A new chapter in the PA’s fictitious narrative of victimhood: Terrorists are innocent, “executed by Israel” for no reason
PA Prime Minister’s libel: Two terrorist stabbers were “executed” by Israel
One terrorist just “crossed the road and they executed him”
Another terrorist was “shot... while he was in the area”
PA demonization: “The children are dying from the bullets of [Israeli] soldiers who are filled with hatred towards everything Palestinian”
When 17-year-old Palestinian Atallah Rayyan was shot and killed while trying to stab and murder an Israeli soldier last week, the PA was quick to put out fake news, telling Palestinians he was “executed.”
Right away, the PA utilized the so-called “Martyrdom”-death of a terrorist to further its narrative of victimhood, according to which every problem, crisis, and hardship is Israel's fault.
It follows that when young Palestinians heed the PA’s teachings and carry out “an operation,” attacking Israeli soldiers with knives and getting killed in the process, they are innocent according to the PA.
Last week two such stabbings took place, and in both cases the Palestinian terrorist stabbers were killed when Israeli soldiers defended themselves. But the Palestinian public is told that they were innocent and just happened to be near the soldiers who – according to the PA libel about Israeli policy – shoot to kill young Palestinians for no reason.
This whitewashing of attempted murder is coming from the very top of the PA: No less than Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh fed the libel, repeating the lie that Israel has a policy of “summary executions”:
Shtayyeh: “The [Israeli] killings of young Palestinians have also expanded according to the policy of opening fire to kill, or the policy of summary execution. Last week, we lost two Martyrs who were shot by the occupation at the two checkpoints of the colonies Ariel and Gush Etzion (i.e., Atallah Rayyan and an unidentified second terrorist stabber).”
[Official PA TV, Feb. 1, 2021]
Official PA TV chimed in too, claiming one of the stabbers was shot just because he “was in the area”:
Official PA TV newsreader: “A young person whose identity is still unknown died as a Martyr after the occupation’s soldiers shot him south of Bethlehem (refers to an unidentified terrorist who attempted to stab Israeli soldiers before being shot and killed; the attack was captured by security cameras -Ed.). Our reporter said the occupation forces at [Gush] Etzion Junction shot the young person while he was in the area, and as a result he was severely wounded and they left him bleeding on the ground until he ascended [to Heaven] as a Martyr.”
[Official PA TV News, Jan. 31, 2021]
Likewise, the official PA news agency claimed that stabber Atallah Rayyan just “crossed the road” when Israeli soldiers “filled with hatred towards everything Palestinian… murdered him in cold blood”:
“The [Palestinian] children are dying from the bullets of [Israeli] soldiers who are filled with hatred towards everything Palestinian, soldiers who suspect a young man or woman who pass by them, live in fear of everything connected to them – even their stares, touch their rifle triggers, and shoot to kill, even though they are fortified behind pieces of iron and cement and inside military towers…
Atallah is one of dozens of names [of people] whom the occupation has executed on the roads of the land… All that Atallah did was to cross the road quickly (sic.)…
Atallah’s issue is the story of most of the Mart.yrs – they are murdered in cold blood…”[WAFA, official PA news agency, Jan. 27, 2021;
official Fatah Facebook page, Jan. 27, 2021]
The “.” in the word “Mart.yrs” appears in the Facebook post version of the article in an apparent attempt to avoid Facebook’s algorithm which searches and deletes Fatah Facebook posts that glorify Martyrs.In the identical WAFA version the word is written normally: “Martyr.”
The libel that Israelis deliberately target Palestinian children to kill them is often repeated by the PA, and even broadcast to young Palestinian children on children’s programs on TV, as Palestinian Media Watch has exposed:
Official PA TV children’s host Walaa Al-Battat: “Unfortunately – and this is a very painful thing that I want to tell you about – a number of friends have lost their right to live because the occupation is deliberately killing the Palestinian children, and this is a very painful thing.”
[Official PA TV, The Best Home, Nov. 21, 2020]
As is its policy, Abbas’ Fatah glorified stabber Atallah Rayyan as “heroic,” while Abbas sent his deputy chairman Al-Aloul to convey condolences to the family:
Posted text: “Allah’s mercy upon him”
Text on image: “The Fatah Movement eulogizes the son of the town Qarawat Bani Hassan and its pure-hearted Martyr – heroic Martyr Atallah Muhammad Harb Rayyan”
[Official Fatah Facebook page, Jan. 26, 2021]
Posted text: “On behalf of [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas] and the Fatah leadership: [Fatah Deputy Chairman and Fatah Central Committee member Mahmoud] Al-Aloul offers condolences to the relatives of Martyr Atallah Rayyan. Fatah Deputy Chairman Mahmoud Al-Aloul ‘Abu Jihad’ offered condolences on behalf of the president, the Palestinian leadership, and Fatah [to the relatives of] young Atallah Rayyan as part of his visit today [Jan. 28, 2021] to the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan in Salfit to fulfill the obligation of visiting the mourners. Al-Aloul conveyed the sincere condolences of His Honor President [Abbas] and the leadership to the Martyr’s relatives and his family.”
