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PA depicts a world without Israel
Denying Israel's right to exist
The Palestinian Authority makes no attempt to educate its people towards peace and coexistence with Israel. On the contrary, from every possible platform it repeatedly rejects Israel's right to exist, presents the conflict as a religious battle for Islam, depicts the establishment of Israel as an act of imperialism, and perpetuates a picture of the Middle East, both verbally and visually, in which Israel does not exist at all. Israel's destruction is said to be both inevitable and a Palestinian obligation.
The following description of Israel's founding in a Palestinian schoolbook represents the dominant dogma about Israel:
"Palestine's war ended with a catastrophe that is unprecedented in history, when the Zionist gangs stole Palestine … and established the so-called State of Israel."
[Arabic Language, Analysis, Literature and Criticism, grade 12, p. 104]
This official PA map of "Palestine" was broadcast on PA TV in September 2011. The map includes both the PA areas and all of Israel (excluding the Golan Heights) wrapped in the Palestinian flag - a symbol of Palestinian sovereignty over the whole area - and has a key through it, symbolizing ownership. Similar maps presenting all of Israel as "Palestine" appear in Palestinian schoolbooks and are shown regularly on PA TV.
Denying Israel's right to exist
The Palestinian Authority adamantly rejects Israel's right to exist and rewrites history to deny the 3,000-year-old connection of Jews to the Land Israel. [See "Rewriting History" section.] The essential message of the PA to its people is that Jews have no historical connection to the land, and that the State of Israel was created by the colonial powers for two reasons: to rid their countries of Jews, and to establish a colonial bridgehead in order to control the region. One particularly horrific expression of this ideology appeared in the official PA daily as far back as 1998:
"The difference between Hitler and [British Foreign Minister] Balfour was simple: the former [Hitler] did not have colonies to send the Jews to, so he destroyed them, whereas Balfour ...[turned] Palestine into his colony and sent the Jews. Balfour is Hitler with colonies, while Hitler is Balfour without colonies. They both wanted to get rid of the Jews...Zionism was crucial to the defense of the West, [by] ridding Europe of the burden of the Jews."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 6, 1998]
This video of Palestinian Ambassador to Lebanon, Abbas Zaki, shows how this distortion continues to be expressed:
"We must understand why Israel was established … [The Europeans] wanted to get rid of the Jews. … At that same time, energy [oil] was discovered in the Arab region … Then, they solved the [Jewish] problem by exporting [the Jews] to Israel [and at same time] they imposed their hegemony on the region's natural resources. The [purpose of the] State of Israel is not for the Jews but it is an ongoing [colonial] project, an outpost for Imperialism."
[PA TV, May 14, 2008]
"There is no such thing as Israel"- Israeli Arab boy's message to Palestinian children
Source: Official Palestinian Authority TV, Apr. 26, 2019
Official PA TV, The Best Home
Official PA TV host: "Faisal lives in the occupied Palestinian lands in the Tamra area (i.e., in Israel, near Haifa)… On the school radio he broadcasts Palestinian songs and tries to spread the consciousness within him and his love for Palestine, to all the surrounding cities and villages. This is very nice, particularly when they [Israelis] are trying to keep that area Israeli, but the Palestinians there need to emphasize to everyone that this area is Palestinian…"
Israeli Arab boy Faisal: "I tell all the Palestinian children there and explain to them that there is no such thing as Israel… Israel can occupy Palestine, but it cannot occupy the Palestinian child's memory, because we are keeping Palestine in our hearts."
Host: "Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! Great job Faisal, thank you very much."
Fatah official: US is leading "plots" against the Palestinians, including recognizing Jerusalem as "the capital of the Zionist entity"
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 2, 2019
Headline: "Zaki welcomes the chairman of the General Union of Palestinian Communities in Europe"
"Fatah Movement Central Committee member and [Fatah] General Commissioner for Arab and China Relations Abbas Zaki welcomed Chairman of the General Union of Palestinian Communities in Europe Ali Al-Qadi yesterday [Jan. 1, 2019]… Zaki welcomed Al-Qadi's visit to Palestine… and briefed him on the difficult and dangerous situation of the Palestinian cause as a result of the plots that the US, led by [US President Donald] Trump, is leading against the Palestinian people's legitimate rights – which began with his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the Zionist entity and transfer of his embassy to it… Zaki emphasized that the situation necessitates Palestinian unity… in order to deal with the Zionist lobby, which is working to harm the image of the Palestinian national struggle."
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PA daily calls Israel "the territories occupied in 1948"
Headline: "Documentation report: 11 Martyrs, and the destruction of 35 homes and an institution during January"
"Occupation Mayor [of Jerusalem] Moshe Lion is planning to silence the call of the Muezzin (i.e., the person who sings the Muslim call to prayer) in occupied Jerusalem by lowering its volume according to the 'noise' law that is implemented within the territories occupied in 1948 (i.e., Israel)."
Op-ed: Western colonialism tried to "erase the Palestinian identity, history, and existence" and established Israel "to serve the goals of the capitalist West at the expense of the Jews, who were misled in the name of religion"
Excerpt of op-ed by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, regular columnist for the official PA daily
"Western colonialism in general, and British colonialism in particular – in cooperation with the Zionist movement, and later with its physical base, the colonialist State of Israel – attempted during the 30 years of the Mandate, from 1917 to 1948, to change the social, demographic, economic, and legal systems on the ground in order to erase the Palestinian identity, history, and existence, and to establish the rogue state [Israel]. This was in order to serve the goals of the capitalist West at the expense of the Jews, who were misled in the name of religion, and in the name of slogans preparing the groundwork for negating the other – such as 'a land without a people for a people without a land,' 'the promised land,' and 'your land, Israel, from the Nile [River] to the Euphrates [River].' Simultaneously, hundreds of thousands of Jewish, Zionist, and other immigrants, some of whom were escaping – to anywhere – from the tragedy and hell of European fascism and Nazism, were brought [to Palestine]… They established the colonialist State of Israel."
Palestinian envoy in Uruguay: Balfour Declaration was "ominous," Israel was established "while bloody massacres were being committed by the Zionist gangs," promotes "use of all means of struggle"
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 7, 2018
"The embassy of the State of Palestine in Uruguay – in coordination with the union of worker organizations and the human rights department – marked International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People in the main hall of the Association of Professional Organizations and [with] the participation of Ambassador of the State of Palestine Walid Abd Al-Rahim… Ambassador Abd Al-Rahim reviewed the history of the Palestinian struggle since the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) and the unjust resolution to divide Palestine (i.e., referring to the UN Partition Plan for Palestine; see note below), erase the name Palestine, and recognize the state that was established while bloody massacres were being committed by the Zionist gangs in order to expel the members of our people and bring the Zionist immigrants from abroad.
The Palestinian ambassador focused on the will to struggle of the members of our people and on the use of all means of struggle (i.e., term used by Palestinians, which also refers to the use of violence and terror)‎ in order to restore our people's legal rights, return the Palestinian cause to the UN, and to bring about the states of the world's recognition of the independent Palestinian state."
Click "full article" for a longer excerpt
Op-ed in PA daily refers to Israel's founding as a "plot to establish a racist Zionist entity," calls Israel "the cancerous entity"
Excerpt of an op-ed by Dr. Fawzi Ali Al-Samhouri
"Nov. 29, 1947 was the [first] practical international step to execute the plot to establish a racist Zionist entity on 55% of the territory of historical Palestine. For the Palestinian people – which has the right, the land, and the homeland – only 45% of its homeland was left in order to establish its Arab state, according to [UN] Partition Resolution No. 181… On Dec. 2, 1977, the UN General Assembly decided to designate November 29 – the same day that the ominous partition resolution was made – as an International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
Three decades after the partition resolution, the UN published its resolution for the following reasons and factors:
As a result of the partition resolution, millions of members of the Palestinian people live in the diaspora as refugees since Palestine was taken over in 1948.
The military, political, and financial support of the world powers, and particularly the US, for the cancerous entity enabled it to occupy the rest of Palestine following the aggression of June 1967."
PLO official: "Jews… knew only to make money, trade, weave plots, corruption… The European nations and Russia were sick of them"
Official PA TV program Palestine This Morning, on the Balfour Declaration
Palestinian National Council member Najib Al-Qaddumi: "Indeed, this is an ominous day, and it is considered a day of mourning for us because the so-called 'State of Israel' was established by way of this promise. The Israeli entity was established. The Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) was the cornerstone for the establishment of this renegade state. However there is no choice but to return to the background behind the publication of this promise by then British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour. We will return to the situation of the Jews in Europe and Russia, when they lived in a closed society and knew only to make money, trade, weave plots, corruption, and such. Even the European nations and Russia were sick of them and longed for when they would leave their country."
PA daily op-ed to Jewish Israelis: "You are victims of a plan of fraud" by the "colonial powers" since Balfour "made a promise to your foreign forefathers who have no right to the land of our homeland Palestine"
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 4, 2018
Excerpt of op-ed by Muwaffaq Matar, a Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily
"With the passing of 100 years since the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), the message must be conveyed to the Jewish Israelis, and particularly those among them who were and still are victims of systematic fraud. We say to them with full sincerity: You are victims of a plan of fraud by the greatest colonial powers in the world, since British Foreign Secretary [Arthur] Balfour made a promise to your foreign forefathers who have no right to the land of our homeland Palestine, and until [US President Donald] Trump, who promised you to destroy our spirit, our culture, and our identity when he realized his promise to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of your state… Jewish Israelis, what you need to know is that Great Britain scorned your human value when it used your forefathers as a colonial pawn in the region. That is what Balfour did, who whispered to you unprecedented hatred and prevented you from seeking refuge in Britain during the period when you fled from the rest of Europe. All Balfour did was to export your problem to our land, and colonialist Britain did indeed succeed in using you. Today, Donald Trump is using you so that he will be able to execute his colonialist agenda."
Click /;full article" for a longer excerpt
PA TV shows Russian kicking Jew during 1903 Kishinev pogrom, asks rhetorically: "Did the Balfour Promise come as a surprise 100 years ago?" - indicating that Europe wanted to get rid of the Jews
Official PA TV, filler on the Balfour Declaration
Official PA TV narrator: "Did the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) come as a surprise 100 years ago? During his campaign to the east, Napoleon [Bonaparte] called to the Jews of the world to settle in Palestine. [German Emperor] Wilhelm II afterwards discussed settling the Jews in Palestine with his friend Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II."
Visual: A drawing is shown of a Russian leader and the year 1903, the year of the Kishinev pogrom. Afterwards a picture is shown of a Jew, characterized by his large nose and long beard, being kicked by a Russian, characterized by a Russian flag.
Click "full article" for more
"[Europe] was sick of the behavior of the Jews and planned to get rid of them" - PA Minister of Education posts video explaining Balfour Declaration
Source: Facebook page of PA Minister of Education Sabri Saidam, Nov. 2, 2018
Posted text: "101 years since the ominous promise (i.e., the Balfour Declaration), and soon a year since the new ominous promise (i.e., US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem and promise to transfer the US embassy to it). Here is a simple explanation of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) for its anniversary, which is today [Nov. 2, 2018]"
Narrator: "The nightmare was created by Britain and was realized on the land of Palestine. Britain gave a right which it did not have to one not entitled to it: [A right] to our land in the form of a state, which is now known as 'Israel' …
It was said that the old continent [Europe] was sick of the behavior of the Jews at the time, and therefore it planned to get rid of them. It was also said that Israel's establishment would guarantee the division of the region for the West, and give it a foothold in the Arab homeland, which was afterwards called 'The Middle East'…
British Foreign Secretary at the time Arthur James Balfour stabbed a dagger into the soft belly of Palestine. He took upon himself a promise from one without ownership to one not entitled, as if he was the owner of the land and not a colonialist…
This is just a drop in the sea of Britain's crimes against our people, whose existence it has insisted on denying despite its Phoenician and Canaanite roots."
The video was produced by official PA TV in 2018
Click "
PA daily: Jews "exploited" the "ominous" Balfour Declaration in order to establish Israel "on the land of others"
"Today, Friday, Nov. 2 [2018], is the 101st anniversary of the publication of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), in whose framework Britain granted the Jews the right to establish a national homeland in Palestine, relying on the false statement 'a land without a people for a people without a land.' …The Jews succeeded in exploiting the piece of paper that was published by [then British Foreign Secretary] Arthur Balfour, who was known for his closeness to the Zionist movement, and afterwards the mandate's document and the decision of the [UN] General Assembly in 1947, which determined the partition of Palestine, in order to realize their dream to establish Israel on May 15, 1948. This entity achieved membership in the UN due to the pressure of the global powers, and Israel became the first state in the history of the global political system that was established on the land of others. It also received international aid that enabled it to patronize the region, to spread out, to swallow more Palestinian and Arab territories, and to act violently against the Palestinians who remained on their land, without mercy.
The Balfour Declaration granted a homeland to the Jews despite them not being residents of Palestine..."
Girl in poem on PA TV: "A Zionist stole the land of Palestine," TV host: "Soon, Allah willing, we will return to our land"
Palestinian girl Nour: "A Zionist stole the land of Palestine,
War, destruction, murder, and wailing,
We were uprooted and the world called us refugees (i.e., in 1948),
We have sacrificed millions of Martyrs for the sake of your return, Palestine…
We said a year, two years – they have become 70 (i.e., since Israel's creation in 1948),
Rebel, rebel, O people of the giants,
And shoot with your fire, like volcanoes,
So Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa [Mosque] will return to us, O Muslims…
And Allah willing we will be victorious, and everyone will be witnesses,
We are returning. By Allah, we are returning,
Even if the entire world gives up on you, your children won't, O Palestine…"
Official PA TV host of The Best Home: "Bravo! […] I want to tell you, as my friend Nour has said, we are returning. Soon, Allah willing, we will return to our land… Every one of us can resist the occupation wherever he is, and in our different ways so we can bring back Palestine. Children, are we capable of bringing it back? Are you sure? Good."
Song on PA TV to Britain: "We will erase the memory of the Balfour Declaration;" "We are rooted in this land from the days of the Canaanites"
Song "Listen Balfour, Listen" performed by Qassem Al-Najjar and Shadi Al-Burini
Lyrics: "O Balfour, years have gone
Generations have gone until now
You have gone and others have gone, yet this is the land of Palestine
Regardless of the time that passes, we will erase the memory of this [Balfour] Promise
Listen Balfour, listen
The right of my land will yet return
We bow only to Allah
We are the Palestinians…
We are your owners, Palestine
And we are rooted in this land from the days of the Canaanites
We have identity
Palestine's history is great, Jerusalem is ours and no one else's
Regardless of your efforts to falsify, this land is Palestinian…
O British man, listen up
You must apologize to us
This homeland is ours, and not the Zionists'
You deprived my precious homeland
You stole the right to my land and gave it to the Zionist
This is an international crime
Balfour [of] the ominous promise committed a crime against my oppressed people
We will not be silent from this day forward, we will not forget the cause"
Abbas emphasizes that the salaries to terrorists and families of Martyrs will not stop, and that "their rights must not be compromised"
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 30, 2018
"The Palestinian [PLO] Central Council held its 30th session in Ramallah, in the presence of [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas…
The president emphasized that the salaries (rawatib) of our Martyrs (Shahids), prisoners, and wounded are a red line and that their rights must not be compromised, and also that from its first stone the settlement [enterprise] is illegal and opposes international law."
PLO decides to cut economic and security ties and freeze recognition of Israel, reiterates "our right to resist the occupation in all manners," opposes Taylor Force Act
"The Palestinian [PLO] Central Committee decided to end all of the commitments of the PLO and the PA to the agreements with the occupation authority 'Israel,' and primarily the freezing of the recognition of the State of Israel until [Israel] recognizes the State of Palestine in the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.... The Central Council also decided in its statement yesterday evening [Oct. 29, 2018] after the conclusion of the 30th regular session in Ramallah... in the presence of [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas, on the ending of the security coordination in all of its forms, and economic disengagement, in light of the fact that the transition period, including the Paris Agreement, is no longer valid…
The Central Council emphasized its adherence to our right to resist the occupation in all manners ‎(i.e., term used by Palestinians, which also refers to the use of violence and terror)‎, in accordance with international law. It praised the resolve of the prisoners of freedom in the Israeli occupation's prisons… The Council opposed the American extortion - the Taylor Force Act, and the Israeli government's decision to deduct the allowances (mukhassasat) of the families of the Martyrs, prisoners, and wounded from the Palestinian tax money, while blatantly violating international law..."
PA TV portrays Israel as foreign colonial occupier, claims ancient Jewish history is Palestinian
The PA TV video shows a woman who represents "ancient Palestinians" (or possibly Muslims) going through the history of the land - replacing the Jewish people's actual history. The woman is introduced in a peaceful scene feeding birds in a period predating the Roman conquest of Judea and destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Suddenly the scene is disturbed, the birds scatter and the woman runs away from various foreign invaders: first an ancient Roman soldier, then a Crusader, then a British soldier, and finally a Jew (wearing a skullcap), who throws a lit cigarette at her.
In the final scene, the woman stops fleeing when a man on a horse - the "new" Muslim conqueror Saladin who defeated the Crusaders - extends his hand and helps her up the mountain. He represents the coming savior who will "liberate Palestine" from Jewish-Israeli rule. In the end, the woman stands on the top of the mountain, fleeing no one anymore, symbolizing that Israel is gone like the other foreign rulers.
Note: The video originally aired March 2, 2012. It was rebroadcast on both PA TV and PA TV Live at least 18 times in 2012, 54 times in 2013, 44 times in 2014, 42 times in 2015, 24 times in 2016, 22 times in 2017, and 9 times in 2018, most recently on Oct. 30, 2018. It was broadcast on Fatah-run Awdah TV twice on Jan. 8, 2016, and 6 times in 2017, most recently on Aug. 20, 2017.
Abbas: "The Martyrs and their families are sacred, [so are] the wounded and the prisoners. We must pay all of them"
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: "I say this to everyone – the salaries of our Martyrs, prisoners, and wounded are a red line. They [Israel] try by all means, and exert pressure by all means, and they continue to exert: 'It cannot be that you will pay.' And they'll even deduct our money that's in their hands. They'll deduct from it the amount that we pay to the Martyrs. We have said that this is a red line and we will not allow [it]. From 1965 until now, this matter is sacred to us. The Martyrs and their families are sacred, [and so are] the wounded and the prisoners. We must pay all of them. If one penny remains in our hands it is for them and not for the living."
Speaker at Fatah organized lecture refers to Arab Israelis as "the Palestinians of 1948 who live in the occupied Interior"
Headline: "The [Fatah] Shabiba [Movement] organizes a lecture in Jinsafut on the racist nation-state law"
"The [Fatah] Shabiba Student Movement's Qalqilya branch organized a cultural lecture on the racist [Jewish] nation-state law (see note below –Ed.) at the Girls' High School in Jinsafut… with the participation of lecturer Ahmed Taher Oudeh…
Oudeh… spoke about the nation-state law, which targets the Arab Palestinian identity, establishes the Jewish identity of what is called 'the State of Israel,' revokes the right to self-determination of the Palestinians of 1948 who live in the occupied Interior (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel), and revokes our historical first right to the land."
PA prime minister refers to Israel as "Palestine that was occupied in 1948"
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 16, 2018
Headline: "Hamdallah welcomed a delegation from the Arab American University"
"[PA] Prime Minister Dr. Rami Hamdallah received a delegation from the Arab American University in his office… and expressed his appreciation for the role the university is fulfilling in providing an excellent education with the assistance of all the modern study tools that match the needs of the market, along with strengthening the resolve of the members of our people in Palestine that was occupied in 1948 (i.e., Israel)."
PA daily refers to Israel as "territories that were occupied in 1948"
Headline: "The Jenin branch of the Association of Workers Unions of Palestine demanded to ease the procedures at the Jalame checkpoint"
"The Jenin branch of the Association of Workers Unions of Palestine demanded that the Israeli bodies ease the procedures that are being implemented at the Jalame checkpoint, as it is the only checkpoint that serves as the entry of civilians into the territories that were occupied in 1948 (i.e., Israel)."
PA daily calls Israel "the Interior that was occupied in 1948"
Headline: "30,000 worshippers held the Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque plazas"
"From the early morning hours [Arab] civilians from the Interior that was occupied in 1948 (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel), civilians from the West Bank who received an entry permit, and Muslims from Britain and Indonesia came in masses to the Al-Aqsa Mosque plazas."
PA daily calls Israel "Palestine that was occupied in 1948"
Headline: "Birzeit: Conference on Translating From the Hebrew Press – Between Information and Narrative"
"The media development center at Birzeit University held... a conference titled Translating From the Hebrew Press – Between Information and Narrative… During the conference, which was held with the funding of the Swedish International Development [Cooperation] Agency (SIDA), a number of guests spoke, some of whom arrived from cities of Palestine that was occupied in 1948 (i.e., Israel)."
Qalqilya District Governor: Balfour Declaration was an "ominous promise was given by someone with no ownership to someone with no right" and an "historical sin"
Headline: "The Qalqilya district governor received the British Parliament delegation"
"Qalqilya District Governor Rafe' Rawajbeh yesterday [June 28, 2018] briefed a delegation from the British Labour Party - which came to visit the [PLO] Department for Negotiation Affairs - on the situation in the Qalqilya district… The district governor praised the role that the Department for Negotiation Affairs is carrying out and thanked it for hosting this delegation, which came to visit the district in order to be briefed on its situation. He also emphasized the importance of the visit, and briefed those present on the disastrous consequences of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) on the Palestinian people. In addition, he emphasized that this ominous promise was given by someone with no ownership to someone with no right, and demanded that the government of Britain atone for the historical sin that it committed against the Palestinian people by recognizing the Palestinian people's right to an independent Palestinian state."
