PMW quoted extensively in article by research organization Investigative Project against Terrorism

Note: Excerpts from IPT’s article below. PMW material marked in bold.

Commentators far and wide make it sound as if President Trump's decision to formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital is the death knell of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. In the process, they perpetuate their continual blindness to the fact the Palestinian Authority (PA), headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, considers Israel proper part of the disputed territories and wishes Israel's destruction. […]

"O Allah, liberate our mosque from the occupation's filth," a July Facebook post by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction said. A graphic showed two hands holding the Dome of the Rock. […]

Even without Iranian saber rattling, Trump or Israeli settlements, Palestinian leaders would not be terribly interested in peace – only in abolishing Israel. "I have seen that Western commentators actively look for ways to justify PA terror support. They don't judge the actions objectively but look for excuses for the Palestinians. Palestinians are victims. They have no tanks. They are under occupation. I have heard it all," Palestinian Media Watch director Itamar Marcus told the Investigative Project on Terrorism.

"Since the excuses are so trivial, and don't justify murder of civilians, it is clear that they are coming with their own anti-Israel bias, and then rewriting the facts based on that bias. That is the only way to explain their justifying murder of woman and children."

Palestinians consider all of what was known as Palestine prior to 1948 to be occupied territory. Most Palestinian factions refer to Israel as the "1948 territories," including the Palestinian Authority, whose official newspaper used the term last month… Polls show that 2/3 of Palestinians share this attitude, Marcus said.

You can't have real peace when one side claims to want peace but continues actively supporting violence. Even when it endorsed a peace initiative in the Oslo Accords, which led to the PA's creation in exchange for recognizing Israel, the move was a means to an end, the late PA President Yasser Arafat said in a 1994 speech. He compared the deal to the Treaty of Hudabiyyah, considered a 'Sulha Dania' [a despicable truce] between Islam's " Prophet Muhammad and Quraish." The Treaty of Hudabiyyah brought about a 10-year truce between Muhammad and the Jewish Banu Qurayza tribe, but the Muslim prophet violated the treaty after two years and seized Mecca.

Arafat repeated this comparison in 1995.

PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash reiterated the sentiment in 2013, in Abbas' presence. "In less than two years, the Prophet returned and based on this treaty, he conquered Mecca. This is the example, this is the model," Al-Habbash said.

Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and his successors have offered Israel similar truces, or have offered to accept Israel's pre-1967 borders on a temporary basis without recognizing Israel's right to exist. The terrorist group refuses to renounce claims to the "1948 territories."
The Fatah-led PA has been more insidious because of its double talk.

Arafat told Israelis in the 1990s that his Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) annulled parts of its 1969 Palestine Charter that called for Israel's destruction. However, no documentation of this supposed change has ever appeared.

Throughout the Second Intifada, Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade carried out a series of suicide bombings and other attacks. Internal records show that the PA paid Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade members involved in terror attacks.

Arafat oversaw these terror attacks, PA documents show

Palestinian Authority TV recently glorified suicide bombings against Israel twice this month, airing a music video that calls on Palestinians to become "martyrs" for Al-Aqsa.

"The weapons of the resistance are pure, and must be kept. We are increasing our training daily and strengthening our capabilities for the appropriate day, because we are not like sheep going to the slaughter," Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki told a local Hebron radio station on Nov. 9. "All talk of disarmament is consistent with [the interests of] Israel, while the talk of controlling [the weapons] is preparation for the coming day of battle."

Marcus argues that the PA has never genuinely negotiated for peace with Israel because of the strong pro-Palestinian slant held by international bodies such as the United Nations. "Since its inception the Palestinian Authority has gone through the motions of pretending to be in a peace process but has never wanted a peace process. Every generous offer from Israel the PA has rejected and they even had to be bribed to come to peace talks," Marcus said. "UNESCO declared Jerusalem only Islamic. It is false and Israel would never agree to that lie – so why negotiate seriously when the international community will grant them political achievements ... unilaterally?"