Abbas “salutes” Arab rioters in Jerusalem; Fatah promotes “intifada” against Jews
Abbas: “We salute our people in Jerusalem for their resolve against the Israeli plans to take control of the holy city”
Fatah: “There is an uprising and intifada in Jerusalem” - Fatah supports violent assaults against Jews
Official PA daily editorial: “Jerusalem’s protectors and guardians have well understood that the elections in Jerusalem are a battle of national sovereignty… the protectors and guardians of Jerusalem, the brave residents of Jerusalem, have set the streets of the capital on fire and have lit the torch of defiance next to its historical gates…”
Official PA daily editorial: Riots are “clearest heroic examples of defending the sanctity of the capital and its holy sites”
Fatah official “urges young people” to join Jerusalem riots and “to defend the holy sites” and official PA TV broadcast the call
Fatah: Confrontations in Jerusalem “not temporary” but “a confrontation between justice and injustice and between truth and lies”
Fatah official: “There are lions in Jerusalem who are defending it”
Fatah: Jerusalem Arabs are “the roaring lions”
PA and Fatah Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is actively encouraging the Arabs rioting in Jerusalem:
Abbas: “Jerusalem is a red line. We will not agree to it being harmed. We salute our people in Jerusalem for their resolve against the Israeli plans to take control of the holy city.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 26, 2021]
Abbas said this at a meeting in the Fatah Movement Central Committee, and his statement was published by the official PA daily.
Abbas also repeated the PA’s excuse for the violence, stressing the PA’s demand to Israel to hold elections in Jerusalem:
“We emphasize that under no circumstances will we agree to hold the [PA] general elections without the participation of Jerusalem and its residents in running, campaigning, and voting.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 26, 2021]
Abbas’ Fatah Movement further promoted the antisemitic nature of the riots by posting a video with scenes of Arabs kicking a Jew on the ground, Arabs assaulting an ultra-Orthodox Jew, and other scenes of riots and fires in the streets. A narrator introduces the video with the words “There is an uprising and intifada in Jerusalem”:
Text on screen and narrator: “There is an uprising and intifada in Jerusalem…
Gaza also had a position and a word [on the matter]. The uprising over sovereignty over the capital has turned into a fire spreading from alley to alley, and from refugee camp to refugee camp… Calls sounded, and they were stronger than the whistling of the occupation’s bullets”[Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, April 25, 2021]
The reference to “Gaza” refers to rocket salvos fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel, and by this reference Fatah endorsed the rockets as well. As Palestinian Media Watch reported yesterday, the PA is continuously preparing the groundwork for violence to erupt, and constantly reminds Palestinians that violence is a legitimate means in the “struggle” against Israel.
Abbas and PA leaders’ interest in continued violent riots in Jerusalem is also clear from an editorial in the official PA daily. It indirectly criticizes the rockets fired against Israel by Hamas in Gaza and urges to keep focus on Jerusalem. Without mentioning Hamas’ rocket fire directly, the editorial was concerned that the rocket fire would make Israel divert its attention to Gaza. The editorial also mentioned that “the struggle” is being waged “through the popular resistance” – a term used by Palestinians, which also refers to the use of violence and terror:
“Jerusalem’s protectors and guardians have well understood that the elections in Jerusalem are a battle of national sovereignty, and that elections without it constitute an abandonment of this sovereignty… Therefore, the protectors and guardians of Jerusalem, the brave residents of Jerusalem, have set the streets of the capital on fire and have lit the torch of defiance next to its historical gates…
It remains for us to warn that the occupation will attempt to divert the compass from Jerusalem and the battle for Jerusalem towards aggressive arrogance against the Gaza Strip (i.e., reference to Israel's response to Hamas firing rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip –Ed.), and therefore it must not be allowed to do this. This is the call of Jerusalem now, because the confrontation is here, and the struggle is here. [The struggle is being waged] through the popular resistance (i.e., term used by Palestinians, which also refers to the use of violence and terror), which is teaching the occupation and its settlers the clearest lessons in resolution and defiance, and the clearest heroic examples of defending the sanctity of the capital and its holy sites. No one can allow the occupation to divert the compass. This is the capital, and this is the battle with its different rounds.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 25, 2021]
Another sign that the PA is hoping for more violence is the fact that Abbas’ Fatah Movement republished a video of Abbas calling on Palestinians “to “defend Jerusalem with our lives,” as documented by PMW.