Abbas' advisor in sermon: Balfour Declaration was "despicable act of oppression;" denies Jewish connection to land or to Jerusalem, which was founded by "us, the Jebusite Canaanite Arabs;" attacks the US
Source: Official Palestinian Authority TV, May 18, 2018
Official PA TV and YouTube channel of the Office of the PA Supreme Shari'ah Judge, Ramadan Friday sermon by Supreme Shari'ah Judge, Mahmoud Abbas' advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs, and Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari'ah Justice Mahmoud Al-Habbash at the mosque at the PA headquarters in Ramallah.
Mahmoud Al-Habbash: "More than 100 years ago a despicable act of oppression befell the Palestinian people, in which one who has no [right] gave a promise to one who does not deserve it, (i.e., the Balfour Declaration) about land to which they have no connection – land that they acknowledged was not theirs, and that they have no right to… except for a sentimental connection… But the oppression occurred, and the world conspired against the Palestinian people, and this people was uprooted 70 years ago, at the time of the Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel).... We and the world have seen the completion of the sins, the completion of the sin of Palestine's Nakba, in that America came to transfer its embassy [to Jerusalem] and to falsely say… that it is the eternal capital of the Jewish people. This is what they are saying about Jerusalem! As if Jerusalem has no people, and has no owners, and as if it has no people, and as if they are the ones who built it; even though the facts of history determine that those who built Jerusalem are us, the Jebusite Canaanite Arabs, and they gave it its name, and they set it as their capital (sic., archaeological finds have proven a Jewish role in building and developing Jerusalem; the Jebusites and Canaanites were not Arabs)… The one responsible for all of this is first of all the USA. Our blood is on their neck and on their hands. They are responsible."
PA daily publishes pictures of riots, with headline: "70 years of occupation – we will remain and we will struggle"
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 16, 2018
Images published in the official PA daily
Headline: "70 years of occupation – we will remain and we will struggle"
The day after Nakba Day – which commemorates "the catastrophe" of Israel's establishment – the official PA daily dedicated an entire page to images from various violent Palestinian riots in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Rioters can be seen burning Israeli and American flags, waving Palestinian flags, preparing tires to be burned, treating wounded, and confronting Israeli security forces.
Palestinians commemorate Nakba Day on May 15, the day after the establishment of Israel. On May 15, 1948, combined forces from Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq joined local Arab forces in an attempt to eradicate the newly established State of Israel. The Nakba (Arabic = catastrophe) refers to the establishment of Israel, and the subsequent defeat in the war, including the killing and displacement of Arab civilians that occurred during the war.
Op-ed in PA daily calls opening of US embassy a "war crime," accuses Israel of carrying out "massacres, wars, terror" for 100 years against Palestinians, and claims Trump belongs in a "mental hospital"
Excerpt of an op-ed by Muwaffaq Matar, regular columnist for the official PA daily
"[US President Donald] Trump's country may be the strongest country in the world, but it is the poorest country in terms of justice, the richest in terms of injustice, and the lowest on the ladder of human values…
How can it be that Israel's future will be full of shining promises of peace, as [US Presidential Advisor Jared] Kushner said while representing his President Trump at the inauguration of an American military base (sic., the US embassy) in occupied Jerusalem? Those who were present at the inauguration ceremony of Trump's embassy in Jerusalem are partners in a war crime…
Trump believes in the ability of the leaders of Israel to put an end to the Palestinian existence, as his ancestors did to the Indians, but did they tell him that 100 years of massacres, wars, terror, expulsion, and organized attacks against the Palestinian people have only strengthened the Palestinians' connection to their eternal homeland... This man needs rehabilitation in a mental hospital or to be hospitalized in an asylum, because if he remains free, the world will see how he enjoys and takes pleasure like no other while the world goes up in the flames of his sadism and naivety!"
Op-ed: Zionist movement was established by "Khazar tribes," who have no connection to "the children of Jacob"; "Colonialist and imperialist forces" chose to "plant an aggressive entity" in "Palestine" to "divide" Arab nations
Excerpt of an op-ed by Yahya Rabah, a regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: "The tragedy of the Nakba and the wonders of resolve"
"At this time we remember the 70th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel), a comprehensive act of aggression that was carried out against us not because we sinned, and not because we committed a crime… but rather because the course of history… caused the same strong parties – then and afterwards – to use their brutal power against us. They used the Zionist movement, which was established… by peoples of the Khazar tribes, who have no connection to the children of Jacob (Israel) [parentheses in source]… Since Canaanite Palestine is an organic part of the Fertile Crescent (a region of the Middle East where early human agriculture and civilization flourished –Ed.), the colonialist and imperialist forces decided to choose Palestine in order to plant an aggressive entity in it that would divide the united Arab nation into east and west, north and south."
Official PA daily reports on "rage activities" which will take place in protest of the US embassy's move to Jerusalem, inviting Palestinians to participate in the "March of Return"
Headline: "Rage activities throughout Palestine in protest against the transfer of the American embassy and for Jerusalem"
"In light of the occupation's current preparations to celebrate the transfer [of the US embassy to Jerusalem], the Palestinian people from throughout the occupied homeland is thronging to the mass activities that were called for by the [Palestinian] National and Islamic Forces, which will reach their peak on May 15 in the large March of Return towards the territories that were occupied in 1948 (i.e., Israel)."
Palestinian National and Islamic Forces - an unaffiliated coordinating body comprised of representatives from factions in the PLO and outside the PLO. The Palestinian National and Islamic Forces were established in 2000 shortly after the start of the PA terror campaign (the second Intifada, 2000-2005), under the authorization of Yasser Arafat and the leadership of terrorist Marwan Barghouti. During the PA terror campaign it played an active role in coordinating political efforts and terror attacks against Israel, but since the end of the campaign it has been less significant and its activity is primarily centered in Gaza.
PA TV teaches kids to stay refugees: "From generation to generation, there is no alternative to the return"
Filler for "Nakba Day" broadcast on official PA TV numerous times daily since May 10, 2018
Text on drawing: "The 70th anniversary of the Nakba. From generation to generation, there is no alternative to the return and Jerusalem."
Song performed by Fairuz: "We shall return though time passes by and distances grow between us."
Text on screen: "From generation to generation, there is no alternative to the return and Jerusalem."
PA TV narrator: "Our return is certain, and Jerusalem is the eternal capital of our state."
Official PA TV replaces logo with map of "Palestine" replacing all of Israel, to commemorate the Nakba, or "catastrophe" of the establishment of the State of Israel
Source: Official Palestinian Authority TV, May 9, 2018
Official PA TV, on the "Nakba" - "the catastrophe," the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel
Since May 9, 2018, official PA TV has replaced the logo featuring the text "Our Jerusalem" - which it had been using since US President Donald Trump's December 2017 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital - with a logo in the shape of the PA map of "Palestine" that presents all of Israel as "Palestine" together with the PA areas. The new logo also contains elements representing Nakba Day - the day of "the catastrophe," the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel, which is marked on May 15: Two crossed keys representing the return of Palestinian refugees appear behind the map, and text on the map alternates between "70," representing 70 years since the Nakba - the establishment of Israel - and "The return – a right."
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Palestinian National Council condemns the transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem, says agreements between Israel and the PA no longer valid
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 4, 2018
Headline: "The [Palestinian] National Council: The transitional period and all of the obligations it included are no longer valid"
"The Palestinian National Council (i.e., the legislative council) at the end of its regular session, the Jerusalem and Defense of the Palestinian Legitimacy Session, this morning, Friday [May 4, 2018], emphasized its condemnation and rejection of American President Donald Trump's illegal declaration that considers Jerusalem Israel's capital, and of the transfer of his country's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and also emphasized that it will act to cancel this decision.
The council emphasized in a statement that was published after the conclusion of the session that… in consideration of the fact that the State of Israel has shirked all of the obligations that were included in the agreements that were signed, and also put an end to them in practice, the transitional period determined in the agreements signed in Oslo, Cairo, and Washington, and the obligations it includes within it, are no longer valid."
Abbas in Antisemitic speech claims Jews' "social role that was connected to usury, and banks" caused Antisemitism, Holocaust; claims some Jews are descended from Khazars; denies Jewish connection to Israel
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: "The sons of Jacob were 12. Where did you bring 13 from? They invented it. Where? In the Khazar Kingdom. When? In the 9th century. It was an irreligious kingdom. Afterwards it became a Jewish kingdom. The emperor converted to Judaism and therefore [the kingdom] converted to Judaism. Afterwards it broke apart, and all its residents migrated to Europe, and these are the Ashkenazi Jews (this claim is rejected by experts and genetic testing confirms uniform origin of the different Jewish communities-Ed.). The Ashkenazi Jews are not Semites, and they have no connection to Semitism or Abraham, Jacob, or others. It was a Tatar-Turkic state... Second, these Jews who migrated to eastern and western Europe were subjected to massacres by some state every 10 to 15 years from the 11th century until the Holocaust that took place in Germany. OK, but why did this happen? They say: 'Because we are Jews.'... The hatred of the Jews is not due to their religion, but rather due to their social role. If so, it's a different issue. And therefore, the Jewish problem that was common in all of the states of Europe against the Jews was not due to their religion, but rather due to their social role that was connected to usury, and banks, and so forth... Now we are talking about the Jewish homeland. They are talking about longing for Zion and that's why they are going [there] and so forth. I say - not me, rather history says that these words are baseless."
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Abbas' advisor: Israel is "falsifying history;" After WWII, "the colonialist states" wanted to "get rid of" the Jews of Europe, "who had a monopoly over the economy and capital" and therefore "helped them establish their state," which was a "crime"
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Apr. 24, 2018
"During the lecture, [Supreme Shari'ah Judge, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs, and Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari'ah Justice Mahmoud] Al-Habbash refuted the claims that the Israeli occupation is spreading against Palestine and its residents by falsifying history and the religious and political facts through fabricated and false myths.
He said: 'After World War II ended, the colonialist states wanted to get rid of the presence of the Jews of Europe, who had a monopoly over the economy and capital. Therefore, they supported these claims and helped them establish their state on the land of Palestine at the expense of the Palestinian people, who are still suffering from this crime.'"
Op-ed in official PA daily glorifies terrorist responsible for the murder of 125 people, refers to Israel as a "myth that was born out of emptiness"
Excerpt of an op-ed by Yahya Rabah, regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: "Khalil Al-Wazir 'Abu Jihad' on the 30th anniversary of his death as a Martyr"
"His dream of a comprehensive revolution was very early, and the distance between his mind and his fingertips through which he implemented his ideas was very short, a negligible distance. Therefore, Khalil Al-Wazir (i.e., terrorist Abu Jihad, responsible for murder of 125) the youth, who in 1954 was still wearing school pants and riding his bicycle, had already realized the beginning of his great dream and expressed his ideas by creating the first bomb that was planted in the water project in the Israeli Nahal Oz settlement located in the Gaza Envelope (i.e., area in Israel near the Gaza border. Possibly refers to an attempted bombing of the Zohar water reservoir in 1955 –Ed.)
That same small explosive was an expression of the fetus that developed within the oppressed and wounded Palestinian people, whose wound was disparaged by all, and who the large [powers] belittled, openly conspired against, and stole its homeland and gave it for free as a gift to a myth that was born out of emptiness, whose name is Israel."
Abu Jihad (Khalil Al-Wazir) - a founder of Fatah and deputy to Yasser Arafat. He headed the PLO terror organization's military wing and also planned many deadly Fatah terror attacks in the 1960's - 1980's. These attacks, which murdered a total of 125 Israelis, included the most lethal in Israeli history - the hijacking of a bus and murder of 37 civilians, 12 of them children.
Holocaust "was a lie," "the Jews conspired with Hitler to create a gate to Palestine to bring the settlers," says Palestinian political analyst
Official PA TV program Inside
Political analyst Hani Abu Zaid: "[The Israelis] cried over the false Holocaust in Hitler's days, and it wasn't in such large numbers. I want to note –"
(PA TV host): "That's a lie they have spread throughout the world."
Political analyst Hani Abu Zaid: "Indeed, it was a lie. Many of the Israelis or the Jews conspired with Hitler in order to create a gateway to Palestine to bring the settlers. Therefore, the policy of settlement and colonialism is in the blood of these people."
Op-ed in official PA daily: Israel - "the colonialist satanic plant" of the West "to get rid of the problem of the Jewish ghetto" - will not survive because the "Zionist project… is a project that rejects life"
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Apr. 5, 2018
Excerpt of an op-ed by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, regular columnist for the official PA daily
"The core and essence of the Anglo-Saxon-Israeli connection were never a secret to anyone, or unclear and vague, because their foundations are obvious and clear, and they are based on the mutual relationship between the Anglo-Saxon decision maker and funder and the Zionist project, so that it will carry out the role and mission required of it. Therefore, the owner of the project of Israel is the West, the entire capitalist West, and the fact that there are differences of opinion and even criticism between the capitalist bodies according to hierarchy and status does not in any way mean that they have a disagreement about protecting and perpetuating the status of Israel – the colonialist satanic plant in the region on the ruins of the Palestinian people's Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel)...
Therefore, to the extent that the national, popular, political, and diplomatic struggle develops, we will achieve two goals simultaneously: 1. To enable building foundations for a political, possible, and accepted agreement; 2. The splitting and fragmenting of the Zionist project, because it will not be able to continue to exist without the Anglo-Saxon financial and security aid, and particularly because it is a project that rejects life."
PA daily refers to Israel as "Palestine that was occupied in 1948"
"The council of commissioners of the Independent Council for Human Rights, the Public Admissibility Council, concluded its semiannual meeting in the presence of its members from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and also from Palestine that was occupied in 1948 (i.e., Israel) and the diaspora via video conference."
Fatah Facebook post features map of "Palestine" replacing Israel, "the territory that was occupied in 1948"
Source: Official Fatah Facebook page, Mar. 30, 2018
The image shows people in in keffiyehs (Arab headdresses) walking towards "Palestine," depicted by the PA map of "Palestine" that presents all of Israel as "Palestine" together with the PA areas with the Dome of the Rock appearing at the location of Jerusalem. To the left of the map is written "Palestine."
Posted text: "Land Day is the height of the Palestinian people's unity everywhere and an expression of the feelings of belonging to one people, no matter how different the suffering in the different parts of the homeland and in the refugee camps. It is not odd that the main arena of this intifada is the territory that was occupied in 1948 (i.e., Israel), as the masses of our people in this part of the homeland – with their resolve, their remaining on their land, and their defense of this land – are simply the opposite of the Zionist project as a whole…
Khalil Nazzal
Fatah Movement Secretary in Warsaw"
Op-ed in PA daily: Israel is a "settlement colonialist Zionist entity… which came to the world through illegal relations… between colonialist powers"
Excerpt of an op-ed by Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily
"Trump responded – quicker than what the world diplomats expected – to [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas' plan for peace and an end of the conflict when he decided to go too far with a shamelessness that has not characterized the US policy since the birth of the settlement colonialist Zionist entity 'Israel,' and the announcement on the adoption of this infant, which came to the world through illegal relations that can be called relations of political adultery between colonialist powers – led by Great Britain – and Zionism…
Trump's decision to transfer the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – in honor of the opening of the strongest colonialist base in the Middle East, which is called 'the State of Israel,' 70 years ago – for the 70th anniversary of the crime that the then colonialist states committed against the Palestinian people (i.e., the embassy will be opened on the 70th anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence according to the Gregorian calendar)… firmly proves that the lord of the White House has decided to bring the weapons, abilities, and resources of the US into the war front against us, and to treat us – the Palestinian people – as enemies, even though we consider peace as a strategic decision."
PA government condemns proposed Israeli legislation on terror salaries: Israel was established "on the basis of the theft of the Palestinian people's land, property, money, books, heritage, and antiquities"
Headline: "The [PA] government condemns the Israeli escalation against the Gaza Strip and the theft of Palestinian money"
"The [PA] government condemned the approval of the racist law to deduct the allowances (mukhassasat) of the prisoners and the Martyrs' (Shahids) families from the Palestinian tax money in the Israeli Ministerial Committee [for Legislation] (see note below –Ed.). It emphasized that Israel, which was established on the basis of the theft of the Palestinian people's land, property, money, books, heritage, and antiquities, is continuing with its actions with which it began 70 years ago."
Abbas speech to UN Security Council demonizes Israel, slams US, but proposes international peace plan
Source: WAFA, official PA news agency, Feb. 20, 2018
This transcript of PA Chairman Abbas' speech before the UN Security Council on Feb. 20, 2018 was published by Wafa, the official Palestinian Authority news agency, on Feb. 20, 2018.
"Seventy years have passed since Palestine's Nakba, from which 6 million Palestine refugees continue to suffer from the cruelty of exile and loss of human security. They continue to wander the world after the loss of their peaceful and stable lives in their homeland. They are part of the 13 million Palestinians, whose country has not yet been recognized as full Member State of the United Nations, despite the numerous resolutions reaffirming their right to self-determination and statehood on their national land.
We are the descendants of the Canaanites that lived in the land of Palestine 5,000 years ago and continuously remained there to this day. Our great people remain rooted in their land. The Palestinian people built their own cities and homeland and made contributions to humanity and civilization witnessed by the world. They established institutions, schools, hospitals, cultural organizations, theaters, libraries, newspapers, publishing houses, economic organizations, businesses and banks, with wide regional and international influence.
All of this existed before and after the Balfour Declaration issued by the British Government in 1917, a declaration by which those who did not own, giving to those who had no right. The British Government bears responsibility for the catastrophic consequences inflicted on the Palestinian people as a result..."
Palestinian school children perform song denying Israel's right to exist: "My land is here, the sea, the plains, the river – they are ours"
Source: Official Palestinian Authority TV, Feb. 13, 2018
Official PA TV program Period, on school activities
Lyrics of the song Justice is My Weapon:
"Despite my wounds I'll rise up
I won't surrender; I won't accept [the situation].
I won't barter over you, my country
Justice is my weapon and I'll rise up
Despite my wounds I'll rise up
I won't surrender; I won't accept [the situation]
My home is here, my land is here, the sea, the plains, the river – they are ours"
Official PA daily calls Israel "the Palestinian Interior that was occupied in 1948"
Headline: "40,000 people said the Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque plazas"
"Approximately 40,000 people said the Friday prayers yesterday [Feb. 2, 2018] at the Al-Aqsa Mosque plazas. The media department of the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf [Foundation] conveyed that despite all [Israel's] stringent measures at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque gates and the warm weather, approximately 40,000 worshippers came - residents of Jerusalem, the Palestinian Interior (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel) that was occupied in 1948, and Islamic delegations from Turkey."
Antisemitic Fatah op-ed: Shakespeare's Shylock was an accurate description of the Jews; Theresa May is a "hostile and sinful woman" for supporting the "ominous" Balfour Declaration
Source: Falestinona, website of Fatah's Information and Culture Commission in Lebanon, Jan. 31, 2018
Op-ed by Mahmoud Al-Assadi
"Today, 100 years after the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), stands British Prime Minister Theresa May, who bears the name of 'Mother Theresa' - but how great is the difference between the two. While Mother Theresa was a saint and an ascetic woman who sacrificed her life to help the poor and oppressed, do justice with them, and give them civil rights such as justice and equality, present British Prime Minister Theresa May is a hostile and sinful woman, who brags shamelessly about how she and her conservative government are proud and take glory in the fact that the government of Britain approved the Balfour Declaration in 1917...
While Britain's colonialist history is full of people like [former British Foreign Secretary Arthur] Balfour, [Baron] Rothschild, [former British Prime Minister] Tony Blair, and Theresa May, the greatest playwright William Shakespeare correctly described the deceitful, greedy, trickster, extortionist, and lowly character of the Jews in the story The Merchant of Venice in the 16th century."
Op-ed in official PA daily: "Anything can be expected… in the age of the Hitleresque and Balfouresque Trump, who think that the Earth is a cake that they have the right to divide and give pieces of to whomever they want"
Excerpt of an op-ed by Muwaffaq Matar, a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council and regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: "The Arab members of the Israeli Parliament – the frontline of Jerusalem"
"Yesterday [Jan. 22, 2018] the people of Palestine made US Vice President [Mike Pence] hear what he must hear from the Palestinians, the original owners of the land… certainly when the voices of the Palestinian (i.e., Israeli Arab) members of the Israeli Parliament, the native residents of the land, shattered the [US President Donald] Trump – [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu map, and eliminated the statement: 'a Jewish state' (the Arab members of the Israeli Parliament disrupted Pence's speech and were removed; see note below –Ed.). That is on the assumption that the one who stood at the [Israeli Parliament] podium (i.e., Pence) has… the intelligence of a diplomat in a superpower, who is supposed to be wise… But this cannot be hoped for from the vice president of the country of [US Ambassador to the UN] Nikki Haley with her high heels (refers to her remark that her heels are in order to protect Israel at the UN –Ed.)... Here, in this [place] that the world calls 'Israel' even though it has no borders, there are two million Arab Palestinians whose historical roots sprouted here the first time the sun rose on the world after the great flood [of Noah from the Bible].
Anything can be expected from those who have committed the historical crime and from the leaders of the new US in the age of the Hitleresque and Balfouresque Trump, who think that the Earth is a cake that they have the right to divide and give pieces of to whomever they want however they want. Those who inherited the colonialist mentality in the American continent and are silent about the crime of the destruction of the Indians will cer
Abbas' advisor: Jerusalem is ours, the land curses them [Israelis] and rejects them, they have no right to it
Source: Official Palestinian Authority TV, Jan. 19, 2018
Official PA TV, excerpt of sermon by Supreme Shari'ah Judge, Mahmoud Abbas' advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs, and Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari'ah Justice Mahmoud Al-Habbash
Supreme Shari'ah Judge, Mahmoud Abbas' advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs, and Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari'ah Justice Mahmoud Al-Habbash: "Is it possible that one of those who claim that they are determining the fates of peoples, and call themselves 'superpowers' or 'the superpower'… – can they change the identity [of Jerusalem] that was determined by Allah (refers to US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital; see note below –Ed.)? Can they deprive Jerusalem of a title that Allah determined for it? This cannot happen!
