PA wants religious war, calls to fight Jerusalem flag parade
Fatah inciting hate and religious war:
• “[Palestinians,] don’t be negligent and don’t let their [Israeli] flags wave in our sky”
• “With spirit, with blood, we will redeem you Al-Aqsa Mosque… Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar”
• “O coward [Jew], you must leave because you have no history in our Jerusalem, and it is not your homeland”
• “The Western Wall belongs only to believers of the religion of Islam”
In non-democratic regimes, when leaders recognize that they have lost the support of their own people and possibly are even seen as a corrupt enemy by their own people, they often seek conflict or war to create an enemy to distract them from the real source of their problems.
With PA and Fatah Chairman Mahmoud Abbas having lost support of the people, with 80% saying his government is corrupt and a similar number demanding he resign, and with his Fatah party facing almost certain defeat to Hamas if the PA were to hold elections, it is not surprising that he is trying to trigger a religious war against Jews and Israel.
Today Israel celebrates Jerusalem’s liberation in 1967 from nearly 2000 years of foreign occupation which ended with Jordan’s illegal 19-year occupation (1948 – 1967). For over 30 years now, tens of thousands of Israelis have celebrated Jerusalem Day by marching and dancing across Jerusalem waving Israeli flags, entering the Old City through the Lion’s Gate, and more recently the Damascus Gate. The Flag Parade ends at the Western Wall Plaza to celebrate with music and dance.
Mahmoud Abbas sees this event as a great opportunity to incite violence and terror in the “name of Islam” against Jews celebrating the liberation day - an opportunity that hopefully will serve his other goal: to distract the Palestinian people from his failed leadership.
Yesterday, Abbas’ Fatah posted a video from Fatah-run Awdah TV on an official Fatah Facebook page, showing Palestinians rioting in Jerusalem. The video called on Palestinians literally to stop today’s parade and prevent the Israeli flag from being waved in Jerusalem. Palestinians were told: “Don’t be negligent and don’t let their flags wave in our sky”:
“Defending Jerusalem is not [just] a normal duty, but rather a test of our religious and national conscience, Fatah calls on you to set out against the provocative [Israeli] flag march, which will be held tomorrow in Jerusalem as part of the attempts by the occupation and its settlers to Judaize our eternal capital.
Jerusalem is waiting for its guardians, so don’t be negligent and don’t let their flags wave in our sky.”[Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, May 28, 2022]
The posted text had the same message:
“The Fatah Movement calls on you to come out against the provocative [Jerusalem Day] flag march, which will be held tomorrow, Sunday [May 29, 2022], in Jerusalem as part of the attempts by the occupation and its settlers to Judaize our eternal capital.”
Abbas’ presidential office released a similar announcement, calling to “challenge” and “confront” Israel. The PA’s announcement further noted that their call for violence is very serious, reminding Palestinians that last year’s Israeli flag parade triggering the 10-day war with Hamas:
“The Presidency Wednesday night stated that Israeli occupation authorities underestimate the Palestinian people’s determination to challenge the occupation by insisting on allowing the annual “March of the Flags” in East Jerusalem.
Presidency spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh said … it is now the time for Jerusalem to become a beacon for all Palestinians and Arabs to confront these assaults (i.e., the flag parade) that are destabilizing the region… He called on the Israeli government to refrain from such provocations that can only further inflame tensions, fueling more unrest and violence, with dire consequences, and held it fully responsible for this escalation that would lead to an explosion of the situation…
Last week, Israel’s “Public Security” Minister Omer Barlev announced that the march, scheduled for May 29, would be held along the same route as in previous years… In 2021, a similar planned march by Jewish nationalists was one of the catalysts that ignited the full-scale confrontation between Israel and Palestinians across historic Palestine (i.e., over 10 days, Hamas fired 4300 missiles at civilian targets in Israel and hundreds of Arabs rioted in mixed Jewish-Arab towns across Israel murdering several Israeli Jews, and burning synagogues, private homes and cars). Originally scheduled for 10 May 2021, the march was postponed due to Palestinian resistance, which forced Israel into an embarrassing retreat.”[Wafa, official PA news agency, English edition, May 26, 2022]
Another Fatah Facebook post and video was also explicit in its call for violence in the name of Islam. The video called for Israelis to leave “because you have no history in our Jerusalem, and it is not your homeland.” It also called for “blood” and ended with the chant Allahu Akbar = “Allah is greatest” repeated four times.
The video included Arabs rioting in Jerusalem and repeats the words:
Narrator: “O coward, you must leave because you have no history in our Jerusalem, and it is not your homeland”
A crowd chants: “With spirit, with blood, we will redeem you Al-Aqsa Mosque… Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar [“Allah is greatest”]
[Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, May 28, 2022]
The posted text:
“O coward (i.e., Jews), you must leave because you have no history in our Jerusalem, and it is not your homeland.
#Jerusalem_is_our_capital
#Flag_of_Palestine
Production: The [Fatah] Commission of Information and Culture”
The official PA daily ran a column attacking the Israeli flag march in which it repeated two fundamental Palestinian lies. First, it claimed that a Palestinian nation existed for 5,000 years with Jerusalem as its capital, and second, it claimed that Jerusalem was never Israel/Judea’s capital. In another distortion, the PA daily column continued to promote its Islamic ideology, claiming that the Western Wall of the Temple Mount belongs only to “believers of the religion of Islam”:
“The [Palestinian] leadership… [must ] defend [Jerusalem’s] Palestinian-Arab identity and character, and to wave Palestinian flags... it has been Palestinian since it was established 5,000 years ago… and to inform the entire world without exception that Jerusalem is Jerusalem of the Arab Palestinians, and that the Al-Aqsa Mosque – including the Al-Buraq Wall (i.e., the Western Wall of the Temple Mount) – belongs only to believers of the religion of Islam… and also to expel from it the Zionist herds who are stealing the Palestinian land and Judaism to their lairs, until it will be liberated peacefully or through other means of struggle (i.e., violence and terror).”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 26, 2022]
Fatah’s ruling body, the Central Committee, likewise called on Palestinians to come out “against this march”:
“The Fatah central committee warned against approval of holding the provocative ‘flag march’ in occupied Jerusalem on May 29 [2022]. It viewed this as aggressive provocation and an inseparable part of the occupation’s unlimited war against Jerusalem, its residents, and its holy sites…
It held the occupation government directly responsible for the consequences of this ruling, which causes an escalation… and called on our people to come out against this march and wave the Palestinian flag high.”[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 23, 2022]
The official PA daily both on Friday and yesterday repeated the calls for Palestinians to prevent Israel’s flag parade, using Islamic religious terminology calling for “Ribat.” Ribat is a term for religious conflict in defense of land claimed to be Islamic, and can range from passive resistance to violent terror and murder:
Headline: “Fatah: Our people will stand against the provocative ‘flag march’ and will not allow changing the status on the ground”
“The Fatah Movement called on our people to stand against the provocative [Jerusalem Day] ‘flag march’ in occupied Jerusalem and to come to the holy city, to carry out Ribat there (i.e., religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic), and not to let the settlers violate it, and it warned that this will lead to an explosion of the situation.”[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 28, 2022]
Headline: “Palestinian calls to stand against the settler flag march”
“The Fatah Movement in Jerusalem called on our people to stand against the [Jerusalem Day] flag march.
Fatah urged our people to carry out Ribat(i.e., religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic) at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and increase the waving of the Palestinian flags in the alleys and streets of the Old City of Jerusalem.”[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 27, 2022]