PA: All Israel is “our land Palestine”; All Israelis are settlers; Israel's demise is certain
PA: All Israel is “our land Palestine” – including Safed, Haifa, Acre, and Jaffa
Israelis living in Haifa, Jaffa, and Be’er Sheva are “settlers”
Palestinians have “natural right” to “fight in Haifa, Jaffa, and Be’er Sheva”
“The occupation (i.e., Israel) is nearing its end”
In two recent broadcasts, the PA reiterated its internal narrative that it tries to hide from the international community: All of Israel is Palestinian land - including Safed, Haifa, Acre, and Jaffa:
Official PA TV host: “From Safed, Haifa, Acre, and Jaffa (i.e., Israeli cities), and from every inch of our land Palestine: “Good morning Jerusalem. A morning of splendor and glory for the capital of our hearts and our state… Many invaders have passed here. They have vanished, and Jerusalem has remained Palestinian, Islamic, and Christian. The occupation is nearing its end. And tomorrow, which is full of hope and freedom, is ours.”
[Official PA TV, Good Morning Jerusalem, Dec. 4, 2020]
Moreover, official PA TV facilitated the spreading of the message that all Israelis – even those living in Haifa, Jaffa, and Be’er Sheva - are “settlers”:
Head of the Committee of Relatives of Jerusalem Prisoners Amjad Abu Asab: “When did the prisoners’ movement begin? When did the arrests begin? They began in 1948, not in 1967. We need to shake off the dust, and to say that the fighter who realized his right to fight in Haifa, Jaffa, and Be’er Sheva(i.e., Israeli cities) is a fighter who realized his natural right to his land… Why is the settler sitting in Hebron, Jaffa, and Haifa? We are the true owners of the land. The prisoners’ movement began the struggle from the first moment of the occupation [in 1948], and it has continued and not stopped for a moment. Therefore we must shake off the dust and tell the entire world: Every prisoner in the occupation’s (i.e., Israel's) prisons is a fighter who defended his religious, historical, and human right.”
[Official PA TV, Good Morning Jerusalem, Nov. 6, 2020]
The message that Israel “will come to an end” as happened to past “invaders” has been disseminated for years by the PA. For example, Palestinian Media Watch reported that the following PA music video, portraying Israel as a foreign invader like the Romans, Christians, and British destined to be expelled, has been broadcast hundreds of times on official PA TV stations, from 2012 – 2020:
The same fundamental PA conviction that Israel will be defeated and cease to exist was expressed recently by a columnist writing for the official PA daily:
“Given that there are Arab brothers who are convinced that Israel is the last western colonialist base, we are certain that we will take back our land, and that the colonialism and occupation will become nothing more than lines in the history books.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 8, 2020]
Similarly, Abbas’ advisor and the PA’s Supreme Shari’ah Judge Mahmoud Al-Habbash expressed confidence that Israel will cease to exist, explaining that its existence is a result of a conspiracy of foreign nations:
“Supreme Shari’ah Judge of Palestine and [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas’] Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash… emphasized that various states and nations conspired in the historical injustice that was inflicted on to the Palestinian people, which will only reach its end when the occupation is removed from the land of Palestine, and when the State of Palestine whose capital is Jerusalem is established on the Palestinian people’s historical land, so that peace, security, and stability will prevail. He added: ‘We are convinced that the night of occupation and aggression will pass in the end, of this there is no doubt, and then the believers will rejoice in Allah’s victory.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 30, 2020]
The view that Israel is a “colonialist implant” placed by the West to ruin relations between the Arab states in the Middle East and “steal” the region’s resources is a libel often repeated by the PA, as expressed again recently by a PLO official:
“PLO Executive Committee member [and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) Political Bureau member] Tayseer Khaled described Israel as a functional state that was planted by the imperialist forces in the region in order to serve as one of their tools of aggression to interfere in the region’s affairs, take control of it, and steal its resources.”
[Ma’an, independent Palestinian news agency, Nov. 26, 2020]
The following are longer excerpts of the statements cited above:
“PLO Executive Committee member [and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) Political Bureau member] Tayseer Khaled described Israel as a functional state that was planted by the imperialist forces in the region in order to serve as one of their tools of aggression to interfere in the region’s affairs, take control of it, and steal its resources. He said that in its behavior and policy that violate the law, this functional state relies on the protection that these imperialist states, and particularly the US, have provided and are still providing to it in order to act as an exceptional state that does not need to be held accountable…
Khaled simultaneously called to withdraw from the decision to renew the relations with the Israeli enemy to the situation that was before last May 19, [2020].”[Ma’an, independent Palestinian news agency, Nov. 26, 2020]
“Supreme Shari’ah Judge of Palestine and [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas’] Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash said that the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is proof of the world’s opposition to the historical injustice that was inflicted on the Palestinian people more than seven decades ago, when the UN passed the partition resolution for Palestine on Nov. 29, 1948 (i.e., UN Resolution 181; see note below).
The supreme Shari’ah judge added that the partition resolution expropriated the Palestinian people’s right to its land, and gave it to foreigners who arrived from all ends of the earth to occupy a land that is not theirs and to which they have no right.
Al-Habbash emphasized that various states and nations conspired in the historical injustice that was inflicted on to the Palestinian people, which will only reach its end when the occupation is removed from the land of Palestine, and when the State of Palestine whose capital is Jerusalem is established on the Palestinian people’s historical land, so that peace, security, and stability will prevail. He added: ‘We are convinced that the night of occupation and aggression will pass in the end, of this there is no doubt, and then the believers will rejoice in Allah’s victory.’”[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 30, 2020]
Mahmoud Al-Habbash also serves as Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari'ah Justice. In August 2019 PA Chairman Abbas dismissed all his advisors by Presidential decree. It is unclear what their status is today.
UN Resolution 181 (the UN partition plan for Palestine) was passed by the UN General Assembly in 1947. It called for the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem as a separate entity under the rule of a special international body. The Arab state was meant to be comprised of the western Galilee, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, and the remaining territory of the Mandate west of the Jordan River would be the state of Israel - Jordan (known at the time as Transjordan) had already been established in what had been the part of the Mandate that was east of the Jordan River. The resolution was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, but Arab leaders and governments rejected it, and launched a war to destroy Israel.