Do they [the Israelis] imagine that they can force us to recognize their alleged right to a land that every morning and evening curses them and rejects them? They can obtain legitimacy from the entire world, but not from us, not from us. [Only] we have the ability to grant legitimacy to whoever comes to Jerusalem and its surroundings, because we are its inheritors. We are its owners. We are its builders. We are its people, and we are the inheritors of the heritage of the prophets in it. Jerusalem is ours – sooner or later – with all its borders, landmarks, parts, and every grain of sand in it; including its Al-Aqsa Mosque, its churches, its roads, its homes, its land, and that which is under its land; and with its skies and that which is above them. It is ours and ours alone, and no one can share it with us, and we will not agree to this. It cannot be divided, and it cannot be split. It will only hand over its reins to one whom it loves, one to whom it belongs and who belongs to it..."
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PA daily calls Israel "the Palestinian areas that were occupied in 1948"
"The Fatah Movement Commission of Martyrs (Shahids), Prisoners, and Wounded in the Gaza Strip condemned the Israeli occupation's decision to prevent the transfer of sick Palestinians to hospitals in the Palestinian areas that were occupied in 1948 (i.e., Israel), under false Israeli pretexts and excuses (PMW was unable to find any reports of sick Gazans being blocked entry –Ed.)."
Abbas' advisor: Israeli occupation began 70 years ago
Headline: "Al-Habbash honored the Chinese ambassador upon the conclusion of his role"
"Supreme Shari'ah Judge, Mahmoud Abbas' advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs [and Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari'ah Justice] Mahmoud Al-Habbash honored the Ambassador of China Chen Xingzhong upon the conclusion of his role in Palestine. Al-Habbash emphasized the strength of the bilateral relations between China and Palestine, and noted that China is among the states that have consistently supported the Palestinian right and supported the justice of the Palestinian cause since the beginning of the Israeli occupation 70 years ago (i.e., since Israel's establishment in 1948)."
The PLO Executive Committee "has been appointed to freeze the recognition of Israel until [Israel's] recognition of the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders"
Headline: "The [PLO] Central Council appointed the [PLO] Executive Committee to freeze the recognition of Israel until [Israel's] recognition of the State of Palestine"
"The [PLO] Central Council decided in its concluding statement that the transitional period determined in the agreements signed in Oslo, Cairo, and Washington, including all of the commitments derived from them, are no longer valid…
In its concluding statement it was said that the PLO Executive Committee has been appointed to freeze the recognition of Israel until [Israel's] recognition of the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders, the cancellation of the decision to annex East Jerusalem, and the end of the settlement.
The Central Council again emphasized its decision to stop the security coordination in all of its forms, and to break free of the economic dependence determined in the Paris Economic Agreement…
The council emphasized its rejection and condemnation of the racist Israel occupation and apartheid regime that Israel is attempting to establish as an alternative to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, and also emphasized the determination of the Palestinian people to fight with all means to bring it down."
Paris Agreement – agreement on economic relations between Israel and the PLO, signed in Paris on April 29, 1994. Its main goal is to promote peace by establishing economic relations modeled on EU economic relations.
Abbas distorts history: Israel is Europe's "colonialist project that is not connected to Judaism, but made use of the Jews so they would serve as pawns"
Excerpt of a speech given by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to the PLO Central Council on Jan. 14, 2018
"Egyptian intellectual Abd Al-Wahab Al-Masri, may his memory be a blessing, was one of the most important people that spoke about the Zionist and Jewish movement… He described this entity with these words: 'The significance of Israel's functional character is that colonialism created it in order to fill a specific role; it is a colonialist project that is not connected to Judaism, but made use of the Jews so they would serve as pawns, and they were, under the motto 'the Promised Land' and 'the Beloved Land,' and they brought them here'…
There is an important matter – how will the Jews immigrate [to Palestine]? The Jews do not want to immigrate because of killing and slaughter. Even during the Holocaust that took place they did not immigrate [to Palestine] (sic., there were many attempts to immigrate to the Land of Israel, many of which were blocked by the British). By the way, the number of Jews in Palestine in 1948 did not exceed 640,000, and most of them came from Europe. [Theodor] Herzl [a founder of modern Zionism] used to say: 'Antisemitism is the engine of Zionism' – in other words, the more antisemitic a person is, the more beneficial he is to us [the Jews]. This is because he advances the Zionist goal – to expel the Jews from their countries to Palestine."
PA daily calls Israel "territories that were occupied in the 1948 Nakba"
Headline: "The Hebron scout group welcomed Tree Day by planting trees in Batir"
"Batir, the village that remains standing firm on the borders of the Ottoman train rail that separates the territories that were occupied in the 1948 Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) and the territories that were occupied in the 1967 Naksa (i.e., "the setback," Palestinian term for Israel's victory in the Six Day War), contains Canaanite and Roman antiquities and an Ottoman Islamic fingerprint."
Abbas: Europeans "wanted to get rid of the Jews to benefit from them in our land"
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in a speech to PLO Central Council: "There is an important matter – the Jews' immigration [to Palestine]. The Jews did not want to immigrate, not even because of killing, slaughter. They did not want to immigrate. Even during the Holocaust that took place, they did not immigrate [to Palestine]. They did not immigrate... [Theodor] Herzl (i.e., founder of modern Zionism) used to say: 'Antisemitism is the engine of Zionism. The more antisemitic a person is the more beneficial he is to us because he advances the Zionist goal by expelling the Jews.' They [the Europeans] wanted to get rid of the Jews there for their reasons and to benefit from them in our land - killing two birds with one stone."
Palestinian university student: "Jerusalem has been the capital of Palestine since the Canaanites," "The Jews don't even have a state named Israel"
Official PA TV program Period, on the opinions of young Palestinians regarding US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital
Palestinian university student Hadeel Abu Sharakh: "[US President Donald] Trump's decision was incorrect. Jerusalem has been the capital of Palestine since the Canaanites. The Jews don't even have a state named Israel, because the Jews are just groups scattered in the states of Europe. They were gathered and promised the establishment of an Israeli state for them in Palestine since [former British Foreign Secretary Arthur] Balfour."
Fatah official emphasizes Fatah "has never recognized Israel"
Fatah Central Committee member, Al-Haj Ismail Jaber, on Topic of The Day: "In regard to the revocation of the Palestinian recognition of Israel, will this topic also be examined? All matters are on the [PLO] Central Council's agenda… Indeed, we in Fatah have not recognized Israel, never.
This should be clear. We have never recognized [Israel]. The PLO recognized it. We are part of the PLO, true. And we, as Fatah, have not recognized Israel."
PA radio host: Israel is "cancerous entity… everyone knows [the Jews] have no right to this land"
Source: Official PA radio station The Voice of Palestine, Jan. 1, 2018
Official PA radio station The Voice of Palestine, Sign of Hope
Official PA radio host: "Those who established and support the Zionist movement created these religious illusions and lies in the holy city [of Jerusalem]... in order to plant the cancerous entity [of Israel] in the Arab region as part of a new colonial scheme to control it… Everyone knows that in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religions they [the Jews] have no right to this land, and these are firm facts."
The PA radio station host made this statement in response to US President Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital on Dec. 6, 2017. Trump instructed the State Department to begin preparations to transfer the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He added that the final borders of Jerusalem will be determined during negotiations.
Fatah youth movement threatens Israeli MP, calls Israel an "imaginary entity"
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 27, 2017
"The [PA] national unity government demanded that the relevant and authorized organizations and institutions of the international community – and prime among them the Red Cross – condemn Israeli Parliament Member Oren Hazan and settle accounts with him over his racist behavior and the crime that he committed against mothers and family members of our heroic prisoners (he verbally confronted family members of terrorists; see note below –Ed.)…
The Fatah Shabiba [Movement] in the West Bank said in a statement yesterday [Dec. 26, 2017] in response to extremist Likud Parliament Member Oren Hazan's attack on a bus of family members of prisoners from Gaza… that the feet of the Palestinian resistance brigades, led by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (i.e., Fatah's military wing), will trample this racist, and that the tongue that insults our prisoners and their families will be cut off. It noted that the actions of this hated racist will have severe consequences…
The Fatah Shabiba [Movement] said in its statement that the one who thinks that crimes like these will pass without a price is deluding himself. It called on this fascist [Hazan] to remember how the soldiers of his imaginary [Zionist] entity cried under the bullets of Thaer Hammad (i.e., terrorist, murdered 10), and noted that all of the options and fronts are open in order [to protect] the honor of our prisoners."
Fatah official compares Trump to Balfour, Trump is a "predatory beast," "the Palestinian people is stronger than any weapon... thanks to... the blood of our righteous Martyrs" in Jerusalem
Source: Official Palestinian Authority TV, Dec. 27, 2017
Official PA TV program Palestine This Morning, broadcast from the Qalandiya refugee camp on the responses to US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, interview with Fatah Secretary of the Qalandiya Refugee Camp Zakariya Fayala
(PA TV reporter): "What do you think about the ominous Trump announcement?"
Fatah Secretary of the Qalandiya Refugee Camp Zakariya Fayala: "Someone [Trump] pops up who has no ownership and he gives Jerusalem - the place of Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey - as a gift to one who has no right [Israel]... We will follow the steps of this predatory beast."
US recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel - On Dec. 6, 2017, US President Donald Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and instructed the State Department to begin preparations to transfer the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump added that the final borders of Jerusalem will be determined during negotiations.
PA TV host and magazine editor deny Jewish historical ties to the land of Israel
Official PA TV, special broadcast on US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, hosting Editor-in-Chief of the Siyasat Magazine Atef Abu Saif
Official PA TV host: "Israelis historians are coming out and saying: 'We have proven, and the attempts have proven after 50 years of searching and research, that there is nothing that indicates a Jewish civilization (sic. , such evidence abounds).'"
Editor-in-Chief of the Siyasat Magazine Atef Abu Saif: "The Jews passed through. Their original name is the Hebrews. They actually- if we want to count how many people have passed through our land and we hosted them, fed them, gave them drink, and said, 'We will build you a home next to us here,' then it works out that all of the peoples of the world- and that is the value of Palestine. However, the Zionist racism came to change reality. In other words, if we- after all, the P ersians lived with us (sic., there were no Palestinians during the Persian occupation of the Land of Israel in the 6th-4th century BCE). This is the land of the civilizations... Therefore, it is impossible to say anything bad about the Palestinian people. The entire world wants Palestine, but it is not the right of anyone other than the Palestinian civilians, who are the descendants of this huge river of the civilizations, this great river of heritage and cultural values. They are the only ones who own this land."
Op-ed in PA daily invents ancient Arab history in Palestine, denies any Jewish ties to the land of Israel: "If they are here, this is for a Western colonialist goal"
Excerpt of an op-ed by Bakr Abu Bakr, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily
"There is no doubt about the Arabness of Palestine for the last 10,000 years, as [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas noted in his latest speech in Istanbul. Regarding the Children of Israel, the Arab tribe that became extinct, and its presence here, indeed it is Arab movement (i.e., apparently meaning an Arab nomadic tribe), and the present residents of our land who are affiliated with the Jewish religion have no connection to them. In other words, they (the residents of the [Zionist] entity) [parentheses in source] are affiliated with several nations, and there is no hereditary – DNA – or national connection between them and the Children of Israel that became extinct. On the other hand, we – the Jebusites, Canaanites (members of the Kinana tribe) [parentheses in source], and Arab Palestinians (the Philistines) [parentheses in source], members of the Tayy tribe, and other tribes - were in Palestine even before the Common Era and established civilization and Jerusalem… The groups of people that are affiliated with Judaism today… were never a people at any time in history. Religion does not create a people or race. Palestine belongs solely to the Palestinian Arabs... The scattered members of the nations that are affiliated with Judaism have countries of their own, and if they are here, this is for a Western colonialist goal – the dismantling of the [Arab] nation – and this is pure exploitation of the cover of a religious lie."
Fatah official calls to implement same "peaceful and non-violent" policies towards Israel as towards South Africa, compares Trump to "colonialist" Balfour
"Fatah Movement Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub demanded to strengthen the solidarity with our people, by the international community taking decisive steps regarding Israel.
Rajoub emphasized that the time has come for the same policy that succeeded in South Africa to be implemented, and the same peaceful and non-violent methods that the solidarity movements and states throughout the world use should be implemented.
He added that the time has also come to impose sanctions on those who violate the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.
He said this during his participation in the 54th election conference of the ruling party [in South Africa], the African National Congress, on behalf of the PLO and Fatah, and as [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas' representative… He asked: 'Who is [US President Donald] Trump to determine the status of Jerusalem [by recognizing it as Israel's capital]? One hundred years ago a British colonialist [Foreign Secretary] called Arthur James Balfour decided to give Palestine, which was not his land, to a movement that is not affiliated with our land (i.e., the Zionist movement.) We say to them - Jerusalem is not yours. Jerusalem is holy to the three monotheistic religions, and it is occupied land according to international law.'"
Girl's antisemitic poem on PA TV: "Why did you bring the Jews to us, who defile Jerusalem and its great mosque?"
Palestinian girl Hiba, on the Giants of Endurance PA TV program: "This poem is because of [US President Donald] Trump's decision that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel:
[Former British Foreign Secretary] Balfour, you vile person, what did you do to our people?
Is your conscience quiet?
Go in your grave toward the blazing fire
You are the one that expelled us, do not ask for help
You drank our blood from a goblet, and brought this fate down upon us…
You brought to our people those who orphaned small children
You have turned the best of our people into Martyrs and prisoners
Why did you bring the Jews to us, who defile Jerusalem and its great mosque?"
Palestinian poet on PA TV denies Jewish history as a "Zionist, British, and American fabrication"
Source: Official Palestinian Authority TV, Dec. 7, 2017
Official PA TV program Culture Talks, hosting Palestinian poet Omar Shalayel
Palestinian poet Omar Shalayel: "I am the Palestinian, this land is my land, and this Zionist, British, and American fabrication – how they have changed Arab Palestine. And [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu comes out and says to you 'this is the land of my forefathers' – who are these forefathers of yours?"
Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital is second Balfour Declaration, says PA official
Official PA TV, program Palestine This Morning, on US President Donald Trump's declaration recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and transferring the US embassy to Jerusalem, hosting Hanna Issa.
Secretary-General of the PA Islamic-Christian Council for Jerusalem and the Holy Places and Fatah Revolutionary Council member Hanna Issa: "Yesterday was the second Balfour Promise or the Trump Promise, [in] which one who is not the owner gave to one who has no right."
PA Minister of Religious Affairs: US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital is a "second Balfour Promise… given by one who has no ownership to one who has no right"
Source: Ma'an, independent Palestinian news agency, Dec. 7, 2017
Headline: "Ida'is: The American administration has given that which does not belong to it to one who has no right to it"
"[PA] Minister of Religious Affairs Sheikh Yusuf Ida'is said that the American administration's decision against the holy city [of Jerusalem] constitutes a blatant provocation towards the Arabs and Muslims, and described it as the second Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), which was given by one who has no ownership to one who has no right. He emphasized that Jerusalem is Arab, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque is an Islamic mosque by virtue of a divine decision, and is not subject to any decision such as this or another."
PA daily op-ed: "Trump will be Balfour's successor; he has taken [Britain's] place as a colonialist country in order to complete the Zionist enterprise that began with the Balfour [Declaration] 100 years ago"
"The most important thing at this historical moment is that the Palestinian and Arab public, and also the friends of Palestine and free people of the world, know that from our perspective, [that of] the Palestinians, [US President] Donald Trump will be [former British Foreign Secretary Arthur] Balfour's successor; he has taken down Great Britain and taken its place as a colonialist country in order to complete the Zionist enterprise that began with the British Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) 100 years ago…
We must always remember that the biggest losers will be the US and its pawn, the occupation state Israel, because through the crime of blowing up the bridges to peace… they are declaring war on dialogue and negotiations as a means to resolve disputes and establish peace between warring states."
PA daily: US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital is "second version" of the Balfour Declaration
Headline: "Jerusalem from the Balfour Promise to the Trump Promise"
"After 100 years, it seems that there is a second version of the [same] ominous promise [the Balfour Declaration]; 100 years after British General Edmund Allenby took control of Jerusalem, a month after the [100th anniversary of the Balfour Promise in which the British gave the Jews a national home in Palestine, US President [Donald Trump] issues an additional version of this promise."
Guest caller on PA TV: There is no state called Israel, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a real plan that is being implemented
Official PA TV News, interview with Imam of Al-Zaytuna Mosque in Tunisia Sheikh Hassan Al-Ubeidi on the US President Donald Trump's anticipated recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, live broadcast
Official PA TV News host: "What do you say today in light of what Jerusalem and the sites holy to Islam and Christianity are being subjected to, on all of those matters that you must be following?"
Imam of the Al-Zaytuna Mosque in Tunisia Sheikh Hassan Al-Ubeidi: "The subject is, as you said, the transfer of the American embassy to Jerusalem and the determination of Jerusalem as the capital of so-called Israel. First of all, the viewpoint of Islam regarding this state that claims it is a state: In our Shari'ah [law] a state called Israel does not exist..."
Host: "Honorable Sheikh, today we are talking about the political side, actions by the Israeli occupation government, and also what the American administration is planning regarding Jerusalem, such as recognizing Jerusalem as the united capital of Israel. What is required of all of us today in order to stop and stand against the plans that harm Jerusalem... ?"
Hassan Al-Ubeidi: "This is an ancient plan. It is found in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion… We are sleeping. We are sleeping while they are implementing the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in the State of Israel, which spreads from the Gulf [of Aqaba] to the ocean (sic., Mediterranean Sea). We are sleeping. The Islamic nation is sleeping and it is helping Israel, the West, and the enemies of Islam to realize their aspirations and what they planned in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion."
Fatah cartoon shows anti-Semitic depiction of a Jew receiving the Balfour Declaration as a check with map of "Palestine" on it
Source: Falestinona, website of Fatah's Information and Culture Commission in Lebanon, Dec. 2, 2017
Cartoon posted on Falestinona, the website of Fatah's Information and Culture Commission in Lebanon
Headline: "'The Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration)' – The greatest crime known to humanity, and its consequences and effects still exist after 100 years"
Text on check: "1917
To: The Zionist Organization
Amount: The land of Palestine
Signed: Arthur Balfour"
The cartoon shows former British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour shaking hands with an ultra-Orthodox Jew with a big nose and a Star of David on his hat, who is wearing army pants and boots. Balfour is handing the Jew a large check with the British flag on it and the PA map of "Palestine" that presents all of Israel as "Palestine" together with the PA areas, with the Gaza Strip and West Bank outlined.
The Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917 was a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Baron Rothschild stating that "His Majesty's government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." In 1922, the League of Nations adopted this and made the British Mandate "responsible for putting into effect the declaration," which led to the UN vote in 1947 and the establishment of the State of Israel.
Islamic Jihad: "Palestine in its full historical borders is a right of the Palestinian people that cannot be revoked or partitioned"
Source: Wattan (independent Palestinian news agency)‎, Nov. 29, 2017
Headline: "Islamic Jihad on the anniversary of the partition: Palestine in its historical borders is a right that cannot be revoked or partitioned"
"The Islamic Jihad Movement emphasized that Palestine in its full historical borders is a right of the Palestinian people that cannot be revoked or partitioned (referring to the partition plan for Mandatory Palestine that was adopted by the UN General Assembly on Nov. 29, 1947 –Ed.), and it is a right that no party can abandon or renounce… The movement emphasized that there will be no arrangement with the occupation state or resolution to the Palestinian issue, except through the disappearance of the attacking colonialists and settlers, and the liberation of all of our land from their hands so that those with the right will return to the homeland and their country."
PLO official: No condition requiring recognizing Israel was made for joining the PLO
Source: Amad, independent Palestinian news website, Nov. 24, 2017
Headline: "Abu Yusuf: There are no conditions for the [Islamic] Jihad and Hamas joining the PLO"
"Secretary-General of the Palestinian Liberation Front and member of the PLO Executive Committee Dr. Wasel Abu Yusuf said in an interview with [the Egyptian newspaper] Al-Masry Al-Youm that there are no conditions for the [Islamic] Jihad movement and Hamas joining the PLO, and called on the forces and factions not to shoot down the agreement too quickly…
[Q:] 'Did the PLO place conditions on Hamas and [Islamic] Jihad joining?'
[Abu Yusuf:] 'No, no conditions were placed on this section, and there is no discussion about any faction's recognition of Israel.'"
Abbas: "The Palestinian people – which began its legitimate struggle 100 years ago, ever since the Balfour [Declaration] – will continue the struggle… and will not concede its rights… prime among them the right of return"
Headline: "The [PA] president: The independent State of Palestine whose capital is Jerusalem will inevitably come"
"[PA] President Mahmoud Abbas said that the free and independent State of Palestine in the June 4, 1967 borders, whose capital is East Jerusalem, will inevitably come.
On the 28th anniversary of the [Palestinian] declaration of independence, the president... noted that what is required now is for Israel to recognize this state as part of the two-state principle, which the international community espouses: two states that will live in security and peace alongside each other.