Similarly, Fatah’s Salfit District Secretary Abd Al-Sattar Awwad “urge[d] young people” to join the Jerusalem riots and “to defend the holy sites” and official PA TV chose to broadcast his call:
Fatah’s Salfit District Secretary Abd Al-Sattar Awwad: “We urge all our sons and our young people to come out to defend the holy sites and defend the victory of Jerusalem and the holy sites. We also urge the Arab and Islamic states and our masses of the Arab and Islamic nation to come out to the streets to defend the holy sites and defend our people in Jerusalem that is participating in the battle of resolve and the battle of defiance against the settler herd.”
[Official PA TV, April 24, 2021]
Fatah has further stated that the “confrontation in Jerusalem will not be a temporary confrontation” because it is “a confrontation between justice and injustice and between truth and lies.” [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 25, 2021]
In addition, the PA celebrated as “victory” the fact that Israel decided to remove barricades at the Damascus Gate of the Old City in Jerusalem.
Caption: “Young people applaud Jerusalem in front of the Damascus Gate following the removal of the barricades.”
“Palestine triumphs,” the official PA daily rejoiced, stating that “the young people of Jerusalem succeeded in imposing national sovereignty and forcing the occupation to remove the barricades.” [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 26, 2021] Fatah referred to the removal of the barricades as “the victory of justice over the tyrant.” [Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, April 25, 2021]
Fatah posted similar images and praise:
Text on image: “Jerusalem triumphs”
Posted text: “✌️✌️✌️✌️”[Official Fatah Facebook page, April 26, 2021]
Official Fatah Spokesman Osama Al-Qawasmi said:
“Despite all the attempts of Israelization and Judaization, Jerusalem remains the strongest, most uncompromising, and most deeply rooted in its history, present, and future… The Israeli occupation’s submission, which is expressed by the removal of the barricades [at the Damascus Gate] and its withdrawal from the Damascus Gate, reminds us yet again of the metal detectors that were removed thanks to the foreheads of the worshippers, the arms of the daring heroes, and the legs of the [Arab] residents of Jerusalem that do not tremble and do not bend before anyone other than the One and the Victor [Allah] (refers to Arab riots against Israeli security measures in July 2017; see note below -Ed.).’ … the residents of Jerusalem are defending the honor of the Arab nation and the Islamic nation.”
[WAFA, official PA news agency, April 25, 2021]
In another statement Al-Qawasmi described the riots as a defense of Jerusalem so it would not be “defiled” – a repetition of the PA’s antisemitic view of Jews’ presence in Jerusalem in general and in the Muslim and Christian holy places in particular. Fatah’s spokesman further warned Palestinians that the “fate” of whoever doesn’t support the riots is “shame and disgrace”:
Al-Qawasmi: “The Al-Aqsa Mosque plazas are writing the alphabet of freedom with struggle from within their illuminating gates, and are leading us towards redemption… the city of [Prophet Muhammad’s] Night Journey will not be defiled, the prayer niche [in the mosques] will not be silent, the [church] bells will not submit, and the right will not be lost, as today Jerusalem is writing the most beautiful of its words, and is coming out in its entirety to its wedding of freedom. Whoever can support it must know that the fate of them avoiding supporting it is only shame and disgrace.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 25, 2021]
The rioters are being praised as “lions” and “heroic” by PA and Fatah officials. For example, Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi posted an image from the riots that included the text: “There are lions in Jerusalem who are defending it.” Tirawi added a poem promising that “the sword will not return to its sheath without the right returning to its owners, Heroes of Jerusalem, you are the reality and the others are the illusion!”:
Posted text: “(The following is an excerpt of a poem -Ed.)