[Official Fatah Facebook page, Jan. 28, 2021]
The following are longer excerpts of the statements above and additional reports:
PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh: “On a different matter, the [Israeli] violence and attacks are continuing – the terror and attacks of the settlers and the occupation army are continuing. The magnitude of the destruction of Palestinian homes in the Palestinian villages, Jerusalem, and its surroundings have reached an unprecedented scope. The [Israeli] killings of young Palestinians have also expanded according to the policy of opening fire to kill, or the policy of summary execution (sic.). Last week, we lost two Martyrs who were shot by the occupation at the two checkpoints of the colonies Ariel and Gush Etzion. (i.e., Atallah Rayyan and a second unidentified terrorist, both attempted to stab Israeli soldiers). I send condolences to their families. On your behalf I also send condolences to the family of prisoner Martyr Maher Sa’sa (PMW was unable to determine the nature of his crimes -Ed.) in Qalqilya, who died as a Martyr in the occupation’s prisons due to the policy of medical neglect (sic., see note below regarding the PA libel on medical abuse of Palestinian prisoners).”
[Official PA TV, Feb. 1, 2021]
The “young Palestinians” Shtayyeh refers to are terrorist Atallah Rayyan and another unidentified terrorist, who both attempted to stab Israeli soldiers.
Atallah Muhammad Rayyan – 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist who attempted to stab an Israeli female soldier near Ariel on Jan. 28, 2021, before another soldier shot him.
The other as of yet unidentified terrorist attempted to stab Israeli soldiers at the Gush Etzion Junction south of Jerusalem on Jan. 31, 2021, before the Israeli soldiers shot him in self-defense.
Summary executions - The PA and Fatah routinely present Israel’s killing of terrorists in self-defense during the terrorists’ attacks as “summary executions” carried out “in cold blood” for no reason.
Headline: “Atallah – he crossed the road quickly and they executed him”
“While the occupation’s intelligence service informed Muhammad Harb Rayyan by phone that his son, young Atallah [Rayyan] (i.e., terrorist, attempted to stab Israeli soldiers), 17, had died as a Martyr, the occupation army’s female soldier Lian Harush was speaking with her relatives living in London to tell them she was present at the site and was not hurt (Rayyan attempted to stab Harush multiple times, but she was able to fend him off until another soldier shot him -Ed.).
This is how it works on the ground – those who come from London must be at their best and always be prepared to shoot the Palestinians, who are considered a legitimate target for the occupation’s soldiers just because they pass next to a military point, or even near soldiers who are deployed at the road junctions in the occupied West Bank.
‘Your son’s life is over’ – in this way, with full simplicity, in a short conversation, one of the most difficult things that a family could have revealed to them. The children are dying from the bullets of soldiers who are filled with hatred towards everything Palestinian, soldiers who suspect a young man or woman who pass by them, live in fear of everything connected to them – even their stares, touch their rifle triggers, and shoot to kill, even though they are fortified behind pieces of iron and cement and inside military towers…
Atallah is one of dozens of names [of people] whom the occupation has executed on the roads of the land, particularly between the years of 2015-2020, which are the years in which a growing escalation was seen in the crimes of the occupation and its settlers at the checkpoints and military points.
All that Atallah did was to cross the road quickly (sic.) – the car traffic is fast there and the traffic lights are in three directions. This is in addition to there being surveillance cameras, three military points, and a surveillance tower where there are soldiers armed with weapons. All of this is in a space of no more than 100 meters. At that very spot and at that very road young Elias Yassin (i.e., terrorist, attempted to stab an Israeli soldier) from the town of Bidya was executed three years ago.
The father of the Mart.yr (thmoshe8789moe “.” appears in the Facebook post version of the article in an apparent attempt to avoid Facebook’s algorithm, while in the WAFA version the word is written normally: “Martyr” -Ed.), Muhammad Rayyan, who works with marble on Rujeib Street in Nablus, said: ‘I asked Atallah to help me as much as he could, I called him and asked him to come to me after the exam; I waited for him, but he did not come. Instead, I got a phone call telling me that he died as a Mart.yr (as above -Ed.).’ …
Atallah’s issue is the story of most of the Mart.yrs (as above -Ed.) – they are murdered in cold blood, their bodies are held for years in the occupation’s [morgue] refrigerators, and their relatives are even forbidden from saying goodbye to them.”[WAFA, official PA news agency, Jan. 27, 2021;
official Fatah Facebook page, Jan. 27, 2021]
Elias Yassin – 22-year-old Palestinian terrorist who attempted to stab an Israeli soldier near Ariel on Oct. 15, 2018, before other soldiers shot him.