The president emphasized that the Palestinian people – which began its legitimate struggle 100 years ago, ever since the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) – will continue the struggle, will not submit, and will not concede its national and legitimate principles and rights, which rest on the decisions of the international institutions, and prime among them the right of return [of the refugees], self-determination, and the establishment of the Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem."
PA daily op-ed: Israel is an "colonialist investment project," "Jews control the communications and media as well as the financial arteries of the large companies"
"There are those who rush to hold the Palestinian leadership responsible for the occupation state's policy…
But don't those same people who rush know… that the occupation state (Israel) [parentheses in source throughout article] is rebelling against international law, and that as a colonialist investment project it still answers the needs of the powers, which are interested in controlling the Middle East region in general and the Arab states in particular, subjugating its peoples, and preventing them from restoring their cultural status…The [Palestinian] leadership's mission – to unravel the occupation state's (Israel's) connection with the powerful countries and states of the world – is not a simple matter, but it is also not impossible…
The mission is not simple because Jews control the communications and media as well as the financial arteries of the large companies, and most importantly: the European states are careful to leave the Jewish problem in the Middle East and prevent its return to its countries of origin (Europe)."
PLO official: Jewish historical ties to the land is "a Zionist invention," Jews are in "Palestine" because "Europe wanted to get rid of them"
Official PA TV program Palestine This Morning, on the anniversary of the PLO Palestinian declaration of independence, hosting PLO Executive Committee member Saleh Rafat
PLO Executive Committee member Saleh Rafat: "There are deep Palestinian roots in Palestine throughout all of history. It is a Zionist invention that this is the land of the Jewish patriarchs. This is completely incorrect. There were Jews in Palestine... We have Muslims, Christians, and Jews. But all of them were and still are [part of] the Palestinian people... The Khazar Jews were brought and expelled from Europe to Palestine, in order to get rid of them. Germany wanted to get rid of them, [as did] Britain, France, and Italy. All of Europe wanted to get rid of the Jews and expel them so that the West would have a permanent base in the Middle East. Indeed, they established the State of Israel on the land of historical Palestine."
Gazan official on PA TV: The Balfour Declaration was "part of a colonialist plot to rip apart our Arab nation and uproot Palestine from [its] heart"
National Action Committee Secretary and senior official of the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front in Gaza Mahmoud Al-Zaq: "Palestine was an issue in relation to all the free forces in the world, and it is an issue of struggle. Those who participated in the self-sacrificing activity were not just Arabs, rather there are also people from all around the world who participated [together] with us in the modern Palestinian revolution..."
Official PA TV host: "Mr. Mahmoud, what pushed these people to join the ranks of the Palestinian revolution despite not being Palestinian?" [...]
Mahmoud Al-Zaq: "The free peoples of the world saw the Zionist movement as one who was the facilitator and pawn in the service of the colonialist force in the world. Palestine and the Palestinian people were the victim of this international colonialist plot in the entire region, and Palestine is at the heart of this region, and therefore the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) came as part of a colonialist plot to rip apart our Arab nation and uproot Palestine from the heart of our Arab nation based on a colonialist policy to destroy our Arab nation and assist the theft of the resources of the peoples of our Arab nation."
PA PM on behalf of Abbas: "For the last seven decades (i.e., since Israel's establishment) our people has adhered to its identity and heritage in the face of the occupation"
Headline: "Hamdallah in a speech on behalf of the [PA] president: The [Fatah-Hamas] reconciliation is an irreversible strategic option"
"Al-Quds Open University held its sixth scientific conference on popular heritage yesterday [Nov. 8, 2017], titled The Popular Heritage Conference in the Jenin District and the Galilee: Identity and Belonging, and this was under the patronage of [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas.
As part of his speech on behalf of the president at the conference, [PA] Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said: …'For the last seven decades (i.e., since the establishment of the modern State of Israel) our people has adhered to its identity and heritage in the face of the occupation, which is strengthening its control of our country, tearing it to shreds, besieging Gaza, attempting to perpetuate its isolation, and striving to isolate Jerusalem from its surroundings.'"
Fatah official: "The idea of a national home for the Jews is a colonialist idea… [Palestinians must] sue Britain as we are talking about a holocaust that has exceeded the Holocaust of the Jewish people in Germany"
Fatah Revolutionary Council member Abdallah Kmeil: "When we talk about the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), we must also talk- or get into a historical matter. There is the [former British Prime Minister Sir Henry] Campbell-Bannerman document for instance, which is an important document prepared by the former British prime minister, who held a series of meetings with the colonialist states at the time, between 1905 and 1907... They looked at the Arab region and at [the fact] that it should be made ignorant by all means, and should be divided by all means... They must be divided by planting a foreign body in the heart of the Arab homeland... And they talked about Israel or the Jews being the ones who need to be in this region. If so, the idea of a national home for the Jews is a colonialist idea...
[Regarding Britain's celebration of the Balfour Declaration,] I have said that there is no choice but for the Palestinian steps to continue. In other words some of these processions, at least, certainly suing Britain. There is no choice but to sue Britain as we are talking about a holocaust that has exceeded the Holocaust of the Jewish people in Germany. This is a holocaust of the Palestinian people and a holocaust of the Palestinian national rights by making the [Balfour] Promise, and this is a text that ridicules the Palestinian people…"
Click "full articke" for a longer excerpt
Fatah Facebook posts cartoon depicting Balfour giving a "promise" to stereotypical Jew
Source: Official Fatah Facebook page, Nov. 3, 2017
Text and cartoon posted on the official Fatah Facebook page
Posted text: "#Balfour100"
Text on cartoon: "The 100th anniversary of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration)"
The cartoon shows British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour giving a document with "Balfour Promise" written on it to a Jew with a malicious smile and a Star of David on his hat.
Below this, a Palestinian is seen giving a key – symbolizing the return of the Palestinian refugees to "Palestine" – to a small child who is holding a Palestinian flag.
Fatah official: The "ominous" Balfour Declaration led to Israel's establishment
Headline: "The occupation suppressed a procession in occupied Jerusalem condemning the Balfour Promise"
"The occupation forces yesterday [Nov. 2, 2017] arrested Jerusalem activist Muhammad Abu Najma and Secretary of the Fatah Movement Beit Hanina branch Amer Awad in front of the British consul in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in central occupied Jerusalem during a protest vigil to mark the 100th anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration).
Fatah Revolutionary Council member Adnan Ghaith said: 'This vigil was organized by the Jerusalem activists and institutions and the national forces due to the continuing boasting of the government of Britain in its insistence on celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Promise, this ominous promise that gave the green light to the occupier to establish a state on the land of Palestine.'"
Abbas to British activists: The British people do not agree with the "historical tragedy" of the Balfour Declaration, please support our "peaceful struggle"
Headline: "The [PA] president: The British people do not agree to the historical injustice that Balfour caused to our people"
"At the presidential headquarters in Ramallah, [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday [Nov. 2, 2017] received a delegation of British solidarity activists who walked by foot for more than 147 days from Britain to occupied Jerusalem as a sign of condemnation of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) on the 100th anniversary of it being issued... The president said: …'We are convinced that you are the ones that truly represent the British people, and it is a people that does not agree to the historical tragedy that the Balfour Promise caused to our people. In this context, we appreciate the noble position of the British House of Representatives that asked the British government to recognize the State of Palestine.' […]
The president added: 'We rely on people like you to support our people and strengthen its resolve so that it will be able to continue its peaceful struggle to end the occupation. We are certain that you understand that we are the only people in the world that is still bowing under the fire of this military occupation, which has continued for the last 50 years.'"
PLO officials on the Balfour Declaration: "A colonialist promise… [Britain's] sin;" an "ominous promise"
"In response to the latest British statements regarding pride in the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) and the fact that the British government is celebrating it and not apologizing for it (see note below –Ed.), Erekat emphasized: 'There is no greater shame than to celebrate a colonialist promise in the 21st century. Britain should have used the opportunity to correct its sin, apologize to the Palestinian people for the historical injustice it caused to it, do justice with the victims through compensation among other things, recognize the State of Palestine, and to support the removal of Israel's immunity, demand an accounting of it, and make it pay the price of its occupation'…
PLO Executive Committee member and Director of the Department for Refugee Affairs Zakariya Al-Agha said: 'On exactly this day in 1917, Britain issued the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) that gave the Jews the right to establish a national homeland on the land of Palestine... This ominous promise is what led to the expulsion of our people from its homes and property after massacres and crimes were committed against it as part of an international plot.'"
PA official media outlets express mourning over the Balfour Declaration
To mark the occasion of the 100 year anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, all official PA print media, WAFA and the official PA daily, including its front page, came out only in black. PA TV news readers and reporters all wore black. The front page of the official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, had a giant headline: "The null and void promise"
The front page also had a cartoon of British Prime Minister Theresa May driving a tractor with "the Balfour Declaration" to crush "Palestinian rights."
WAFA ,the official PA news agency, reported on the same day: "Marking the 100 year anniversary for the sad occasion of the Balfour Declaration, the state-run media in Palestine came out on Thursday in black... Staff at Palestine TV wore black as the term 'Down with Balfour Declaration" was posted in Arabic, English and Hebrew on the TV screen."
Fatah youth movement organizes "vigil" to condemn the "ominous" Balfour Declaration at a high school
Source: Facebook page of the Fatah Movement's Bethlehem Branch, Nov. 2, 2017
Images and text posted on the Facebook page of the Fatah Movement – Bethlehem Branch
Posted text: "The [Fatah] High School Shabiba committees at the Al-Abidia High School for Girls organized a morning vigil as a sign of condemnation of the [100th] anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration.) The Shabiba committees distributed periodicals to raise the national awareness in all of the [Bethlehem] district's schools, alongside pamphlets regarding the ominous Balfour Promise."
In the images a girl is seen holding a black flag on which is written: "The ominous promise, from one who has no ownership to one who has no right ."
PA PM in statement on Balfour Declaration centenary: Britain must apologize for its "historical mistake," Palestinians have a right to defend themselves "through all the means"
Source: WAFA, official PA news agency, Nov. 2, 2017
Headline: "Hamdallah renewed his demand that Britain correct its historical mistake against our people"
"[PA] Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah today, Thursday [Nov. 2, 2017], renewed his demand that the government of Britain 'do some soul searching, bear the responsibility for the historical mistake that Britain committed against our people, and correct it – instead of celebrating it – by apologizing, recognizing the Palestinian state, supporting its establishment, and compensating the Palestinian people for the damage that was caused to it as a result of this humanitarian disaster.'
In a press statement on the 100th anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), Hamdallah emphasized that 'It is the right of our people to defend itself through all of the means ‎(i.e., term used by Palestinians, which also refers to the use of violence and terror)‎ anchored in the international conventions, and it has a right to freedom, independence, and the establishment of its fully sovereign independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, whose capital is Jerusalem.'"
Image on Fatah branch's Facebook page depicts picture of Lord Balfour on fire, with text: "The Balfour Promise – to the inevitable doom"
Text and image posted on the Facebook page of the Fatah Movement – Bethlehem Branch. The image shows a picture of British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour being held as it goes up in flames. In the background is the Dome of the Rock.
Text on image: "The Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) – to the inevitable doom "
Posted text: "To the inevitable doom"
Cartoon commemorating the Balfour Declaration depicts bloodthirsty Jews coming from Europe to "Palestine" and killing innocent Palestinians
Cartoon and text posted on the official Fatah Facebook page
Posted text: "#Balfour100 (refers to the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration on Nov. 2, 2017 –Ed.)"
The cartoon shows ultra-Orthodox Jews carrying Israeli flags and armed Israeli soldiers on a land mass marked "Europe" in English walking into a tunnel formed by a rolled parchment, on which "Balfour Declaration" is written in English and Arabic along with the number "100" and the British flag. The other end of the tunnel opens into the PA map of "Palestine" that presents all of Israel as "Palestine" together with the PA areas, and the map is marked with a Palestinian flag and "Palestine" in English. Ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israeli soldiers, including an Israeli soldier in a tank with the Israeli flag, are seen exiting the tunnel and shooting at fleeing Arabs, with several of the Arabs seen lying dead in pools of blood.
Cartoon posted on Fatah Facebook page depicts UK PM Theresa May as a pig, for being proud of UK's role in Israel's establishment
Cartoon posted on the official Fatah Facebook page
The cartoon shows British Prime Minister Theresa May depicted as a pig and carrying a Star of David.
English text on cartoon in upper left corner: "Child Killers"
Text on cartoon in upper right corner: "Theresa May: We are proud of our role in the establishment of Israel"
Text to the right of the cartoon:
"52 words for Theresa
'To Theresa May, we as the children of Palestine strongly reject the issuing of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), your renewed commitment, the fact that you are proud of the role you fulfilled in the establishment of the State of Israel, and your intention to celebrate this 100th anniversary. Therefore, we demand that British Prime Minister Theresa Mary May apologize to all of the Palestinians throughout the world.'
These are the words that the children of Palestine wrote in English in a letter that one of the female students read [aloud] on the grounds of the al-Fathimiyah Girls High School in Nablus while wearing the Palestinian [national] garment and a keffiyeh (i.e., Arab headdress)."
Fatah official on Balfour Declaration, a "colonialist crime": "No to apology, no to compensation, and no to compromise, rather resistance"
Source: Facebook page of Tawfiq Tirawi, member of Fatah Central Committee, Nov. 2, 2017
Image and text posted on the Facebook page of Fatah Commissioner of Popular Organizations and Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi. The image shows a picture of former British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour and the English text of the Balfour Declaration.
Posted text: "This anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) marks 100 years since the colonialist crime and the liberation resistance that the Palestinians have been forced to carry out on the homeland in all of Palestine and the diaspora, [and] our statement still remains the same: 'No to apology, no to compensation, and no to compromise, rather resistance until the return [of the refugees], the state, and self-determination.'"
Fatah posts image of man ripping apart Balfour Declaration with text "Britain needs to apologize"
Source: Facebook page of Fatah's Information and Culture Commission‎, Nov. 2, 2017
Image and text posted on the Facebook page of the Fatah Information and Culture Commission
Posted text: "#Britain_needs_to_apologize
#Fatah_Information"
Abbas advisor: "One hundred years since the sin of Balfour… the only way to freedom and liberation is resistance"
Source: Facebook page of Advisor to PA Chairman Abbas on NGOs and member of Fatah Central Committee Sultan Abu Al-Einein, Nov. 2, 2017
Image and text posted on the Facebook page of Advisor to PA Chairman Abbas on NGOs Sultan Abu Al-Einein
Posted text:
"#Dignity #Palestine #Balfour_Promise(i.e., Declaration)"
The image shows red text on a black background.
Text on image:
"One hundred years since the sin of [British Foreign Secretary Arthur] Balfour, 100 years and our people is renewing its insistence that the only way to freedom and liberation is resistance to the occupier… No correction, apology, or compensation will compensate us for the 100 years of suffering of millions of refugees from among our people as a result of this ominous promise. There is no honor for the weak."
Guest on PA TV: UK PM May is "committing a new holocaust against the Palestinian people" by supporting the Balfour Declaration
Lecturer on modern history Nasser Al-Yafawi: "The true crime is what British Prime Minister Theresa May is doing now. Theresa May is at this moment committing a new holocaust against the Palestinian people."
Official PA TV host: "Theresa May thinks that [British Foreign Secretary Arthur] Balfour was from her party, the conservative party, and she thinks that there is a partisan matter here, and a matter that relates to Great Britain, on which the sun did not set in the past."
PA TV broadcast from high school discussing Balfour Declaration; Teacher: "Had we not been weak, Britain would not have dared to give a homeland to the Jews"
Official PA TV program Palestine This Morning, on the PA Ministry of Education dedicating the first lesson of the day to a discussion about the Balfour Declaration, live broadcast from Ramallah High School for Boys, hosting Ramallah High School for Boys teacher Akram Jabr
Official PA TV journalist: "The Palestinian people demands that Britain apologize for the historical injustice or for this promise that was annexed to the historical injustice to the Palestinian people. Today [Nov. 2, 2017] the first lesson is being dedicated to discussing this [Balfour] Promise (i.e., Declaration) with the children, and to talk about the significance of this matter."
Ramallah High School for Boys teacher Akram Jabr: "Indeed, it is our duty as teachers, educators, and politicians – I say to the Palestinian people – the boy, the man, and so forth – it is necessary to be aware not only of the Balfour Promise. There are many matters related to us. Our history is abundant with tragedies. The Balfour Promise is what led to all of the tragedies that have befallen the Palestinian people. Nevertheless, I say something to history: The homeland will not be forgotten. The place of the homeland exists, whether settlements were established [on it] and whether what is called the State of Israel was established. The homeland exists. Our hope is first and foremost in Allah Almighty, and afterwards we depend on the young, that they will not forget Palestine. Palestine is Palestine! Palestine is Palestine! Palestine is Palestine! It was never called Israel, never."
Abbas: Britain should apologize for Balfour Declaration, it held "white supremacist" views
Source: The Cairo Review, Nov. 2, 2017
Essay by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas
Headline: "Lord Balfour's Burden"
"A century ago, the Balfour Declaration paved the way for the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The President of the State of Palestine asks the United Kingdom's government to apologize for a document that set off a century of suffering and dispossession for the Palestinian people."
"This year, our nation marks one hundred years of the Balfour Declaration. Lord Arthur Balfour was a British foreign secretary who decided to change the identity and fate of Palestine, a land that he did not own, by promising it to the Zionist movement, and dramatically altering the history of the Palestinian people. On this somber anniversary, it is important to recall some key historic facts, which remain relevant for achieving a just, lasting, and peaceful resolution to a century of injustice..."
Cartoon on Fatah website depicts UK PM May holding a bloody "Balfour Declaration," with skulls in the background
Source: Falestinona, website of Fatah's Information and Culture Commission in Lebanon, Nov. 1, 2017
Headline: "British Prime Minister Theresa May celebrates the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration)"
The cartoon shows British Prime Minister Theresa May holding an Israeli flag and a document labeled "Balfour Declaration," which is dripping blood. In the background are lying skulls in a pool of blood with skeleton hands rising from among them holding a key symbolizing the right of return of the Palestinian refugees, and a Palestinian flag.
In the upper left corner is written Theresa May's maiden name: "Theresa Mary Brasier"
Cartoon in PA daily depicts UK PM May drinking Palestinian blood as a "celebration" of the Balfour Declaration
Headline: "[British Prime Minister] Theresa May celebrates our [spilled] blood"
The cartoon depicts Theresa May holding a wine glass filled with blood.
Balfour Declaration commemorated with black flag in image posted on Fatah Facebook page
Image and text posted on the official Fatah Facebook page
Posted text: "#Balfour"
The image shows a black flag with "Dawn (sic., down) With Balfour Declaration" written on it in Arabic, Hebrew, and English.
In Arabic, "Promise" is written instead of "Declaration."
PA Security Forces spokesman: Britain must "apologize" for the "ominous" Balfour Declaration
Source: Facebook page of Adnan Al-Damiri, the official spokesman of the PA Security Forces, Nov. 1, 2017
Text posted on the Facebook page of official spokesman of the PA Security Forces Adnan Al-Damiri
Posted text: "Government of Britain, the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) is not something to celebrate, but rather to apologize for!
Your apology is a moral, legal, and humanitarian duty."
PA Ministry of Information: Balfour Declaration is "the greatest crime in the history of mankind"
Headline: "[PA] Ministry of Information: The Balfour Promise is the greatest political and legal crime in history"
"The [PA] Ministry of Information stated on the anniversary of the black Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) that this promise is the greatest crime in the history of mankind and a political, legal, and moral sin whose heavy price is still being paid by our people with its blood and living flesh.
The ministry emphasized in a statement today, Wednesday [Nov. 1, 2017], that the fact that British Prime Minister Theresa May takes pride in the promise testifies to political insolence not yet seen by history, a strengthening of the violations of our people's legal rights, and an insistence on supporting terror, settlement, and aggression.
The ministry stated that the promise and all of the ramifications are a legal offense that has no statute of limitations, and that everyone who advances it must be put on trial before the International Criminal Court. This is because a state cannot establish another state on land that it does not own, and it has no right to dispose of it freely under any pretext."
Kids hold poster condemning the Balfour Declaration as the "theft of a homeland," with map erasing Israel
Image posted on the official Fatah Facebook page
The image shows Palestinian children holding a poster featuring the PA map of "Palestine" that presents all of Israel as "Palestine" together with the PA areas. To the left a picture of Baron Rothschild is shown, and to the right is a picture of former British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour. In the bottom left of the poster appears the logo of the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.
Text on poster: "The Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), the theft of a homeland"
Fatah Facebook post commemorating Balfour Declaration with image of bloody hand: "No Pride in Colonialism"
Source: Official Fatah Facebook page, Oct. 31, 2017
Text and image posted on the official Fatah Facebook page
Posted text: "#Balfour100"
The image shows what are supposedly Palestinian refugees on the left and then British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour and current British Prime Minister Theresa May with a bloody handprint overlaid on their faces.
English text on image: "No Pride in Colonialism: Make It Right and Recognize Palestine"
British Prime Minister Theresa May's exact quote before the British House of Commons on Oct. 25, 2017, was: "We are proud of the role that we played in the creation of the State of Israel, and we will certainly mark the centenary with pride."
PLO launches social media campaign against the Balfour Declaration
Source: WAFA, official PA news agency, Oct. 31, 2017
Headline: "Social media campaign for the 100th anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise"
"The PLO Department of Culture and Information announced the launch of a social media campaign today, Wednesday [Nov. 1, 2017], for the tragic 100th anniversary of the issuing of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) that will take place tomorrow, Thursday.
The department noted that the campaign will begin today, Wednesday, from 6:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. Palestinian time…
According to the department, the campaign will target the Twitter accounts of British Prime Minister Theresa May, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, the [British] Foreign Ministry, and the British Commonwealth, using the hashtag #MakeItRight."