Whoever wickedly prods the lion in his jungle will find his death in the [lion’s] fangs
You will not be protected from [the lion’s] attacks if the enemies have sowed ruin and destruction in his thicket
If you made a covenant among yourselves to exploit him, and you entered the depths of the sea to frighten him
You have enraged the monk in his monastery courtyard, and you have angered the sheikh in his mihrab (i.e., prayer niche in a mosque)
O nation that leaps on its right, and holds the sources [of the right]:
Do not despair, whoever marches towards the right will only return with it
The sword will not return to its sheath without the right returning to its owners
Heroes of Jerusalem, you are the reality and the others are the illusion!”Text on image: “Arise for the honor of Jerusalem and bless those who are inside of it
There are lions in Jerusalem who are defending it”[Facebook page of Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi, April 25, 2021]
Abbas’ Fatah Movement also stressed its “pride over the victory of the members of our proud and heroic people that is carrying out Ribat(i.e., religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic) and standing firm in Jerusalem, the capital.” It referred to Jerusalem Arabs as “the roaring lions,” announcing that through them “Jerusalem is emphasizing and informing everyone that it is Palestinian and Arab.” [WAFA, official PA news agency, April 25, 2021]
To encourage even young children to participate in the riots, Fatah posted an image of a masked young child using a slingshot to throw a rock, and holding a Palestinian flag. Text stressed that no one is too young to participate in the riots for “the homeland”:
Posted text: “Do not look at my young age. Look at the size of the homeland in my heart
#There_are_no_[PA]elections_without_Jerusalem
[Fatah] Commission of Information and Culture”
Text on image: “Do not look at my young age. Look at the size of the homeland in my heart”[Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, April 26, 2021]
Asked by a host on official PA TV to send a message to the Arab residents of Jerusalem amid the ongoing riots, a viewer’s message indicates the public Palestinian support for the riots:
Caller: “I strengthen them and say to them good job, and that they are representing the entire nation in their battle. Allah willing, the Master of the Universe will grant them victory and will grant us all victory against this tyrannical enemy, and Allah willing Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque will return liberated, Allah willing, and Allah willing we will all pray a prayer of tranquility and piety.”
[Official PA TV, Ramadan and the People, April 24, 2021]
And if the PA’s invented elections excuse for engaging in violence against Israel isn’t enough, the PA as usual promotes the libel that Jerusalem is in “the greatest danger in history” and that Israel is “planning to destroy Al-Aqsa.” Therefore Palestinians must “defend” and “protect” it:
PA Shari’ah Judge Ata Al-Muhtasib: “The Al-Aqsa Mosque… is undergoing its most difficult moments… The occupation authorities are continuing to work to realize their goal of Judaizing Jerusalem, while attempting to change the landmarks of Jerusalem’s appearance… and to impose a different appearance that serves the visions of [their] myths… The occupier is carrying out a plan of ethnic cleansing against everything that is Palestinian… This is all happening to Jerusalem and its Islamic and Christian holy sites. This city is currently being subjected to the greatest danger in history… They are planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque, they want to swallow up Jerusalem and not leave a trace of the Arabs and Muslims… Allah… support us against our enemies and those who harm us and harm the Muslims… Allah, liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the house of your friend Abraham (i.e., the Cave of the Patriarchs), and the rest of this stolen land.
[Official PA TV, April 23, 2021]
The following are longer excerpts of the statements cited above and additional reports:
Headline: “The [PA] president: Jerusalem is a red line; we will not agree to it being harmed”
“The Fatah Movement Central Committee held a meeting led by [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday evening, Sunday [April 25, 2021]…President [Abbas] said: ‘Jerusalem is a red line. We will not agree to it being harmed. We salute our people in Jerusalem for their resolve against the Israeli plans to take control of the holy city. We emphasize that under no circumstances will we agree to hold the [PA] general elections without the participation of Jerusalem and its residents in running, campaigning, and voting, in accordance with the signed agreements. Therefore, we demand that the international community exert pressure on the Israeli government to honor the agreements that were signed between us on everything concerning elections.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 26, 2021]
Posted text on Fatah Facebook page with video of riots: “Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine, is rising up – may the eyes of the capital cities not sleep
#There_are_no_[PA]elections_without_Jerusalem
[Fatah] Commission of Information and Culture”The verb “rising up” is from the same root as “intifada.”
The reference to “capital cities” is apparently a criticism of the states, and particularly the Arab states, that are not supporting the Palestinians in their riots against Israel -Ed.
