after Hezbollah terrorist] of the [Fatah's] Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades has denounced the [Israeli] crime of the
assassination in Nablus, killing three Fatah activists, including Anan Sobh,
who, according to the [Fatah's Al-Aqsa] Brigades, planned the Tulkarem
operation which led to the death of the settler in a shooting operation."
[Ma'an News Agency, Dec. 26, 2009]

In the official announcement right after the terror attack, Fatah took
responsibility, while calling the killers "Jihad Fighters" and warning of
more "quality operations:"

"A group announcing that it belonged to the Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs'
Brigades claimed responsibility for the shooting... 'The Jihad Fighters
confirmed that the person who was in the car had taken a direct hit, and
praise to Allah - the Jihad Fighters escaped unharmed...' The announcement
said that 'this action is part of a series of operations; you can expect
more quality operations [terror attacks] from us.'"

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 25, 2009]

After the terrorists were killed the Fatah changed from threatening more
"quality operations" to warning that it would avenge the killing of the
"Jihad Fighters:"

Headline: "The occupation murders three residents of Nablus in cold blood...
the President's [Abbas's] Bureau denounces the Israeli crime..."

"The [Fatah's] Al-Aqsa Brigades announced: 'By the act of murdering an
elite group of our Jihad Fighters in Nablus and in Gaza, the occupation is
opening for itself the gates of Hell.' They threatened that 'our activists
will not stand idly by while the blood of Jihad Fighters is spilled... The
enemy will hear nothing from us but the language of blood and fire, and our
Shahada [Martyrdom] Seekers will go out to [the enemy] from every place in
order to turn his days into nights, and he will come to regret his crime. We
shall not sleep over the blood of our Jihad Fighters, and our response will
be swift... We affirm the continuation of our choice of blood and Martyrdom.
The only choice, in the face of the repeated attacks against our people in
the towns and villages and refugee camps of the occupied homeland. We shall
turn the spilled blood of the Martyrs and the commanders into a torch of
fury that will burn the forces of evil and aggression."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 27, 2009]

=============================================

Fatah vows to escalate struggle against occupation
Thu Dec 31, 2009:44 am ET

RAMALLAH (West Bank) (AFP) - The secular Fatah movement led by Palestinian
president Mahmud Abbas on Thursday vowed to step up its struggle against the
Israeli occupation with demonstrations and diplomacy.

"Our program emphasizes the importance of a two-track approach, with the first being the escalation of the popular struggle to resist occupation,"
the movement said in a statement.

The group said it would model the struggle on the weekly demonstrations in
two West Bank towns, Bilin and Nilin, where residents hurl rocks and protest
against the expansion of Israel's controversial separation barrier.

Fatah, which marks the 45th anniversary of the start of its armed struggle
on Friday, also vowed to "increase movement on the international level to
pursue Israel, to isolate it and to force it to answer to international
law."

"We renew our vow to continue the struggle until the end of the occupation
and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with east
Jerusalem as its capital, and a solution to the refugee issue," it said.

Fatah went on to say that it "would not spare any effort in restoring
Palestinian national unity and returning the Gaza Strip from the hands of
those who have taken it hostage," referring to its Hamas rivals.

The two main Palestinian movements have been divided into geographically
separated hostile camps since the Islamist Hamas seized power in Gaza in
2007.

The secular Fatah was founded by the late iconic leader Yasser Arafat in the
1950s and formally launched its armed struggle against Israel on January 1,
1965.

Arafat entered into peace negotiations with Israel when he signed the 1993
Oslo autonomy accords, but during the 2000 Palestinian uprising Fatah's
armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, carried out scores of deadly
attacks.

When Abbas became president following Arafat's death in 2004 he brought the
armed struggle to a halt, but the movement has never given up its "right to
resistance" against the Israeli occupation of lands seized in 1967.