Fatah official: "The ominous Balfour Promise is the greatest crime" ever committed against the Palestinians, Israel was founded for colonial reasons
"Fatah Movement Central Committee member and [Fatah] General Commissioner for Arab and China Relations Abbas Zaki issued a call to the national parties and progressive political forces in the Arab homeland for the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), in which he demanded that they consider Nov. 2, 2017, as a day of Arab rage in all of the Arab capitals and cities... Zaki explained that this is meant to force Britain to bear its moral, political, humanitarian, and legal responsibility for the consequences of the oppressive promise, and to demand that it correct the historical injustice that led to the uprooting of our Palestinian people, its expulsion, and the occupation of its homeland... He said that the ominous Balfour Promise is the greatest crime that has been committed against the Palestinian people for 100 years, and it is a type of strengthening of the strategic interests of the colonialist forces, which adopted, supported, and strengthened the Zionist project, goals, and presence in Palestine, the heart of the Arab homeland. This was in order to prevent its unity, take over its resources, divide it, split it, and undermine its stability, so that Israel would always be a hostile body to its surroundings and require backing from the colonialist states."
PLO official: Balfour Declaration "laid the foundations for the brutal system of oppression and Jewish settler colonialism in Palestine"
Headline: "During his visit to a number of prisoners and released prisoners' families in Hebron – Karake: The Balfour Promise laid the foundations for the occupation's brutal system of oppression"
"Director of [PLO] Commission of Prisoners and Released Prisoners' Affairs Issa Karake said that the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration)… laid the foundations for the brutal system of oppression and Jewish settler colonialism in Palestine, and that Britain bequeathed all of the means of oppression and violence against our people to the Zionist colonialism…
Karake said: 'It is not enough that Britain apologize to the Palestinian people, rather it must pay compensation to our people following the disasters and victims that were caused to [our people] due to its policy supporting Zionism… and it also must recognize a free and independent Palestinian state, instead of degrading our people's right to self-definition and celebrating the 100th anniversary of the colonialist Balfour Promise.'"
PA Prime Minister: UK must apologize for "historical injustice" of the Balfour Declaration
Headline: "Hamdallah: Britain must apologize for the injustice to our people and correct it, instead of celebrating it"
"[PA] Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said: 'It is necessary for the international community - as we approach the 100th [anniversary] of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) – to end the historical injustice that befell our people,' and he demanded that the United Kingdom take responsibility and apologize for 'this historical injustice that it committed against our people and correct it instead of celebrating it. This is what challenges global opinion that supports our national cause and all of the supporters of justice, freedom, and human rights.'"
Abbas advisor: Balfour Declaration is "a promise from one without ownership to one that is undeserving" [i.e., Jews] which was a "crime"
"[PA] Supreme Shari'ah Judge and [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas'] advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash emphasized that the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) is a promise from one without ownership to one that is undeserving. [Al-Habbash] held Britain responsible for the tragedy resulting from [the promise], and from which the members of our people and the peoples of the region are suffering due to this ominous promise, and [said] that this injustice must disappear so that the world and region will live calmly and in peace. [Al-Habbash] added that this crime that Britain committed caused tragedies to the Palestinian people, and it is a crime against our people and the Muslims in general…
He noted that after 100 years, instead of Britain apologizing it is holding a celebration for the anniversary of this crime, and British Prime Minister [Theresa May] is proud of her country's crime, due to which blood was spilled and rights were stolen… The supreme Shari'ah judge explained that after 100 years of oppression, our people is still resisting, and its determination has not been broken."
PA TV News quotes Deputy Chairman of Fatah: The Balfour Declaration "is a crime... [and] Britain is committing another crime by celebrating the ominous anniversary"
Official PA TV News, on Fatah's condemnation of the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration
Official PA TV newsreader: "Fatah Movement Deputy Chairman Mahmoud Al-Aloul said that the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) is a crime and an instrument that [led to] the Nakba, and that Britain is committing another crime against our people by celebrating the ominous [100th] anniversary [of the promise]."
The Nakba - i.e., "the catastrophe," the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel
PA daily editorial: Balfour Declaration was "the greatest crime of the era" and celebrating it is "completion of this crime" Jews had "no right" to Palestine
Headline: "Al-Hayat Al-Jadida editorial: Balfour – the disgrace of British politics"
"When it continues to celebrate the 100th [anniversary] of the greatest crime of the era that Britain committed against the Palestinian homeland, people, and future with the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration,) what the government of Britain is doing is nothing but the completion of this crime and the slaughter of the basic moral and human values, so that the murderer will be able to continue to dance on the bodies of his victims! [Former British Foreign Secretary Arthur] Balfour – who gave something that was not his at all to one who has no right...There is nothing that can justify the celebration of this crime… and the 100 years since Balfour are 100 years of Palestinian suffering and 100 years of wars and struggles in this region. The first organized state-terror is the terror of the British crown through the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), which was nothing but colonialist plans to steal a homeland, expel a people, and rip apart a nation…
In insisting on celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Promise, British Prime Minister [Theresa May] is striving to forge and invent values that have no basis in the human and cultural system of ethics."
Invitation to Palestinian event commemorating the "ominous" Balfour Declaration has map of "Palestine" erasing Israel
Posted text: "An invitation from the Palestinian community in Holland.
#Declaration100
#Balfour100 (both hashtags appear in English, and the second appears in Arabic as well –Ed.)"
The image consists of a poster with an invitation. On its left is the PA map of "Palestine" that presents all of Israel as "Palestine" together with the PA areas, colored red. The number "100" appears over the map, indicating the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.
Text on poster: "The Palestinian community in Holland invites you to participate in the 100th anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise or Declaration in front of the British embassy in The Hague, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017"
Sec-Gen of the PA Presidential Office: UK's celebration of the Balfour Declaration is support of the "crime" committed against the Palestinians
Headline: "Abd Al-Rahim: May's statements regarding the 100th anniversary celebration of the Balfour Promise by Britain indicates ignorance of the historical facts and political insolence"
"Secretary-General of the [PA] Presidential Office Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim said that British Prime Minister Theresa May's statements (see note below –Ed.) regarding how Britain will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) indicates ignorance of the historical facts, political insolence, and an insistence on supporting this crime that was committed against our Palestinian people."
Click "full article" for a longer excerpt from the article
Fatah calls on Palestinians to write letters protesting event marking centenary of Balfour Declaration
"After the immoral and unfair declarations by British Prime Minister [Theresa] May (see note below –Ed.), according to which her country will celebrate 'with pride' the 100th anniversary of the issuing of the famous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), in which [then] British Foreign Secretary ' Arthur Balfour' in 1917 promised the support of his country to provide the Jews with a homeland in Palestine.
This is a call to all of the friends of the Palestinian people and those who identify with it to send a letter of protest to the Albert Royal Hall, where this celebration will take place on Nov. 7, 2017 (the email address of the hall is included in the post –Ed.)."
Fatah: UK PM May's statements celebrating centenary of the Balfour Declaration are "unacceptable" and support of the Israeli "racist apartheid regime"
Headline: "Fatah: May's statements are unacceptable, and they must correct the historical mistake"
"The Fatah Movement emphasized that British Prime Minister Theresa May's insistence on celebrating the 100th anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) is completely unacceptable and is a type of renewal of the crime and direct encouragement and support of the occupation and the racist apartheid regime being implemented against our people by the Israeli occupation state.
Fatah Revolutionary Council member and Fatah Spokesman Osama Al-Qawasmi said in a press statement last night [Oct. 26, 2017] that the first thing the government of Britain must do is to recognize the State of Palestine, instead of celebrating the Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) of the Palestinian people, the first signs of which appeared in the ominous promise [issued] on Nov. 2, 1917."
Fatah cartoon portrays Britain and Israel stabbing map of "Palestine" with Balfour Declaration
The cartoon shows an elderly Palestinian woman with a Palestinian flag on her shirt speaking to British Prime Minister Theresa May. In the elderly woman's speech bubble two hands are seen – one with the UK flag and the other the Israeli flag on their sleeves – stabbing a knife into the PA map of "Palestine" that presents all of Israel as "Palestine" together with the PA areas. The map is labeled "Palestine." The handle of the knife consists of a document, on which "Balfour 1917" is written.
PA Ministry of Information: UK PM's celebration of UK's role in Israel's creation via the Balfour Declaration is "repetition of the greatest political crime in the history of mankind"
Headline: "The [PA] Ministry of Information: The British prime minister's statements are a repeat of the political crime"
"The [PA] Ministry of Information said that the determination of British Prime Minister Theresa May to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), and the fact that she took pride before the parliament in the role of her state in the establishment and strengthening of the occupation state 'Israel' (see note below –Ed.), constitute a repetition of the greatest political crime in the history of mankind… The ministry emphasized in a statement today (Thursday) [Oct. 26, 2017] that May's refusal to apologize for this dark promise and her stubbornness regarding it, not only reflect extremist political trends, but also indicate a large moral crisis whose source is Britain... The ministry reminded May and all of the supporters of the dark promise in the government of Britain that if they continue to defend the political crime, this will not contribute in any way to establishing a just and comprehensive peace – not only in Palestine, but throughout the world."
PA Minister of Religious Affairs instructs mosque preachers to encourage participation in activities condemning "ominous" Balfour Declaration
Headline: "Ida'is calls on the Friday preachers to urge the civilians to participate in the activities condemning the Balfour Promise"
"[PA] Minister of Religious Affairs Yusuf Ida'is called on all of the mosque preachers to urge the civilians to participate in the activities condemning the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) during the Friday sermons tomorrow [Oct. 27, 2017].
Ida'is said in a press release today (Thursday) [Oct. 26, 2017]: 'The Arabs and Muslims must act immediately to provide political, media, and financial support to the Palestinian cause, as a religious duty, and as a message of support for the Palestinians, because Jerusalem and the Palestinian holy sites do not belong only to the Palestinians, but rather to all of the Arabs and Muslims.'"
Op-ed by PLO legislator says Britain ought to be "ashamed" of the "despicable" Balfour Declaration
Excerpt of an op-ed by Khaled Jamil Mismar, member of the Palestinian National Council – the legislative body of the PLO
"[Britain] is not ashamed of the despicable act that the criminal [British Foreign Secretary Arthur] Balfour committed 100 years ago, and is not trying to cover its ugly image. It is silent before the peoples of the world out of shame before these peoples for what it committed against a people that is struggling, which lived in peace on its holy land... Britain is not ashamed… but rather adds to its error and shame and wishes to celebrate – yes to celebrate, O the shame - the 100th anniversary of the ominous [Balfour] Promise (i.e., Declaration) and forgets the pain and trouble that it has brought to our people during all of these 100 years. And behold Balfour's descendant, the criminal Theresa May – Prime Minister of Britain – calls on the criminal [Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin] Netanyahu to openly celebrate this despicable crime together with her… Britain's history is full of tragedies against the peoples of Asia and Africa. It exploited peoples in these lands, stole their assets, and sucked the blood of their inhabitants."
Fatah: Britain should apologize for the "historical injustice" of the Balfour Declaration
Headline: "Fatah: The British prime minister's statements – bias in favor of the occupation state"
"The Fatah Movement's Mobilization and Organization Commission condemned the statements of British Prime Minister Theresa May (see note below –Ed.), in which she declared Britain's 'pride' in the establishment and molding of the Israeli occupation state for the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration). Head of the Mobilization and Organization Commission's information office Munir Al-Jaghoub said that Theresa May's statements express true bias in favor of the racist occupation state, and contain within them the danger of granting legitimacy to the occupation that harms the Palestinian homeland and the people… [Al-Jaghoub] demanded that the government of Britain bear its historical, legal, political, material, and moral responsibility for the consequences of the Balfour Promise, apologize to the Palestinian people that is suffering from disasters and exploitation, and correct this historical injustice and recognize the independent State of Palestine whose capital is East Jerusalem."
Fatah official: Britain must correct "historical mistake" of the Balfour Declaration
"Fatah Central Committee member and the [Fatah] Movement's Commissioner of National Relations (i.e., between Hamas and Fatah) Azzam Al-Ahmad briefed British Consul-General [to Jerusalem] Philip Hall and Italian Consul General Fabio Sokolowicz on the latest political developments regarding the [Hamas-Fatah] reconciliation… Al-Ahmad demanded that his British guest correct his country's historical mistake, which was expressed in the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), and recognize the independent State of Palestine."
Fatah branch distributes pamphlet against the "ominous" Balfour Declaration to university students
Source: Facebook page of the Fatah Movement's Bethlehem Branch, Oct. 26, 2017
Text and image posted on the Facebook page of the Fatah Movement – Bethlehem Branch
Posted text: "250,000 fliers will be distributed next week in the universities and high schools
#Balfour_crime_of_the_century, #The_promise_of_the_oppressor, #Balfour_ongoing_injustice, #Balfour_100years"
Text on pamphlet cover below the logo:
"A pamphlet from the Shabiba student movement – Palestine
10 x 10 questions and answers
100 years of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration)"
PA Foreign Minister: UK PM's support of Israel's founding and the "historical mistake" of the Balfour Declaration is concerning
Source: Donia Al-Watan (independent Palestinian news agency), Oct. 26, 2017
Headline: "Al-Malki: We are monitoring with concern Theresa May's statements regarding her country's pride in the Balfour Promise"
"[PA] Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad Al-Malki said that the Palestinian side is monitoring with great care and concern the statements of British Prime Minister Theresa May (see note below –Ed.), who declared that her state is proud of the establishment of the Israeli occupation state, and that she is determined to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration)...
The foreign minister again emphasized that Palestine is continuing its legal steps against Britain and the submission of lawsuits against it in the British, European, and international courts in order to demand that it correct its historical mistake against our people and give it the necessary compensation."
PA Ministry of Education launches campaign in Palestinian schools against celebrating the Balfour Declaration
Headline: "The [PA] Ministry of Education and the [PLO] Supreme National Committee have launched a campaign of 100,000 letters to Britain as a sign of rejecting the ominous [Balfour] Promise"
"The [PA] Ministry of Education and Higher Education today, Tuesday [Oct. 24, 2017], announced the launching of a campaign in cooperation with the [PLO] Supreme National Committee for Marking the 100th Anniversary of the Ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), which is directed towards the high school grades. As part of the campaign, 100,000 letters will be written to British Prime Minister [Theresa May] as a sign of resistance to the government of Britain's decision to reinforce its harmful policy by marking the 100th anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise that opposes all norms. These letters will be in different languages, and some of them will be published in the media outlets."
PA Minister of Foreign Affairs: Abbas has instructed the PA to sue Britain over "the ominous Balfour Promise" – "the beginning of the disaster… the establishment of the Zionist entity"
Official PA TV newsreader: "[PA] Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad Al-Malki said that the [PA] leadership intends to submit a lawsuit, according to the instructions of President Mahmoud Abbas, if Britain insists on celebrating the 100th anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e. Declaration)..."
PA Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad Al-Malki: "There are several steps that we may take, including submitting lawsuits to the British, regional, and international courts against Britain over what it did 100 years ago when it gave a promise that it did not have the right to give... We say that the Balfour Promise 100 years ago was the beginning of the Palestinian disaster. This disaster is expressed primarily by the uprooting [of Palestinians] and the establishment of the Zionist entity that is the State of Israel."
Palestinian officials call for "day of national rage" on centenary of the Balfour Declaration
Headline: "The factions decided that this Nov. 2 will be a day of national rage over the ominous Balfour Promise"
"The [Palestinian] factions emphasized that it is necessary to hold a day of national rage on Nov. 2 [2017] over the 100th anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration).
This was said during a meeting that was held in the presence of all the representatives of the national activity factions, in the office of Fatah Movement Deputy Chairman [and Fatah Central Committee member] Mahmoud Al-Aloul, in order to discuss the events marking the 100th anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise.
Those present discussed the latest developments and the relevant arrangements for ways of marking this day in a manner that will express the scope of the suffering that this promise has caused our people, which is still suffering from the consequences of the promise that constituted a foundation stone for establishing the occupation state, and for the expulsion, displacement, and killing that were caused because of it."
PLO official: Celebrating 100 years since the Balfour Declaration turns Britain into an "enemy of the principles of justice and humanity"
"The PLO Department for Refugee Affairs yesterday [Oct. 19, 2017] condemned the British government's announcement [that it will be] celebrating the 100th anniversary of the issuing of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), which falls will take place on Nov. 2, 2017...
In a statement yesterday, PLO Executive Committee member and Director of the Department for Refugee Affairs Dr. Zakariya Al-Agha opposed the British government's declaration [that it will be] marking the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Promise, and its call to senior Israeli officials to participate in the celebration ceremony. He noted that the announcement of the ceremony is considered a blow to the Palestinian people, and it turns Britain into an enemy of the principles of justice and humanity... He emphasized that Britain's refusal to apologize and its insistence on holding a ceremony with senior Israeli officials on the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Promise will be met by official Palestinian action, by putting Britain on trial and dealing with this case before the international courts. This is if Britain will not take back its opposition to apologizing and acknowledging that the Balfour decision was a historical mistake."
Abbas' advisor: Balfour Declaration was an "ugly crime," giving Palestine to "undeserving" Jews
Supreme Shari'ah Judge and Mahmoud Abbas' advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs, Mahmoud Al-Habbash: "In another few days we will mark the miserable anniversary of the ugly injustice and ugly crime that befell our people, through what is known as the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration). In another few days, on Nov. 2 [2017], it will be 100 years of the ugliest injustice to ever befall [our] people in this land, in the modern age. One with no ownership of this land – Foreign Secretary [Arthur Balfour] of Britain which occupied Palestine while having no ownership of any part of Palestine, not even one millimeter or one grain of sand – gave a promise to one undeserving who has no connection to this land, not religiously or historically, at the expense of the Palestinian people... They [Britain] have no ownership and they have no right, and those to whom they made the promise [the Jews] have no right to it... Balfour and Britain committed this crime at our expense and at the expense of our history and rights, and this is not consistent with reason, religion, law, and morals."
Click "full article" for a longer excerpt and for more information
PLO official: Balfour Declaration was "historical mistake" that Britain should correct, Israel commits terror against Palestinians
Headline: "Al-Ahmad calls on the Inter-Parliamentary Union to help our people's struggle to end the occupation and to complete the recognition of the State of Palestine"
"In his speech before the Inter-Parliamentary Union general assembly yesterday [Oct. 17, 2017], [Palestinian National Council (i.e., the legislative body of the PLO) delegation head and Fatah Central Committee member Azzam] Al-Ahmad said that 'The Palestinian people, which is standing firm in the occupied homeland and outside of it, expects you to stand alongside it in its ongoing struggle – since the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) from British Foreign Secretary [Arthur Balfour] 100 years ago – for its freedom and the achievement of its national rights like the rest of the peoples of the world. We hope that Britain will correct its historical mistake against our people'…
The Palestinian National Council delegation head added: 'In Palestine we do not attribute democracy to ourselves [as Israel does], we do not oppress and exploit the other, and [we do not] sponsor terror organizations that carry out oppression, killing, settlement, and destruction of the homes and farms of the residents, as the occupation authorities are doing against our people.'"
PA Ministry of Education instructs school radio stations to focus on the "ominous" Balfour Declaration
Headline: "The [PA] Ministry of Education directs the school radio stations to focus on the Balfour Promise until the anniversary of the promise"
"The [PA] Ministry of Education and Higher Education today, Monday [Oct. 16, 2017] issued a notice to the Directorates of Education and Higher Education in the different districts to call on all of the schools to direct the school radio stations to focus on the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) from Wednesday, Oct. 18 [2017] until the [100th] anniversary of the ominous promise on Nov. 2 [2017]. The ministry explained that this step comes out of its concern to provide the students with knowledge about the consequences of this ominous promise, and also out of concern to provide the students with a methodical education about this tragedy, whose effects are still evident to this day."
Fatah: Balfour Declaration was "the most horrible crime in the history of mankind"
"The Fatah Movement said that the ominous [Balfour] Promise (i.e., Declaration) that Britain gave the Jews 100 years ago is an invalid promise, and that they do not have a right to the land of Palestine so as to be able to promise it to others. Fatah Revolutionary Council member and Fatah Spokesman Osama Al-Qawasmi... emphasized that Britain committed the most horrible crime against mankind when it gave itself permission to give this promise and implement it through the mandate conspiracy and the laying of the foundation for the establishment of the Israeli occupation state on the ruins of the Palestinian people. [He noted that the Palestinian people] have put down roots in the depths of the Palestinian land since the Canaanites set foot on this blessed land… Al-Qawasmi said: 'The government of Britain is required to apologize to the Palestinian people that is standing firm, and to its women and children who were uprooted to refugee camps in the diaspora because of this ominous promise. It must atone for its crime, at least a little, by immediately recognizing the state of Palestine whose capital is Jerusalem, instead of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the ominous promise and the most horrible crime in the history of mankind.'"
Fatah logo for Balfour Declaration centenary depicts map of "Palestine", with text denying Israel's legitimacy: "A promise from those who do not own to those who are not entitled"
Posted text: "#Balfour100 (appears in both English and Arabic –Ed.)"