Text under Fatah logo at opening of video: “[Fatah] Commission of Information and Culture – the Southern Districts (i.e., the Gaza Strip)”
[Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, April 25, 2021]
Excerpt of an editorial by the official PA daily
Headline: “This is the capital”
“While coming out against the attacks of the Israeli occupation and its settlers against the occupied capital of their state, the residents of Jerusalem today are wholeheartedly repeating the words of [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas: There are no [PA] elections without Jerusalem…
Jerusalem’s protectors and guardians have well understood that the elections in Jerusalem are a battle of national sovereignty, and that elections without it constitute an abandonment of this sovereignty and making peace with the ominous statement of [former US President Donald] Trump, who recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the Israeli occupation state (see note below -Ed.). Therefore, the protectors and guardians of Jerusalem, the brave residents of Jerusalem, have set the streets of the capital on fire and have lit the torch of defiance next to its historical gates…
It remains for us to warn that the occupation will attempt to divert the compass from Jerusalem and the battle for Jerusalem towards aggressive arrogance against the Gaza Strip, and therefore it must not be allowed to do this. This is the call of Jerusalem now, because the confrontation is here, and the struggle is here. [The struggle is being waged] through the popular resistance (i.e., term used by Palestinians, which also refers to the use of violence and terror), which is teaching the occupation and its settlers the clearest lessons in resolution and defiance, and the clearest heroic examples of defending the sanctity of the capital and its holy sites. No one can allow the occupation to divert the compass. This is the capital, and this is the battle with its different rounds.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 25, 2021]
US recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel - On Dec. 6, 2017, US President Donald Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Trump added that the final borders of Jerusalem will be determined during negotiations. The US embassy was transferred from Tel Aviv and opened in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018, the anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence in 1948 according to the Gregorian calendar.
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
Headline: “Al-Qawasmi: The confrontation in Jerusalem will not be temporary”
“The Fatah Movement emphasized that the confrontation in Jerusalem will not be a temporary confrontation in the sea of national struggle, as it is a confrontation between justice and injustice and between truth and lies. [It added that] we draw our strength from the Palestinian people’s legitimate and natural rights, and foremost among them freedom, honor, and independence.Fatah Revolutionary Council member and Fatah Spokesman Osama Al-Qawasmi said: ‘The Al-Aqsa Mosque plazas are writing the alphabet of freedom with struggle from within their illuminating gates, and are leading us towards redemption… the city of [Prophet Muhammad’s] Night Journey will not be defiled, the prayer niche [in the mosques] will not be silent, the [church] bells will not submit, and the right will not be lost, as today Jerusalem is writing the most beautiful of its words, and is coming out in its entirety to its wedding of freedom. Whoever can support it must know that the fate of them avoiding supporting it is only shame and disgrace.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 25, 2021]
Headline: “Palestine triumphs thanks to its Jerusalem – the young people of Jerusalem defeat the occupation’s iron barricades at the Damascus Gate”
“Last night [April 25, 2021], the young people of Jerusalem succeeded in defeating all the barricades that the occupation police had placed in the Damascus Gate area in occupied Jerusalem, which caused the outbreak of the confrontations throughout recent days…
The young people of Jerusalem succeeded in imposing national sovereignty and forcing the occupation to remove the barricades, which it yet again failed to impose. This success joins other successes in the battle of the metal detectors (refers to Arab riots against Israeli security measures in July 2017; see note below -Ed.) and the Gate of Mercy (refers to clashes in February 2019; see note below -Ed.).”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 26, 2021]
The article includes a photograph by the Agence France-Presse news agency, in which Arabs are seen celebrating at the Damascus Gate.
Text in caption: “Young people applaud Jerusalem in front of the Damascus Gate following the removal of the barricades.”
The mention of "the battle of the metal detectors" refers to Israeli security measures at the Temple Mount, including metal detectors at the entrances, following an attack there on July 14, 2017, in which 2 Israeli border police officers were murdered by 3 Israeli Arab terrorists. On July 24, 2017, Israel decided to remove the metal detectors and security cameras it had placed at the site. The PA continued to demand that all measures including inspections at the entrances be removed, and Palestinians continued to riot. On July 27, 2017, PA religious leaders declared that all Israeli measures had been removed.
February 2019 Temple Mount clashes – Muslim riots broke out on the Temple Mount starting Feb. 18, 2019, after the Israeli police closed a compound near the Gate of Mercy after the Jordanian Waqf had violated an Israeli court order by reopening the compound the previous week. The compound was ordered sealed in 2017 given that it was managed by the banned Islamic Movement in Israel and used for illegal construction and antiquities destruction.
Headline: “Al-Qawasmi: Jerusalem triumphs”
“The Fatah Movement expressed its pride over the victory of the members of our proud and heroic people that is carrying out Ribat (i.e., religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic) and standing firm in Jerusalem, the capital. It emphasized that through its residents, the roaring lions, Jerusalem is emphasizing and informing everyone that it is Palestinian and Arab.
[Fatah] Revolutionary Council member and official Fatah Spokesman Osama Al-Qawasmi said: ‘Despite all the attempts of Israelization and Judaization, Jerusalem remains the strongest, most uncompromising, and most deeply rooted in its history, present, and future – even if our relatives who are ignorant of history and have lost the ability to discern have abandoned it (refers to Arab states that signed peace agreements with Israel; see note below -Ed.), and in spite of the Israeli occupation and its soldiers who are armed with hatred and loathing.’
