Rajoub: Israel “exploited the Holocaust” and is committing “a second ‎Holocaust against the Palestinians”; Netanyahu is “the ugly face of ‎Mussolini and Hitler” ‎

Video and text posted on the Facebook page of Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub

Posted text: “[Fatah Central Committee ‎Secretary] Jibril Rajoub in an interview ‎with the Kuwaiti satellite channel Al-‎Shahed on his visit to Kuwait and the ‎recent political developments.”‎

Video:‎
Fatah Central Committee Secretary ‎Jibril Rajoub: “For the first time a change ‎occurred in the behavior of the American ‎administration [following former US ‎President Donald Trump’s 2016 election]. ‎For the first time the American ‎administration is cooperating with the ‎path of the fascist right-wing that is ‎being led by [Israeli Prime Minister ‎Benjamin] Netanyahu, the ugly face of ‎‎[Benito] Mussolini and [Adolf] Hitler…‎

We are heading towards establishing the ‎independent Palestinian state, which is ‎an essential element in the equation of ‎the conflict, and no one will have peace, ‎security, or stability without us having ‎a state. I say to the members of our [Arab] ‎people in Kuwait and to our Arab and ‎Islamic depth: We are 7 million ‎Palestinians between the ‎‎[Mediterranean] Sea and the [Jordan] ‎River… and we will not wave a white flag ‎and will not submit-”‎

Kuwaiti satellite channel Al-Shahed ‎host: “And the Fatah Movement’s ‎resistance is continuing?”‎

Jibril Rajoub: “The clash with the ‎occupation has been continuing for 100 ‎years already, and the clash is [our] ‎connection [with the occupation] and the ‎strategic choice. At this stage, we are ‎saying popular resistance (i.e., term used ‎by Palestinians, which also refers to the ‎use of violence and terror)-”‎

Host: “Is Fatah’s armed resistance ‎continuing or are the talks with the Israeli ‎side putting an end to this matter?”‎

Jibril Rajoub: “Popular resistance is our ‎choice at this stage. In our national ‎dialogue [with Hamas it was determined ‎that] a general change of the clash with ‎the occupation is conditional on the ‎developments on the ground. Our ‎connection with the occupation is based ‎on a clash…‎

Look, [the Israelis] are really acting as if ‎they are the victim. You of course know ‎that they exploited the issue of the ‎Holocaust, which someone other than ‎us [caused], in other words, not the Arabs ‎or the Muslims. They were slaughtered ‎in Europe, it was a despicable ‎massacre, and we all oppose it and do ‎not accept it, but we did not do it – ‎neither we as Arabs nor we as ‎Muslims. But I say that what is ‎happening in Palestine is a second ‎holocaust. We are 14 million people ‎who are having an elimination and ‎erasing carried out against them ‎ geographically, historically, ‎humanly, religiously, and culturally. ‎The slaughter- of course, in the 21st ‎century [the occupation] cannot do what ‎was done in the 1940s, but what is the ‎difference? The murder of children, the ‎Gaza Strip was destroyed in three wars ‎‎(i.e., Operations Cast Lead, Pillar of ‎Defense, and Protective Edge, which ‎were all limited defensive responses to ‎indiscriminate Hamas rocket fire on ‎Israeli population centers), thousands of ‎people [were killed]. A third of the victims ‎are women and another third are ‎children, and 90% of them are citizens ‎who were walking on the street (sic., ‎Israel made efforts to avoid civilian ‎casualties while Hamas used human ‎shields; in Operation Protective Edge ‎approximately half of the casualties were ‎terrorists)… They are the criminals. ‎They are the murderers. They are the ‎lowly ones. And they are doing what ‎happened to them to the Palestinians.”‎

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).

The terms "peaceful uprising/resistance,” and “popular uprising/resistance" are used by PA leaders at times to refer to peaceful protest and at times to refer to deadly terror attacks and terror waves. For example, ‎Mahmoud Abbas defined as “peaceful popular” the murderous terror during the 2015-2016 ‎terror wave (“The Knife Intifada”), in which 40 people were killed (36 Israelis, 1 Palestinian, 2 Americans and 1 Eritrean) and hundreds wounded in stabbings, shootings, and car ramming attacks. Abbas said: "We want peaceful popular uprising, and that’s what this is." https://palwatch.org/page/9276

Gaza War 2014 / Operation Protective Edge – In June 2014, Hamas escalated its hostilities and attacks against Israel - including the firing of numerous rockets at Israel. Israel responded with Operation Protective Edge, which aimed at destroying Hamas' ability to launch rockets and its terror infrastructure in general, which included its building of cross-border tunnels for the purpose of terror attacks and kidnappings. The war began on July 7, 2014, when the Israeli government ordered the Israeli army to launch an aerial operation against Hamas and other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, and continued until Aug. 26, 2014, when an open-ended ceasefire was declared. During the war, 32 Hamas cross-border tunnels built for the purpose of terror attacks were destroyed, and two thirds of Hamas' rocket arsenal was used up or destroyed. Despite claims by Hamas and others of Israel using disproportionate force and of an extreme amount of civilian casualties, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, stated on Nov. 6, 2014, that Israel had gone to “extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and prevent civilian casualties in the Gaza conflict.”