The image shows a white circular logo with a keffiyeh (Arab headdress) pattern on it. Inside the circle appears the number "100" with the PA map of "Palestine" that presents all of Israel as "Palestine" together with the PA areas in place of the "1." A red dot appears on the map with the label "Jerusalem" in English and Arabic. The numbers "00" have an image of what appear to be Palestinian refugees imposed on them. Above and below the number "100" in English and Arabic respectively is the hashtag "#Balfour100," indicating the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. Above and below the circular logo in Arabic and English respectively is the phrase: "A promise from those who do not own to those who are not entitled"
Op-ed in PA daily: Fatah has not recognized Israel
Excerpt of an op-ed by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, a regular columnist for the official PA daily
"Dr. Muhsin Saleh, director of the Al-Zeitouna Center in Beirut that is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, published an article titled The Palestinian Reconciliation Game, which was published on the Al-Jazeera.net website on Oct. 2, 2017…
As he continued to drown in the bog of incitement against the bearer of the national project's flag, he accused the Fatah Movement in particular of conceding 80% of historical Palestine, recognizing Israel and its legality, and basing its platform on the two-state solution. This was while the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaderships were refusing to concede any part of Palestine or recognize Israel. This is not at all correct, as Fatah - even though I am not a Fatah member - has not recognized Israel and its platform is clear and open, and you can even go and check it. The one that recognized [Israel] is the PLO, the legal and sole representative of the Palestinian people."
Infographic commemorating the Balfour Declaration: "It perpetuated the colonialist method… [it] constituted a preface to the declaration of the State of Israel"
"Infographic no. 11: The consequences of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration).
Design: Information Office [of the]
Fatah Movement – Mobilization and Organization Commission."
Fatah official: "Armed struggle" remains a Fatah principle
Source: Official Palestinian Authority TV, Oct. 9, 2017
Official PA TV News, on reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas, with Fatah Central Committee member and Fatah Commissioner of National Relations (i.e., between Hamas and Fatah) Azzam Al-Ahmad.
Fatah Central Committee member and Fatah Commissioner of National Relations Azzam Al-Ahmad: "It is the Palestinian people's right to wage the struggle against the occupation using all the methods, but there should be a consensus on its form. We have not eliminated any method from our considerations, nor from our principles since the [Fatah] Launch [in 1965] until today: Popular resistance, armed struggle, and negotiations. If violence breaks out again, Israel will be responsible for it."
Fatah: "Britain [must] take full responsibility for the consequences of the wretched promise" (i.e., Balfour Declaration)
Source: Official Fatah Facebook page, Oct. 9, 2017
"A change in the logo (the previous logo for the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration was identical, aside from the black circle around the logo being in the colors of the Palestinian flag –Ed.)
#The_Fatah_Movement is publishing the logo for the 100th anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration). It demands that Britain take full responsibility for the consequences of the wretched promise, and the damage, disasters, pain, and expulsion that were caused to the Palestinian people. It also emphasizes the demand that the government of Britain to fully recognize the rights of the Palestinian people, and prime among them recognition of the Palestinian state, and that Britain must bear legal and moral responsibility for this decision (i.e., the Balfour Declaration).
(The following section appears in Arabic and then English –Ed.)
A promise from those who do not own to those who are not entitled
#Balfour100
(Balfour Declaration 2 November 1917) [parentheses in source]"
PA Ministry of Information accuses Israel of stealing Palestinian heritage, calls on UNESCO to try Israel for its "crimes;" Israel's right to exist is "false" and depends solely on the Balfour Declaration
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 7, 2017
"The [PA] Ministry of Information reiterated on Palestinian Heritage Day that took place today, Saturday [Oct. 7, 2017], that our cultural and human heritage, with all of its components, will continue to resist Israelization and throw off all of the types of terror of the occupation that fabricate, distort, and steal everything Palestinian.
The ministry said in a notice yesterday that Palestine – the people, country, history, and national identity – is the first line of the defense of our heritage, and it is the resistance that does not wane due to the attempts of theft and robbery of the components of our heritage – attempts that include pursuing our popular foods, our national songs... [and] fabrication of the names of our cities, villages, ravines, mountains, and plains.
The ministry urged UNESCO ((UN Educational Scientific, Cultural Organization) and all of the frameworks that deal with heritage and culture to protect the cultural and natural heritage of Palestine, and to try Israel for its ongoing crimes against the land and mankind... 'Israel' will not succeed in skipping over history – which did not begin with its false stories, its Zionist movement, or its settlement and expansion project, which depends solely on the personal promise of the foreign secretary of another state [British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour]!"
PLO Chief Negotiator condemn US and Israeli demand that next Palestinian government recognize Israel
Headline: "Erekat condemned the demands of the American and Israeli bodies that the next Palestinian government recognize Israel"
"Secretary of the PLO Executive Committee, [Fatah Central Committee member and PLO Chief Negotiator] Saeb Erekat expressed his condemnation of the fact that several political parties in Israel and the US are demanding that the next Palestinian [PA] government recognize Israel. He demanded that [Israel] first recognize the State of Palestine within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, as that is the only way to reach a final agreement through which the State of Israel will live alongside the State of Palestine in security and peace…
He added: 'Since when do [political] parties demand to recognize other states? Recognition is a matter of states and governments, and not of parties, and the truth is that not only has the State of Israel not recognized the State of Palestine, but rather the occupation government is currently destroying the possibility that such a state will exist.'"
Op-ed: Balfour Declaration was "crime against humanity," Jews have no right to Palestine
Headline: ""A century since Balfour and a half century of settlements"
"Britain can celebrate a century since the promise of British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour, whose kingdom committed a crime against humanity when it had a mandate over Palestine. It denied the Palestinian people its future in its homeland, Palestine, and gave the leaders of the colonialist, occupying, and settling enterprise in Palestine a homeland – of which the kingdom did not own [even] one grain of sand. Likewise, not one of the Jews who arrived at the beaches of Palestine in ships – as invaders or refugees from the hell of persecution in Europe – has ownership [of Palestine]."
Palestinian National and Islamic Forces calls on Britain to "officially apologize for the promise to establish a national homeland for the Jews in Palestine [i.e., the Balfour Declaration]"
Headline: "The forces of Ramallah and El-Bireh decided on actions to urge Britain to apologize for the Balfour Promise"
"The [Palestinian] National and Islamic Forces of the Ramallah and El-Bireh District have decided to hold a series of public activities in order to urge Britain to officially apologize for the promise to establish a national homeland for the Jews in Palestine, and to demand that it annul the disastrous consequences it caused the Palestinian people.
The forces said: 'These activities will start from the beginning of October [2017] and will include ongoing sit-in strikes, processions, and letters of protest that will reach their climax on Nov. 2 [2017], which is the 100th anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration).'
This declaration came as part of a statement published by the forces after the meeting of their leaders in Ramallah yesterday [Sept. 26, 2017]..."
The Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917 was a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Baron Rothschild stating that "His Majesty's government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" and is seen as the basis for later international commitments to establish the State of Israel.
Abbas' advisor: Islamic infighting is the cause of the "loss of Palestine" for the last 100 years since the Balfour Declaration
Headline: "Al-Habbash: Our unity strengthens our intention and whoever wants peace - he must pay the price"
"Supreme Shari'ah Judge, [PA] President] [Mahmoud Abbas'] advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs, [and Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari'ah Justice] Mahmoud Al-Habbash… said during the Friday sermon at the Abu Bakr Mosque in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, that the Islamic nation is living today in a situation of retreat and weakness due to the rift and disagreements between the Muslims on many matters, and this is what impacts on the status of the [Islamic] nation and its role among the nations, and the result of this weakness is the loss of Palestine and its occupation for the last 100 years that have passed since the ominous [Balfour] Promise (i.e., Declaration) from Britain to give this land to the Jews."
Fatah official: Fatah never recognized Israel and never will
Source: Fatah YouTube channel, Aug. 29, 2017
Segment first aired on Fatah-run Awdah TV
Fatah-run Awdah TV host: "Has the Fatah Movement recognized Israel in its platform until now?"
Fatah Spokesman and Fatah Revolutionary Council member Osama Al-Qawasmi: "Certainly not. This has not been required of us, and we will not do so... I declare this clearly and in a satellite channel broadcast: My friends, Hamas, do not recognize Israel, it is not required of you. The PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, decided on mutual recognition with the government of Israel on Sept. 12, 1993. This is not required of you. We in the Fatah Movement have not changed our position."
PA Foreign Minister: UK Foreign Secretary should issue a promise recognizing a Palestinian state like Balfour did for the Jews
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 23, 2017
Headline: "Al-Malki: The Johnson Promise to mirror the Balfour [Promise]"
"[PA] Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad Al-Malki demanded that Britain [make] a promise similar to the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) by recognizing the State of Palestine. During a meeting that he held yesterday [Aug. 22, 2017] at the [PA] Ministry [of Foreign Affairs] building with British Minister of State for [the Department for] Middle East Affairs and International Development Alistair Burt, Al-Malki criticized the preparations to mark [the 100th anniversary of] the Balfour Promise, which represents the Palestinian tragedy. He emphasized that this celebration of the promise constitutes the celebration of 100 years of the Palestinian people's suffering. Al-Malki said: 'Balfour became famous for promising the Jews to establish a state [for them] on the land of Palestine. I demand that Britain's current Foreign Secretary [Boris Johnson] become famous for giving a promise to the Palestinians, which will be called "the Johnson Promise," by recognizing the State of Palestine.'"
Fatah Spokesman: Fatah will never recognize Israel
Source: Fatah-run Awdah TV, Aug. 23, 2017
Fatah-run Awdah TV host: "Has the Fatah Movement recognized Israel in its political platform until now?"
Fatah Spokesman Osama Al-Qawasmi: "Certainly not. This is not required, and we will not recognize Israel... I declare this clearly and in a satellite channel broadcast: 'My friends, Hamas, you should not recognize Israel, you are not required to. The PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, sent a letter of mutual recognition of the State of Israel, on Sept. 12, 1993. You are not required to.' We in the Fatah Movement have not changed our position. At the Seventh [Fatah] Conference, under threat of the occupation's weapons, we did not change [our policy]. We said that the armed resistance, popular resistance, and everything is also legitimate, but we chose popular resistance as the means that we see as the most effective under the present circumstances."
Click here for the complete text of the Sept. 9, 1993 letter of mutual recognition between the PLO and Israel. Among other things, it states that "the PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security," and that "the PLO renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence and will assume responsibility over all PLO elements and personnel in order to assure their compliance, prevent violations and disc
Palestinian boxer forced to forfeit rather than compete with Israeli, by order of Palestinian Olympic Committee
Source: Official Palestinian Authority TV, Aug. 17, 2017
Official PA TV host 1 of Palestine This Morning: "Let's talk about Sultan Abu Al-Haj, a Palestinian boxer who refused to compete with an Israeli boxer and lost a bronze medal."
Host 2: "Sultan, why did you make this decision? You lost a medal!"
Palestinian boxer Sultan Abu Al-Haj: "I didn't make the decision. My trainers and the [Palestinian] Olympic Committee made the decision, and as a competitor I cannot oppose them... The decision was reached that it is forbidden to compete with [Israelis], because it's beneath our dignity to compete with them and recognize them as (sic) the State of Israel."
Palestinian boxer Sultan Abu Al-Haj was ordered by the Palestinian Olympic Committee to forfeit his match against Israeli Druze boxer Amit Madah on Aug. 8, 2017 in the under 54 kg division at the Youth Muay Thai World Championships in Bangkok, Thailand. This was the first time that the Palestinian Authority sent an athlete to compete in this tournament.
Fatah official: Let's revoke the recognition of Israel
Fatah Central Committee member, Fatah Commissioner of Mobilization and Organization in the West Bank, and PLO Central Council member Jamal Muhaisen: "The political leadership is the one who decides at every stage which means of struggle can bring achievements to our people. At the present time, considering the actions of the Israeli government that violate all of the agreements and all of the international decisions, and insist on leaving the Palestinian people under occupation – and that is something we will never accept – and therefore the [political] system needs to invest greater efforts, and that is what will strengthen the ability of the system to continue the resistance in a steady manner, and not in the manner of outbreaks here and there... I say that we must convene the [Palestinian] National Council (i.e., the legislative body of the PLO) in order to revoke the recognition of the State of Israel, unless there will be mutual recognition between two states - the State of Israel and the Palestinian state."
Head of Muslim Council in Jerusalem falsely claims that "before 1948 the Jews had no lands in Palestine"
"Dozens of residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and Jerusalem held the Friday prayer yesterday [Aug. 11, 2017] in front of the house of Ayoub Shamasneh's family, which is being threatened with expulsion and having its home taken over by the settler associations in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in the center of occupied Jerusalem (i.e., the house was bought by Jews).
Head of the Supreme Muslim Council in Jerusalem Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, who gave the Friday sermon, …explained that before 1948 the Jews had no lands in Palestine. During the period of the British Mandate's rule, Britain ruled over only 6% [of the lands], and it gave them to the Jews after the 1948 war. Today, the Israeli government rules over 80% of the lands of Palestine, and it is still investing efforts to take control of them in a number of ways."
PLO official demands Britain apologize for "ominous" Balfour Declaration, which "gave Palestine to those who are not its residents" and led to Israel's establishment
Source: Ma'an, independent Palestinian news agency, Aug. 9, 2017
Headline: "Rafat called on the government of Britain to apologize on the anniversary of Aug. 10"
"[PLO] Executive Committee member Saleh Rafat said in a statement on the anniversary of the publication of the Palestine Constitution (i.e., Palestine Order in Council , 1922, officially establishing the British Mandate) by the government of Britain on Aug. 10, 1922: 'For 100 years the Palestinian people has been suffering from the results of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) that was issued in 1917. This promise gave Palestine to those who are not its residents, contributed to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and led to the expulsion of large numbers of the Palestinian people from within Palestine to outside of it. Therefore, the Palestinian people is still suffering from the consequences of this promise made by Britain.'"
Groups at summer camp named after cities in the "occupied Palestinian Interior," i.e. Israel
Source: Facebook page of the PLO Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs, Aug. 2, 2017
Posted text: "Central [West Bank] Council crews continued their field visits to the [summer] camps of the [different] districts: Jerusalem, Jericho, the Jordan Valley, and Ramallah and El-Bireh, according to the program that was planned in advance… In Jericho, a visit was held at the We Will Advance Together [Summer] Camp, which the Pioneers of the Future School organized in the Katf [Al-Wad] branch with the participation of 70 campers aged 13-17 of both genders. The campers were divided into groups bearing the names of cities from the occupied Palestinian Interior (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel), such as: Haifa, Jaffa, Acre, Tiberias, and Nazareth."
Fatah Facebook post denies Jewish ethnicity, Jewish connection to Jerusalem; "This city never belonged to anyone other than the Canaanite Arabs"
Source: Official Fatah Facebook page, July 29, 2017
Posted text: "In everything regarding the Jews, the sons of Israel, and Jerusalem, the Jews are the members of a religion who come from all of the nations in the world, and are under no circumstances an independent nation... Most of them today are from Russia and Eastern Europe (see Arthur Koestler and Shlomo Sand) [parentheses in source]... Regarding the tribe of the Yemenite Arab sons of Israel that has passed from the world, it has no connection to those who currently call themselves by their name in our land (sic., Yemenite Jews still exist and have a proven connection to the other Jewish groups). Urshalim is the direction of prayer for members of the Jewish religion (sic., the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is the direction of prayer), and it is not the city of 'Al-Quds' (i.e., Jerusalem)... Al-Quds in Palestine is our Al-Quds alone, and any other claim is nothing but a falsification of the truth. The Al-Aqsa Mosque sprawls over 144 dunams (i.e., 35.5 acres), and it belongs only to the Muslims, whether for the last 4,000 or 1,000 years (likely a typo of 10,000 –Ed.) or from the Umayyad period, and this city never belonged to anyone other than the Canaanite Arabs..."
PA TV game show host denies Israel's existence, labels everything "Palestine"
Source: Official PA TV Live, June 7, 2017
Official PA TV game show The Box
Official PA TV host: "A thousand blessings to all our viewers, from wherever you are watching us from all ends of Palestine, from Sasa (i.e., an Arab village in the Galilee that was destroyed in the Israeli War of Independence, not the northernmost point in Israel) to Umm Al-Rashrash (i.e., Eilat, the southernmost Israeli city)."
Abbas' advisor on Religious Affairs labels Balfour Declaration a "crime"
Headline: "Al-Habbash briefs Portuguese Parliament members and solidarity activists on the developments in the Palestinian arena"
"Supreme Shari'ah Judge of Palestine and [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas'] advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash yesterday [May 20, 2017] briefed Portuguese Parliament members and members of the Parliamentary Committee for Portuguese-Palestinian Friendship… on the developments in the Palestinian arena, especially on all that is related to the prisoners' [hunger] strike.
During the meeting, which was held in the Portuguese Parliament building in the capital city Lisbon, Al-Habbash said: 'The Palestinian people has been suffering from injustice and aggression since approximately 100 years ago, when the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) was issued by the British Mandate authorities. [It also has been suffering] from the crimes that embarrass the human conscience which came as a result of this crime, when the Palestinians were uprooted from their homes, their villages and cities were destroyed and erased, and in their place the occupation state arose. Disasters have befallen them one after the other, while the world is silent and stands aloof, and its conscience is in a deep coma.'"
Official PA daily: Israeli city of Acre is "occupied"
Headline: "Laila Jamal – We have grown older and our longings have grown stronger"
"?Sixty-nine years have passed since the Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) and nothing has changed for us but our age and the longings which have increased. We long for the sun's rays reflecting from the sea of Acre on its walls, and for the scent of the land.' This is what 80-year-old Laila Jamal from occupied Acre said."
Fatah Deputy Chairman: The establishment of Israel was "greatest crime" and "plot woven by a number of parties"
Headline: "Nablus: Marking the anniversary of the Nakba by remembering the [hunger] striking prisoners"
"Residents of Nablus yesterday, Monday [May 15, 2017] marked the 69th anniversary of the Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) of the Palestinian people and its uprooting from its land in 1948.
Fatah Movement Central Committee member [and Fatah Deputy Chairman] Mahmoud Al-Aloul and Nablus District Governor Akram Al-Rajoub participated in the ceremony to mark Nakba Day in the center of Nablus…
Al-Aloul said: 'The Nakba event is a memorial day for the greatest crime in history against the Palestinians and the plot woven by a number of parties in order to occupy our land and expel us from it. This is the land of the holy sites, and we will not concede our cause and our struggle to realize the goal of the Palestinian people to return to its homes.'
He added: 'We guard the keys of return and will pass the idea from generation to generation in order to protect the right to adhere to return.'"
Palestinians commemorate Nakba Day on May 15, the day after Israeli Independence Day. On May 15, 1948, combined forces from Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq joined Palestinian Arab forces in an attempt to eradicate the newly-established State of Israel. The Nakba (i.e. "the catastrophe) refers to the displacement of Palestinians that occurred as a result of this Arab war of aggression against Israel.
PLO official: Israel's establishment was "the crime of the century," the return of the 1948 refugees to their homes is a "holy historical and legal right"
Headline: "Al-Agha in a letter to the UN Secretary-General: The Nakba is the crime of the era"
"PLO Executive Committee member and President of the [PLO] Supreme National Committee to Commemorate Nakba Day (i.e., "the catastrophe," Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) Zakariya Al-Agha described the Nakba as 'the crime of the century.' Al-Agha said this yesterday [May 15, 2017], Nakba Day, in a letter he gave together with members of the Committee to Mark Nakba Day to UN Secretary-General António Guterres via Head of the UN Office in Gaza Gernot Sauer.
Al-Agha said in the letter that the painful consequences of the Nakba that befell our people continue to this day. This is so because the occupation government opposes the return of the Palestinian refugees to their homes, despite the decisions published by the UN that order their return to their homes from which they were expelled in 1948 (i.e., UN Resolution 194, see note below)… Al-Agha emphasized that the return of the Palestinian refugees to their homes from which they were expelled is a holy historical and legal right, and an individual right that is anchored in international law and the decisions of the international bodies."
Fatah official in Gaza: Palestinians' "right of return" is holy, "land will return to its owners"
Source: Ma'an, independent Palestinian news agency, May 15, 2017
Headline: "Abu Samhadana: The right of return is holy and no statute of limitations will apply to it"
"Fatah Movement [Gaza] Leadership Council member Abdallah Abu Samhadana emphasized that the right of return is a holy right to which no statute of limitations will apply, and that the Palestinians everywhere they are located still dream of the return. He emphasized that it will definitely happen and that the land will return to its owners…
Abu Samhadana said in a statement that reached [the independent Palestinian news agency] Ma'an: 'Sixty-nine years [have passed] and the occupation's gamble that the adults would die and the young would forget has been proven false by the generations, who are still bequeathing the guardianship of this right from generation to generation. These generations prove that a right, which has someone who demands it, will never be lost, and the right of return will continue to be one of the pillars of the Palestinian cause and the national enterprise."
PLO official: "We will not relinquish one grain of sand from Jaffa, Haifa, Lod, or Ramle (i.e., all Israeli cities)"
Official PA TV broadcast for Nakba Day, showing the Nakba Day ceremony in Ramallah
General Coordinator of PLO's National Committee for Commemorating Nakba Day, Muhammad Alyan: "We want to say regarding what happened in 1948: No matter how great the losses and sacrifices may be, we will not relinquish one grain of sand from Jaffa, Haifa, Lod, or Ramle (i.e., all Israeli cities). Let this occupation do what it wants., We are staying here, rooted like the olive tree, fighting, and defending [the homeland]."
Mahmoud Abbas: Israel's right to exist is a "lie"
Source: Official PA radio station The Voice of Palestine, May 15, 2017
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: "Ninety-nine years have passed since the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration). The unfair [promise]. However, we will not turn the lie (i.e., Israel being the ancient Jewish homeland) into an accepted truth. Our people's right to its homeland is permanent and authentic. It does not expire, not even if historical facts are falsified. Palestine will remain despite the Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," establishment of the State of Israel in 1948), the Naksa (i.e., "the setback," Israel's victory in the Six Day War in 1967), and the suffering which has continued for decades. We will never raise the white flag. [Our flag] will continue to be composed of the four colors."
