Top PA/Fatah official (Rajoub): Terrorist murderers - including Hamas founder Yassin - are “giants and legends”

Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “If the Arabs continue to pressure us together with the Israelis and the Americans – we will change the rules of engagement with the Israelis. We won’t open fire on the Arabs and we don't want to escalate against anyone, but we are capable of controlling the rules of engagement., And by the way, all the options are open… In the shade of the Palestinian flag… we will all take refuge… draw nearer to one another, to think, eat, drink, sing, and live our lives as Palestinians, through the pride and glory of our people’s sacrifices – our Martyrs, our prisoners, our wounded… The Israelis assassinated Yasser Arafat because of his patriotism, and so too regarding Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and Abu Ali Mustafa. They are giants. We must be loyal to this heritage. And also [to] those who are still in prison, and foremost among them Karim Younes… Maher Younes, Ahmad Sa’adat, and Marwan Barghouti… We have 6,000 giants inside the prisons whose names I cannot mention, but each one of them is a legend, each one of them is an ethos.”

Jibril Rajoub also serves as Head of the PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, Chairman of the Palestinian Football Association, Chairman of the Palestine Olympic Committee, and Chairman of the Palestinian Scout Association (PSA).

Yasser Arafat – Founder of Fatah and former chairman of the PLO and PA. During the 1960s, 70s and 80s Arafat was behind numerous terror attacks against Israelis. Although he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 together with then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and then Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Shimon Peres “for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East" after signing the Oslo Accords peace agreement, Arafat launched a 5-year terror campaign - the second Intifada (2000-2005) – in which more than 1,000 Israelis were murdered. Arafat died of an illness in 2004.