He added: ‘The Israeli occupation’s submission, which is expressed by the removal of the barricades [at the Damascus Gate] and its withdrawal from the Damascus Gate, reminds us yet again of the metal detectors that were removed thanks to the foreheads of the worshippers, the arms of the daring heroes, and the legs of the [Arab] residents of Jerusalem that do not tremble and do not bend before anyone other than the One and the Victor [Allah] (refers to Arab riots against Israeli security measures in July 2017; see note below -Ed.).’
Al-Qawasmi added that through the blessed uprising, the residents of Jerusalem are defending the honor of the Arab nation and the Islamic nation and declaring with a resounding voice today on behalf of Palestine, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that Jerusalem is the gate of the solution, and there will be no stability without it returning to be as it was. He also said that it will remain the flower of the cities and the capital of the independent State of Palestine.”
[WAFA, official PA news agency, April 25, 2021]
Israel-UAE peace agreement (Abraham Accords) – an agreement normalizing diplomatic ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which was announced on Aug. 13, 2020, under the mediation of US President Donald Trump. Pursuant to the agreement, the countries will discuss bilateral cooperation on a number of topics. In exchange for the agreement, Israel agreed to suspend its previously announced plans to apply Israel's civilian law to parts of Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley as per the Trump peace plan. The US announced that “Muslims throughout the world who wish to come in peace to pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque, will now be able to fly to Tel Aviv through Abu Dhabi to do so and will be welcomed.”
Excerpt of an op-ed by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: “The prospects of the confrontations in Jerusalem”
“On the night between Friday and Saturday [Aril 24, 2021], the confrontations between the [Arab] sons of Jerusalem, the eternal capital, and the Israeli occupation security forces and settler herds renewed…
Dozens of protests were also held to support the heroes of the holy city in Jaffa, Umm Al-Fahm (i.e., Israeli cities), the Southern Districts (i.e., the Gaza Strip), and many Palestinian cities and towns. A number of the resistance wings also fired salvos of rockets towards the colonies adjacent to the border with the Gaza Strip (i.e., Israeli towns near Gaza)…
According to what is becoming clear from the situation in the flower of cities [Jerusalem], the confrontations will not be stopped at the point they have reached until now, especially because the forces of Zionist fascism… will continue their war crimes against Jerusalem’s residents, their neighborhoods, their property, and their houses of worship, and they will continue to treat them brutally, arrest them, and work to humiliate them. This means pouring oil on the fire burning in the Palestinian street, and this will increase the anger, popular agitation, and [desire] to respond to all the severe crimes of organized terror by the Israeli occupation state against Jerusalem and its defenders, members of the [Palestinian] people. This will certainly lead to a stage of wide popular uprising with the potential to reach the point of an intifada.
Perhaps one who was witness to the Palestinian popular rage and vigor in all the neighborhoods saw with their own eyes how the Jerusalem masses come out from every alley and every street, like a waterfall pouring into the arenas of confrontation. A number of Jerusalem residents even told me that in the previous stages of struggle they did not see this kind of sweeping flood of our people [coming out] to defend themselves against the murderers – the group of [Israeli Parliament Members] Itamar Ben Gvir and [Bezalel] Smotrich, the gang of Lehava (i.e., an Israeli anti-assimilation organization), and the Zionist security forces.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 25, 2021]
Image and text posted on the Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture
Posted text: “The Fatah Movement said in a statement from its Spokesman Hussein Hamayel that the withdrawal of the occupation forces given the resolve of our people is additional proof that the truth will triumph the lie that is the occupation state and its settlers. Fatah emphasized that what happened is living proof that the Palestinian people is most worthy of this charge that was entrusted to it, which it has protected through the sacrifices that it has made: Martyrs, prisoners, and wounded.
Fatah also emphasized that the entire international community, and especially the Arab and Islamic nation, must do that which is required of it and restrain the Israeli aggression against our people.
[Fatah added that] this round has proven the strength and self-control that our lauded people demonstrates, and that this people, with its elderly and its young, will continue to defend its land and its legitimate rights, in spite of the occupation and its helpers.”
The image shows official Fatah Spokesman Hussein Hamayel.
Text on image: “Fatah: The removal of the barricades [at the Damascus Gate] and the withdrawal of the occupation forces given our people’s resolve is the victory of justice over the tyrant”
[Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, April 25, 2021]