The rest of Abbas' speech (not broadcast on PA radio) criticizing Britain for issuing the Balfour Declaration: "You gave what is not yours to one who has no right"
Abbas: "We say to those who gave this promise: ''You [Britain] gave what is not yours to one [the Jewish people] who has no right to it.'' Many have wondered: Why are we talking about it now? We said that the right does not expire, that the right does not age. Even after 100, 200, 1,000 [years], the right will remain alive. It will remain our obligation to defend our right. Balfour, who gave you the right to sell our land? And to tell people [the Jews]: ''This is a homeland for you [the Jews].''? ... Give them [a state] in Britain, man, in Scotland, or at least in Ireland. Why in Palestine? He gave [Jews land] in Palestine and that became their right. No! Britain must first acknowledge that it made a mistake regarding our right.
PA daily marks 69 years since Israel's establishment by "the Zionist gangs;" PA: The Nakba was "terror unprecedented in history, and the crime of the era"
"Our people wherever it is found today [May 15, 2017] marks Nakba Day (i.e., "the catastrophe," the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) Day, caused to it by the Zionist gangs 69 years ago…
The Palestinian National Council (i.e., the legislative body of the PLO) emphasized for the 69th anniversary of the Nakba that our people will continue to adhere to the right of return to its land and to the lands from which it was uprooted as a result of the policy of terror and crime carried out by the Zionist gangs in 1948… The [PA] Ministry of Information said that the Nakba of our people is an open wound, terror unprecedented in history, and the crime of the era for which there will never be a statute of limitations, and which necessitates putting all of the criminals on trial before international courts. The Ministry of Information emphasized that the Nakba of 1948 and what occurred following it – massacres, the erasing of Palestinian cities and villages down to the foundations, and expulsion – are conclusive evidence that the Zionist gangs, who paved the way for the establishment of Israel, committed the most despicable crimes of ethnic cleansing against our people."
Song on PA radio: "Since 1948 we have been sentenced to be subjected to the Nakba… Our enemies will never have rest and quiet"
The Voice of Palestine, the official PA radio station, song in honor of Nakba Day
Song lyrics:
"Since 1948 we have been sentenced to be subjected to the Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel),
Palestine will never be insignificant,
Our enemies will never have rest and quiet."
Nakba Day Palestinians commemorate Nakba Day on May 15, the day after the establishment of Israel. On May 15, 1948, combined forces from Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq joined local Arab forces in an attempt to eradicate the newly established State of Israel. The Nakba (Arabic = catastrophe) refers to the establishment of Israel, and the subsequent loss of the war, including the killing and displacement of Arab civilians that occurred during the war.
PA daily image: "Ominous" Balfour Declaration responsible for Palestinian "catastrophe"
Image posted in the official PA daily, from a protest in Tulkarem in support of the prisoners' hunger strike that began on April 17, 2017
Text on sign in image: "The ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) was the beginning of our people's Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel).
The Department for Refugees' Affairs – the Supreme National Committee to Mark Nakba Day"
Official PA daily uses non-recognition terminology: "1948 territories"
"The Jenin district yesterday [May 1, 2017] continued the events of solidarity with the prisoners who are hunger striking for this the 16th consecutive day.
Delegations of relatives of the prisoners and people and institutions of the city of Jenin and from within the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel), who expressed their support and standing alongside the prisoner members of their people, have visited since the morning hours."
Official PA daily refers to Israel as "the 1948 territories"
Headline: "The Association of Workers Unions of Palestine marks May 1 (i. e., International Workers' Day)"
"It should be noted that members and activists of the Palestinian workers unions and associations in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel), participated in their masses in the demonstrations and sit-in strikes that have been held as a sign of solidarity with the prisoners since the prisoners began their hunger strike on April 17 [2017]."
Headline: "Despite the loss of sight, Kifah and Hanan amaze by knitting colors and decorations"
"Kifah and Hanan are from a family of poor means that today lives in the village of Al-Dik in the Salfit district, after moving there from the village of Majdal Al-Sadiq in the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel) due to the Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel)."
PA Radio: Lod, Haifa, and Ramle (i.e., Israeli cities) are "my land and not the land of the Jews"
Source: Official PA radio station The Voice of Palestine, Apr. 29, 2017
Lyrics: "My land was green and covered in a green garment,
It never knew sadness,
But after what happened everything changed to bitterness,
After they [the Jews] walked [on it] with their feet, the singing turned into sadness.
O Lod, Haifa, and Ramle (i.e., Israeli cities), my land and not the land of the Jews,
In a moment it became occupied."
"Karim Yusuf Fadl Younes from the village of 'Ara in the north of the Triangle (i.e., a concentration of Israeli-Arab towns and villages in northern Israel) in the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel) is now 58, and he has spent 35 years of his life in the Israeli prisons."
Karim Younes - an Israeli Arab serving a 40-year sentence for kidnapping and murdering Israeli soldier Avraham Bromberg in 1980 together with his cousin Maher Younes. Originally sentenced to life in prison, but Israeli President Shimon Peres reduced his sentence in 2012.
Abbas plans to "put Britain on trial for the Balfour Promise"
Source: Wattan (independent Palestinian news agency)‎, Apr. 26, 2017
Headline: "Britain refuses to apologize for the Balfour Promise, and the [PA] president will put it on trial"
"Britain has refused to submit an apology for the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) that was issued in 1917 and paved the way for the establishment of the State of Israel.
[PA] President Mahmoud Abbas demanded that Britain officially apologize to the Palestinian people for this promise in a speech that he gave before the UN General Assembly in September [2016], but Britain is intending to hold celebrations together with senior Israeli officials for the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Promise on Nov. 2 [2017].
Palestinian Ambassador to Britain Manuel Hassassian told [the official PA] radio [station] The Voice of Palestine that… 'Steps will be taken to put Britain on trial for the Balfour Promise, and there are lawyers working on the matter in Britain. The position of the president is clear, and he will not retreat from it until Britain apologizes to the Palestinian people and recognizes the State of Palestine.'"
Headline: "The [PA] Civil Defense succeeded in preventing the burning of 500 cars at the Al-Dhahiriya Crossing"
"The teams prevented the fire from spreading to the other nearby cars, whose number was estimated at 500 cars, all belonging to Palestinian laborers working within the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel)."
Fatah official delegitimizes Israel's right to exist, calls it "'Israel' in quotation marks"
Official PA TV News, interview with Fatah Central Committee member and Commissioner of Mobilization and Organization in the West Bank Jamal Muhaisen, on the hunger strike by terrorist prisoners that began on April 17, 2017.
Fatah Central Committee member and Commissioner of Mobilization and Organization in the West Bank Jamal Muhaisen: "They [the prisoners] are taken captive in the PA areas, which violates international law, and they are generally transferred to prisons in the areas occupied since 1948 - what is called 'Israel' in quotation marks, and this also opposes international law."
Official PA daily refers to Israel as the "1948 territories"
Headline: "The Israeli bulldozers destroyed a home in the village of Al-Sayyid in the Negev"
"Yesterday, Thursday [April 20, 2017], under the protection of the police and special forces, the bulldozers of the Israeli occupation authorities destroyed a home in the village of Al-Sayyid in the Al-Kasom region of the Negev, inside the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel)."
Official PA daily's non-recognition terminology: "1948 territories"
Headline: "A man was killed and two were wounded in an altercation in Lod"
"Last night [April 20, 2017] young Muhammad Azbarga, 25, was killed, another man was moderately wounded, and an elderly woman was wounded in her upper body in a shooting that took place in Lod, which is inside the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel)."
PA accuses Israel of promoting "invasions of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to... Judaize the holy city [of Jerusalem]," calls on Palestinians, incl. those "in the Palestinian Interior occupied in 1948" to carry out Ribat
"In its weekly meeting held yesterday [April 18, 2017] in the Jenin district… the [PA] government condemned the racist policy of oppression that is being implemented against the worshippers and those carrying out Ribat (i.e., religious conflict/war over land claimed to be Islamic), men and women alike, in addition to preventing them from reaching the Al-Aqsa Mosque and praying there. This is at a time when the Israeli government is scheming, providing official cover, and implementing a policy of incitement that calls on the settlers to make daily and unprecedented broad invasions of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to establish a new status quo, whose goal is to Judaize the holy city [of Jerusalem] and erase its Arab and Islamic characteristics. The government referenced the danger in the occupation government's insistence on turning the conflict into a religious conflict, which will escalate the situation, place the city in true danger, and constitute a crude challenge and declaration of war against the Muslims, their holy sites, and the entire Islamic world. The government called on the guards of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and its gatekeepers, on all of the worshippers and the Jerusalem civilians, and on our people in the Palestinian Interior occupied in 1948 (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel) to visit and carry out Ribat at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque..."
Headline: "Activists for solidarity with the prisoners are hunger striking in Umm Al-Fahm"
"A number of activists for solidarity in the city of Umm Al-Fahm in the '48 territories (i.e., Israel) yesterday [April 17, 2017] began a one day hunger strike as a sign of solidarity with the prisoners in the occupation's prisons."
Headline: "The occupation arrested three civilians from Tulkarem"
"The Israeli police arrested civilian Hatem Muhammad Ghanem, 49, from the village of Deir Al-Ghusun while he was staying in the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel)."
Abbas to Britain: "You committed a crime against the Palestinian people… the Balfour Promise - a promise of one who is not the owner to one who is undeserving"
Official PA TV News, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' speech to the Palestinian ambassadors' conference in Bahrain on April 11, 2017
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: "We will continue to make our demands of Britain. Our demands are not secret. They asked: What do you want from us? We said: Say 'Sorry' and recognize the State of Palestine. They said: It is problematic. We said: So we will submit a lawsuit against you in the international courts and in the courts in Britain. will not concede our rights. You committed a crime against the Palestinian people, and that is the Balfour Promise. A promise of one who is not the owner to one who is undeserving."
Click "full article" for a longer excerpt from the speech
Ambassador of Palestine to the EU: Palestinian struggle to expel the "invaders" has lasted more than 100 years
Headline: "The Fatah Movement's Belgium and Luxembourg branch marks Land Day"
"Under the auspices of the Embassy of Palestine, the Fatah Movement's Belgium and Luxembourg branch marked the 41st Land Day in the center of the capital, Brussels…
Ambassador of Palestine to the European Union, Belgium, and Luxembourg Abd Al-Rahim Al-Fara… emphasized that Land Day is one of the few national and pan-Arab events that sums up all of the significance of the Palestinian cause: resolve, resistance, resistance to colonialism and settlement, and unity of all of the sons of the one Palestinian homeland – from Rafah to Rosh HaNikra (i.e., an Israeli city in the Galilee) – against the occupier…
He said: 'Our compass is only Palestine, in a struggle that has lasted more than 100 years for the purpose of expelling the invaders and establishing the Palestinian state.'"
Land Day – an annual commemoration of the general strike and demonstrations organized by Israeli Arab residents of the Galilee on March 30, 1976 to protest the Israeli government's decision to expropriate land in the Galilee for security and settlement purposes, which it later implemented. During the protests, demonstrators burnt tires, blocked roads, and threw rocks and firebombs. Six demonstrators were shot and killed by the Israeli army and police. Israeli Arabs and Palestinians consider Land Day a national day.
PLO calls on the British government to "apologize for the ominous Balfour Promise"
Headline: "The PLO called to expose the occupation's steps and its settlement policy"
"The PLO Department of Arab Relations called to expose the Israeli occupation's steps and its settlement policy…
The department noted that the fact that UN Secretary-General [António Guterres] cancelled the [UN] ESCWA (Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia) report (see note below –Ed.) is an expression of his siding with the occupation government and its acts. This is in the shadow of the passing of 100 years since the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), and the British government's insistence on continuing to support the occupation state and side with it and continue the injustice that was done to the Palestinian people and the peoples of the region as a result of this decision …
The department called… on the British government to end this historic tragedy that was caused to the Palestinian people, apologize for the ominous Balfour Promise, recognize the Palestinian state, and compensate those who were harmed by the historical injustice that the Balfour Promise constituted."
On March 17, 2017, UN Secretary-General António Guterres ordered that a UN ESCWA (Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia) report declaring that "Israel has established an apartheid regime that systematically institutionalizes racial oppression and domination of the Palestinian people as a whole" be taken off the ESCWA website.
Headline: "A small earthquake struck the coastal area between Haifa and Nahariya"
"The area between Haifa and Nahariya in the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel) experienced a small earthquake of a magnitude of 3.5 on the Richter scale yesterday [April 4, 2017]."
Abbas on the Balfour Declaration: Britain "must apologize for this historic mistake"
Source: Al-Quds Al-Arabi (London newspaper), Apr. 3, 2017
Headline: "Abbas in an interview with Al-Quds Al-Arabi: … We will turn to the international forums if Britain insists on marking the anniversary of the Balfour Promise and will not apologize"
Excerpt of an interview with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas by the London newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi
[Q:] "As we near the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) that promised the Jews a national home in Palestine (on Nov. 2, 1917), [and as] preparations [are being made] to mark this anniversary, which British Prime Minister Theresa May has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to participate in – are there Palestinian steps that are more than just calls on London to apologize for this historic mistake against the Palestinian truth? And what Palestinian moves will there be if Britain ignores the Palestinian calls?"
[PA President Mahmoud Abbas:] "We began to demand that Britain apologize to the Palestinian people at [our] speeches of the last UN General Assembly session in September 2016, and also at the Arab Summit in Mauritania. We demanded and still demand that Britain not celebrate this event, which was catastrophic from the Palestinian people's perspective. In addition, it must apologize for this historic mistake that it committed against us, and it must recognize the State of Palestine…"
[Q:] "And if Britain does not respond to the Palestinian demands on the matter? Are there other steps, for example turning to the International Criminal Court and other international organizations?"
[Mahmoud Abbas:] "I have said that we will turn to all of the local and international forums and talk to them..."
Click "full article" for more.
Fatah calls on Britain to "correct the historical mistake" of the Balfour Declaration
Headline: "The European Union condemns: New settlement construction will destroy the hope for the two-state solution"
"The Fatah Movement welcomed the international positions condemning the settlement colonialism. In a statement by its spokesman in Europe Jamal Nazzal, Fatah said that immediate recognition of the State of Palestine is the only logical and effective response to the settlement colonialism… Fatah expressed its appreciation for the position of British Secretary [of State for] Foreign [and Commonwealth Affairs] Boris Johnson regarding Israel's announcement of the construction of 2,000 housing units in the settlements in the West Bank. It called on Britain to correct the historical mistake - the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) - and to recognize the State of Palestine."
PA TV reporter calls Israel "the alleged state"
Source: Official PA TV Live, Apr. 1, 2017
Official PA TV News, on Land Day in Qalqilya
Official PA TV reporter: "Each year Land Day reveals our people's hold on their lands that have been occupied by Israel since the establishment of the alleged state (i.e., Israel). The lands of the city of Qalqilya have been expropriated time after time, and also 30,000 dunams (i.e., approximately 7,400 acres) of its most fertile lands are isolated behind the annexation and expansion wall."
PA official denies Israel in any borders: Occupation has existed 70 years
Source: Donia Al-Watan (independent Palestinian news agency), Mar. 31, 2017
Headline: "Ghannam: The occupation will not remain forever and we will achieve all of our rights"
"District Governor of Ramallah and El-Bireh Dr. Laila Ghannam briefed Mayor of Tangier in Morocco Muhammad Al-Bashir Al-Abdlawi…, as he welcomed her at the municipality headquarters, 'about the suffering of the Palestinian people and the details of the occupation's attacks and its cold-blooded targeting of all the Palestinians.' She also noted that 'Our people is collapsing under an occupation that has been treating its children, elderly, and young people with violence for nearly 70 years. However, our people still believes that the occupation will not continue forever, and that we, with the aid of our friends in the world, will achieve all of our national rights, and prime among them the establishment of our independent state with full sovereignty, whose capital is Jerusalem.'"
Fatah official calls on Britain to apologize for the Balfour declaration, a "historical mistake"
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Mar. 31, 2017
Headline: "Fattouh calls on Britain to recognize the State of Palestine"
"Fatah Movement Central Committee member and Commissioner of International Relations Rawhi Fattouh called on Britain to recognize the State of Palestine within the 1967 borders whose capital is East Jerusalem, to implement the recommendation of the [British] parliament on the matter, and to submit an apology for issuing the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration). This was said during Fattouh's meeting yesterday [March 30, 2017] with a delegation from the British Labour Party, led by General Secretary of the Party Iain McNicol. Fattouh emphasized the significance of the British recognition of the State of Palestine, particularly in light of the recommendation that was published by the parliament in 2014 on the matter, and also the importance of the apology for the historical mistake that the government of Britain made in issuing the Balfour Promise."
Official PA TV children's program host refers to Israel as "the Palestinian villages that were occupied in 1948" and looks forward to their return
Source: Official Palestinian Authority TV, Mar. 31, 2017
Official PA TV program The Best Home, on Land Day
Official PA TV host Walaa Al-Battat: "In honor of this day (i.e., Land Day), the Birds of Paradise Kindergarten has brought us flowers with the names of the uprooted villages, the Palestinian villages that were occupied in 1948 (i.e., in Israel), and Allah willing they will return to us one day. Thank you Birds of Paradise for this nice gesture."
Click to view another item with a photo of the Birds of Paradise Kindergarten celebrating Land Day
Headline: "Shufa is in the sights"
"Citizens of the village of Shufa, southeast of Tulkarem, are very worried about the bulldozing operation being carried out by the Israeli occupation's bulldozers in the areas adjacent to the bypass road that is west of the village and connects the Einav and Avnei Hefetz settlements to the areas within the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel)."
Fatah official: "To this moment, Fatah does not recognize Israel"
Official PA TV program Topic of the Day, hosting Fatah Central Committee member and Fatah Commissioner of Treasury and Economy Muhammad Shtayyeh
Fatah Central Committee member and Fatah Commissioner of Treasury and Economy Muhammad Shtayyeh: "The Fatah Movement never demanded that Hamas recognize Israel. To this moment, Fatah does not recognize Israel. The topic of recognition of Israel has not been raised in any of Fatah's conferences."
Official PA daily uses non-recognition terminology: "The 1948 territories"
"The Israeli police for the first time in 18 years announced a rejection of the request for a permit [to hold] the Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) anniversary procession, which will be held in May in the Galilee within the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel)."
PA Education Minister: Our education must "encourage liberation"; Israeli Arab members of Israeli parliament: Incitement against Israel is a "Palestinian right" and "human obligation"
Headline: "Saidam: We want education that will encourage liberation"
"The [PA] Ministry of Education and Higher Education yesterday [March 22, 2017] opened a first of its kind workshop regarding the 'incitement' in the Palestinian curricula and the Israeli attack against the education.
[PA] Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr. Sabri Saidam, [PA] Minister of Culture Dr. Ehab Bessaiso, Director of the Committee to Resist Settlements and the Wall Walid Assaf, [PA] Deputy Minister of Education Basri Saleh, [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas'] advisor on [Foreign Affairs and] International Relations Dr. Nabil Shaath, and Israeli Arab Parliament members Dr. Ahmad Tibi, Muhammad Barakeh, Hanin Zoabi, Masud Ganaim, and Talab El-Sana participated in the workshop events…
Saidam emphasized that this unconventional workshop is being held due to the attack that the occupation is waging against our curriculum, and emphasized that the workshop will lead to many questions.
Saidam answered the big question: Which educational system do we want? He said: 'We want education that will encourage liberation.' In conjunction, he presented the prominent aspects of the curricula, and particularly those of the new national curriculum for grades 1 – 4…
Saidam mentioned the fact that the occupation forbids teaching the [PA] national curriculum in the schools of Jerusalem (i.e., Israeli Arab schools). He noted that the curriculum includes great expertise whose goal is to mold the Palestinian personality and accompany the education with knowledge and deep-rooted principles…
[Click full article for more information]
PLO negotiator Erekat repeats libel: Israel guilty of "ethnic cleansing," must be uprooted, Israeli Defense Minister guilty of "war crimes"
Headline: "Erekat: Liberman's decision regarding the [Palestinian] National Fund means the revoking of Israel's recognition of the PLO"
"Secretary of the PLO Executive Committee, PLO Chief Negotiator [and Fatah Central Committee member] Dr. Saeb Erekat again expressed his strong opposition to Israeli Minister of War (i.e., Defense) Avigdor Liberman's decision to define the PLO Palestinian National Fund as a 'terror organization.'
While receiving EU [Special] Representative for [the Middle East] Peace Process Fernando Gentilini and the Chinese ambassador in Palestine – each one separately – Erekat said that Liberman's decision means the revoking of Israel's recognition of the PLO.
He called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to announce the position of his government and whether the government has revoked its recognition of the PLO…
Palestinian boy: "This is our land, not their land"
Official PA TV program Good Morning Jerusalem, on the marathon in Jerusalem on March 17, 2017
Official PA TV reporter: "Why did you come here today? What is your message?"
Boy: "We want to convey to them the message that this is our land, not their land, and it is forbidden for them to create an impression that this is their land and to say that this is their land, because it is our land. We live here and will demonstrate among them in order to get them out of our land."
Reporter: "Absolutely. The police prevented you from advancing and arriving and participating in the marathon. [But] they allow them to. What do you say? What did you want to do today?"
Boy: "I wanted to participate in the marathon, but they prevented us [from participating]. They only allow Jews to participate in the marathon (sic., numerous non-Jews participated in the marathon as well)."
Abbas claims Palestinians have been under occupation for "70 years"
Source: Al-Watan (Qatar), Mar. 16, 2017
[Q:] "We will begin with the main event, and that is the phone conversation that American President Donald Trump had with you, and your important meeting with his Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt. What was said in your first conversation with the US president, and did his conversation constitute a plan to eliminate the Palestinian cause, and not to resolve it?"
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas:] "This was the first time I spoke with Trump... I told him that we hope that he will find a solution to the Palestinian issue after 70 years of occupation that will be based on two states..."
Palestinian Ambassador to the UK demands apology for the Balfour Declaration
Source: Amad, independent Palestinian news website, Mar. 15, 2017
Headline: "Ambassador Hassassian reminded the British Liberal Democrats of their role in the Balfour Promise"
"Palestinian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Manuel Hassassian met with a number of members of the [British] Parliament and the British House of Lords from the Liberal Democratic party… During the meeting, he demanded that the lords and Parliament members bear their responsibility regarding the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), pressure the British government to recognize the State of Palestine, and submit an apology request. He noted that this promise was given under the auspices of the last government of the then Liberal Democrats (sic., the Liberal party, which is currently part of the Liberal Democratic party), which places on them the moral responsibility for what happened to the Palestinian people due to this promise."
Headline: "The occupation authorities banned a British supporter of the Palestinian cause from entering the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel)"
Chairman of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign Hugh Lanning was barred entry to Israel on March 12, 2017 due to his pro-BDS activism seeking to impose a global boycott on Israel.
PA Minister of Foreign Affairs demands that the UK apologize for the "ominous Balfour Promise"
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Mar. 9, 2017
Headline: "Al-Malki: The Arab foreign ministers decisively emphasized the centrality of the Palestinian cause"
"[PA Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad] Al-Malki discussed the recent developments in the Palestinian arena with his British counterpart [UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs] Boris Johnson…
He emphasized the [Palestinian] opposition to the preconditions set by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for starting any sort of negotiation between the Palestinian side and the Israeli side, and particularly what [Netanyahu] said in the US and in Australia regarding the need for Palestinian recognition of a Jewish state and for Israeli security control over the Palestinian state…
He mentioned the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Balfour Declaration), and demanded that Britain apologize for this promise instead of calling to mark [its 100th anniversary], because it is the greatest disaster that has been caused to the Palestinian people and to its dream to remain on the soil of its homeland like the rest of the peoples of the world.
He added: 'It would have been better for Britain to fix the historical mistake that caused the greatest damage to the Palestinian people and to its national cause, as it made two-thirds of the Palestinian people refugees and homeless in the region and throughout the world.' He also called on Britain to recognize the Palestinian state in the June 4 [1967] borders, whose capital is East Jerusalem."
PLO official: Britain must "compensate" Palestinians for the "crimes" of the Balfour Declaration
Headline: "Al-Agha demanded that the government of Britain immediately recognize the Palestinian state"
"PLO Executive Committee member and [PLO] Director of the Department for Refugee Affairs Zakaria Al-Agha yesterday, Thursday [March 2, 2017], called on Britain to immediately recognize the Palestinian state. These statements were made during his visit to the Popular Refugee Committee at the Al-Shati [refugee] camp in Gaza…
Al-Agha referred to the 100th anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), and again emphasized his demand that the government of Britain take steps that will compensate for its crimes. He added: 'The time has come for this government to recognize the Palestinian state immediately, and to act to help the Palestinians end their suffering and establish their independent state in the Palestinian territories that were occupied in 1967.'"
Film shown to NATO reps depicts "colonialism in Palestine since 1948"
Headline: "Assaf briefed an international parliamentary delegation regarding the settlement plans"
"Chairman of the [PA] Committee to Resist Settlements and the Wall Walid Assaf yesterday [March 2, 2017] briefed a delegation from the NATO alliance Parliamentary Assembly, which included 40 members of the alliance from 14 states, and also the Science and Technology Committee and the Mediterranean and Middle East Special Group, regarding the Israeli settlement plans in the West Bank… The committee presented a filmed and detailed explanation of the colonialism in Palestine since 1948 and until today, how the occupation settlements and the wall were built, and how the division into administrative and security regions was carried out, with a focus on the latest period between 1997 and 2016."
Palestinian universities want Israeli Arab students to study in the PA, rather than in Israel – "the interior"
Source: PANET, Israeli-Arab website, Mar. 1, 2017
Headline: "13 universities and colleges take part in the first Palestinian guide to higher education for students from the Interior"
"Nazareth – the Institute for Palestinian-Palestinian Contact – Bortokala.com - announced that the opportunity to participate in the book The Palestinian Higher Education Guide for Students from the Interior (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel) has now ended.
The number of Palestinian universities and colleges participating in the guide reached 13 - seven universities and six official academic colleges - and they are: Birzeit University, the Arab American University in Jenin, National An-Najah University in Nablus, Palestine Polytechnic University in Hebron, Al-Quds Open University, Al-Quds University, and Bethlehem University.
The colleges are: Da'wah Islamic College in Qalqilya, Makassed College for Nursing in Jerusalem, the governmental Palestine Technical College for Girls in Ramallah, the government Al-Arroub Palestine Technical College in Hebron, the Modern College in Ramallah, and the Dar Al-Kalima College for Arts in Bethlehem.
The [guide]book – whose length exceeds 130 pages – will include, in addition to sections dedicated to the universities and colleges, the regulations of the Palestinian Council of Higher Education in regard to the recognition of certificates, and the addresses of the relevant departments in the [PA] Ministry of Education and Higher Education. The reader will be able to go to the websites of the universities and colleges to receive additional information… by using the QR barcode system.
All this and more - the local council and the community center in the town of Yafa an-Naseriyye will host an official ceremony next month for the publication of the book, and this is under the auspices of [PA] Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr. Sabri Saidam. He will speak at the event alongside Council Head Attorney Imran Kinana,
PA daily op-ed: "Ominous" Balfour Declaration was created by Jewish money and imperialism
Headline: "One people not split into groups"
Excerpt of an op-ed by Yahya Rabah, regular columnist for the official PA daily and member of the Fatah Leadership Committee in Gaza
"We are in the period of the 100th anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), which was created thanks to Jewish capital and the imperialistic wave rampant in that period, which acted freely with the inheritance of the sick man - as the Turkish Caliphate was called. I have very carefully followed the conferences that were held almost simultaneously in Tehran and Istanbul… and both of them, the Shi'ite one in Tehran and the Sunni one in Istanbul, attempted to play the Palestinian card, while the Palestinian people stands united and is not at all interested in these conferences."
"The occupation authorities cancelled 110 work permits yesterday [Feb. 23, 2017] at the Jalame military checkpoint north of Jenin, and prevented those holding them from entering the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel)."
Official PA TV: "Palestinian institutions" run and govern Jerusalem, shadow government in place for "when Jerusalem is liberated"
Source: Official PA TV Live, Feb. 21, 2017
Official PA TV program Buy Time in Jerusalem, on Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem
Official PA TV host: "The subject of today's program is the [Palestinian] institutions [in Jerusalem]. They are considered a [Palestinian] shadow government in Jerusalem. They are a guarantee of the Arab identity of the city, and are a firm shield against the attempts to make it Israeli…"
Official PA TV host: "The [Palestinian] institutions [in Jerusalem] are in practice a shadow government, so that the moment Jerusalem is liberated [from the Israeli occupation] there will already be ministries of education, health, antiquities, justice, interior, foreign affairs, labor, and agriculture there. These institutions, even though they are small, are the ones running Jerusalem - despite the occupation. And whoever goes back in history will find the smile of Abu Jihad Khalil Al-Wazir (i.e., former head of the PLO terror organization's military wing, organized attacks in which 125 were murdered) in most of the Jerusalem institutions."
Abu Jihad (Khalil Al-Wazir) was a founder of Fatah and deputy to Yasser Arafat. He headed the PLO terror organization's military wing and also planned many deadly Fatah terror attacks in the 1960's - 1980's. These attacks, which killed a total of 125 Israelis, included the most lethal in Israeli history - the hijacking of a bus and killing of 37 civilians, 12 of them children.
Official PA daily uses non-recognition terminology: "The Interior," "1948 territories"
Headline: "The [PA] president emphasized the importance of the role of the Palestinians of the Interior (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel) in strengthening the connection and the opportunities for peace"
"[PA] President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed a delegation of the leadership of the Balad Party in the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel), led by the party's Secretary-General Dr. Mtanes Shehadeh, yesterday evening [Feb. 20, 2017] at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah."
Fatah official: "The Zionist project is colonialist and has no connection to Judaism and the myths that the occupation invents"
Source: Ma'an, independent Palestinian news agency, Feb. 21, 2017
Headline: "Shtayyeh briefs an ALECSO delegation about the developments in the Palestinian cause"
"Fatah Movement Central Committee member [and Fatah Commissioner of the Treasury and Economy] Muhammad Shtayyeh met with an Arab League Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization ALECSO delegation led by Director General of the organization Abdullah Muharib…
During the meeting Shtayyeh welcomed Dr. Muharib and his entourage… and briefed the delegation on the latest developments in the Palestinian cause. He reviewed the historical background of the Zionist project in Palestine since 1650 (sic., 1850) and until present times, what is called the 'global Zionist plan,' and the historical connection between the Zionist project and the Western colonialist project… Shtayyeh emphasized that the Zionist project is colonialist and has no connection to Judaism and the myths that the occupation invents."
Fatah official: Judaism is a religion, not a nationality, therefore "has no homeland"
Official PA TV program Topic of the Day, hosting Fatah Commissioner of Mobilization and Organization in the West Bank and PLO Central Council member Jamal Muhaisen, on an increase in the pace of Jewish construction in the West Bank
Fatah Commissioner of Mobilization and Organization in the West Bank and PLO Central Council member Jamal Muhaisen: "We will never agree to a state being established on the basis of religion. A state such as this will be the height of bigotry , for [religion] is a divine message, and is not nationalism. As the religion of Islam and the Christian religion, so too the Jewish religion – it has no homeland. This is a divine message, and therefore we recognize it, and we do not recognize it as nationalism."
PLO chief negotiator demands UK "fix this mistake" of the Balfour Declaration "by apologizing to the Palestinian people"
"PLO Executive Committee Secretary[-General] Saeb Erekat... said: 'We have demanded of the government of Britain that it bear its legal, political, and moral responsibility for the historical injustice that the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) caused to the Palestinian people, and to fix this mistake by apologizing to the Palestinian people, doing justice to the victims [of this mistake] upon the passing of 100 years of torment and being refugees, and immediately recognizing the State of Palestine.'
Erekat expressed the opposition of the Palestinian leadership and people to British Prime Minister Theresa May's announcement of the celebrations to mark 100 shameful years since the Balfour Promise. He described this as a humiliation of our people and the principles of human rights, and added: 'Instead of celebrating, they should apologize, take practical steps to save the two-state solution from the Israeli dictates, boycott the colonialist settlement system, recognize Palestine, and listen to the will of the British people whose representatives recognized the State of Palestine in the British Parliament [in 2014].'"
PLO demands Britain apologize for "historical injustice" caused by "colonialist and ominous" Balfour Declaration
Headline: "The [PLO] Executive Committee opposes the Israeli plundering of Palestinian land, which is called 'the Regularization Law,' and calls on the international community to oppose it"
Excerpt from the full text of the statement published by the PLO Executive Committee in a meeting held on Feb. 13, 2017.
"The [PLO] Executive Committee discussed Britain's decision to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) this year. It called on Britain to cancel this celebration, and apologize to the Palestinian people for the crime and the human tragedy that Britain caused it 100 years ago. [It also called on Britain] to fix this mistake and the historical injustice that was caused as a result of this colonialist promise, to recognize the State of Palestine and the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to the lands from which they were uprooted by brute military force, and to compensate the Palestinian people for the damages of the human tragedy that was caused as a result of this colonialist and ominous promise."
Palestinian Teachers Union coordinates with British counterpart to protest Balfour Declaration, a "historical mistake" for which UK should apologize
Source: Amad, independent Palestinian news website, Feb. 13, 2017
Headline: "The Union of Palestinian Teachers is coordinating steps of protest with the National Union of Teachers in Britain against the celebrations of the Balfour Promise"
"The [General] Union of Palestinian Teachers received a delegation of the National Union of Teachers in Britain as part of the joint activities between the unions... They also discussed the political issue and talked about the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) and the objection activities against the invitation of the Israeli government by the British government to the celebrations of the [100th anniversary of] the Balfour Promise. It was agreed that protests will be held in London as a sign of objection to these celebrations, in light of the fact that they deepen the historical injustice from which the Palestinians are suffering as a result of this [Balfour] promise. It was also emphasized that the steps in London must be coordinated between the unions in order to press Britain to rescind this invitation and correct the historical mistake against the Palestinian people."
Click 'full article" for a longer excerpt
University lecturer tells PA TV: Jews "do not have a history, and they do not even have a Torah and a Talmud"
Official PA TV program Panorama of the Hour, hosting geography lecturer Jihad Abu Tawileh of Al-Azhar University in Gaza
Official PA TV host: "Dr. Jihad [Abu Tawileh], what are the foundations by which the areas are chosen for settlements?"
Geography lecturer Jihad Abu Tawileh: "The foundations and data, or the considerations on which they [Israelis] depend for establishing the settlements in the West Bank are financial considerations. Also the most important consideration is not a historical consideration because the history is falsified. They do not have a history, and they do not even have a Torah and a Talmud. Israel is attempting to create a falsified history, or to invent [history]. I will call it copying biblical and Talmudic history in the West Bank, thinking that it is the land of Judea and Samaria. Of course this is falsified distorted history, but the foundations depended upon [for establishing] are financial, and especially water."
Fatah Central Committee member refers to "70 years of occupation" (i.e., since 1948)
Official PA TV program State of Politics, with Fatah Central Committee member and Commissioner for Diaspora Branches Jamal Muhaisen
Fatah Central Committee member and Commissioner for Diaspora Branches Jamal Muhaisen: "We are proud that there are states that were occupied by foreigners and after [several] months or a short time, thousands of people were recruited as spies for the occupying state, whereas we are proud that during 70 years of occupation (i.e., since the establishment of Israel in 1948), and an additional occupation of 50 years (i.e., since the 1967 Six Day War), until now only a very few have fallen into the Israeli net."
Op-ed in official PA daily denies Israel's legitimacy: "All of Israel, from beginning to end, is a settlement," denies Jewish history as "myths"
"All of Israel, from its beginning to its end, is a settlement, a land [they] hold by force without any legitimacy. Whether by dividing the land of a sick man (Ottoman Turkey) [parentheses in source] in the days of [the] Sykes-Picot [Agreement], the wall and tower and laundry line phenomenon as a declaration of the establishment of a settlement, or using all the force of the British Mandate in order to obtain this land under the umbrella of the first sin – the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), whose 100th anniversary will take place [soon]... Even when the world conspired to turn the folklore myths into Jewish history and issued [UN] Partition Resolution 181, the Zionist movement refused to be satisfied with the international decision and insisted on the logic of settlement, which is theft of our Palestinian land by force, the force of scheming, the force of deceit in many forms, and the force of the weapon, iron, fire, and abominable massacres..."
Official PA daily refers to Israel as "the territories that were occupied in 1948"
Headline: "Beirut: A demonstration of solidarity with the members of our [Palestinian] people in the 1948 [territories]"
"The Tyre branch of the Fatah Movement in southern Lebanon yesterday [Feb. 8, 2017] held a sit-in strike as a sign of solidarity with the members of our [Palestinian] people in the territories that were occupied in 1948 (i.e., Israel) in front of the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross [in Beirut]…
Fatah Revolutionary Council member Rifat Shanaah, the Fatah secretary and leadership in Tyre, and Lebanese parties participated in the sit-in strike…
Shanaah said that American President Donald Trump's threats to transfer the embassy to Jerusalem and to consider it the unified capital of Israel constitutes targeting of the Palestinian rights and a scandalous expression of racism. He also emphasized that the Palestinian people has not submitted and will not submit to the Israeli occupation."
PA daily op-ed: Balfour Declaration was a "historical crime," Israel's founders were foreign "invaders"
Headline: "The Israeli Parliament law – officially joining the global terror front"
"?The Regularization Law' [which was ratified by] the Israeli Parliament while [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu was in London in order to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) (sic., while in London on an official visit, Netanyahu was invited to the celebrations which will take place later this year –Ed.) appears to be something leading to a new crime. [It happened] 100 years after the original crime, when Great Britain gave invaders the land of Palestine, not even a centimeter of which was under its ownership. And now, the descendants of the dynasty of the sin and the historical crime are giving what does not belong to them to the foreign settlers and invaders, and are preventing the original residents of the land – the Palestinian Arabs – from their full right to it, and do not allow the establishment of peace in two states..."
Abbas to French Senate: Britain must apologize for the Balfour Declaration, accepts Israel's right to exist
Official PA TV, excerpt from PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' speech to the French Senate on Feb. 8, 2017
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: "Yesterday [Feb. 7, 2017] the British government announced that it invited Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] to attend the ceremonies to mark the 100th anniversary of the issuing of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) in 1917. This is a matter that surprises us and which we condemn. We demand that the British government apologize to the Palestinian people for the destruction and expulsion that were carried out against our people... The government of Britain did not have a connection to the Middle East and Palestine in 1917. It said 'we will give Palestine to the Jews as a national homeland.' Now it [Britain] comes and holds a ceremony in honor of this. We say that such a decision gives to one who has no right, from one who is not the owner. However, the State of Israel exists. We cannot deny this, it exists! It does! However, the government of Britain, which sinned against our right and wrote in the Balfour Promise [interrupts himself] - it completely denied us in the Balfour Promise and did not mention us at all – it was expected that it would apologize, no less and no more."
Fatah official: Balfour Declaration caused loss of Palestinian self-determination and independence, Britain should not celebrate with Israeli PM
Headline: "Nazzal calls to cancel the European [Union]-Israel Association Council conference"
"[Fatah] Movement Spokesperson in Europe Jamal Nazzal called on the friendly European parties in the government and opposition to act to cancel the European [Union]-Israel Association Council conference, which is expected to be held this month…
Regarding the hosting [on Feb. 6, 2017] of occupation [Israeli] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the government of Britain for [the 100th anniversary] of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) (sic., while in Britain on an official visit, Netanyahu was invited to the celebrations that will take place later this year –Ed.), Fatah expressed its discontent over this step, which it described as a 'saddening provocation.' This is because through the Balfour Promise and its implementation, Britain caused our people to lose its right to self-definition and independence in its homeland. Nazzal said: 'What would be more efficient for making justice and peace in the world as far as Britain is concerned would be for Britain to be a guarantor for stopping the historical injustice that was caused to many peoples who were harmed as a result of the history of Britain in the period of colonialism.'"
PA government condemns UK's invitation to Netanyahu to celebrate 100th anniversary of Balfour Declaration
"The [PA] government condemned Britain's invitation to Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration). It condemned the celebration of this anniversary [that marks an event] that led to the uprooting of the Palestinian people from its homeland…
The government emphasized that instead of celebrating this anniversary, Britain must apologize to the Palestinian people and correct the historic mistake that it made, by recognizing the Palestinian state, supporting its establishment, and compensating the Palestinian people for what happened to it as a result of this human tragedy."
PA Minister of Education calls for prosecution of British government over Balfour Declaration
Source: Facebook page of PA Minister of Education Sabri Saidam, Feb. 7, 2017
Text posted on the Facebook page of PA Minister of Education Sabri Saidam
Posted text: "The government of Britain's insistence on insulting the Palestinian people by welcoming the ruler of Tel Aviv (i.e., Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an official visit on Feb. 6, 2017), and inviting him to a celebration that it intends to hold for the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), constitutes a deepening of its historical injustice towards the Palestinian people and the ongoing Nakbas (i.e., "catastrophes," Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel and what has happened since its establishment) that were caused to it due to [Britain], as well as cooperation with the executioner at the expense of the victim. Therefore, there is no point in demanding that Britain apologize, but rather we must put its government on trial in the world courts."
PA Presidency accuses Britain, it had no right to issue the Balfour Declaration
Headline: "The [PA] presidency condemned and was surprised over the fact that the government of Britain invited Netanyahu to the 100th anniversary celebrations of the Balfour Promise"
"The [PA] presidency expressed its condemnation and surprise over the invitation that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received to the 100th anniversary celebrations of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration).
Official [PA] Presidency Spokesman [and Fatah Central Committee member] Nabil Abu Rudeina said that Britain, which bears responsibility for the disaster that befell the Palestinian people 100 years ago, did not have a right to make this deal. He also said that instead of correcting this historical mistake and recognizing the Palestinian state whose capital is East Jerusalem, it [Britain] is currently making preparations to mark an event considered by the Arab world and the international community as the reason for the tragedy for which the Palestinian people and the Arab region are [still] paying the price.
Abu Rudeina demanded that the government of Britain correct this mistake in order to maintain the security and stability of the region."
Palestinian leaders: "Palestinians of the Interior" are "the legal owners of the land"
Headline: "Our embassy in Madrid marked the annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinians of the Interior"
"The embassy of the State of Palestine in Madrid marked the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinians of the Interior (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel) today [Feb. 7, 2017] in an event in which many members of the Palestinian and Arab community and the Spanish comrades took part.
Head of the [Palestinian] community [in Madrid] Jamil Abu Sa'ada, Professor Sonia Boles , Palestinian journalist Majed Al-Debsi, and [Palestinian] Ambassador [to Spain] Kifah Odeh noted the racist acts that Israel is perpetrating against the Palestinians - the legal owners of the land - in the Interior, in order to expose the lie according to which Israel is the only democratic state in the region…
Ambassador Odeh said that the residents of the Interior – Muslims, Christians, and Druze alike – are an inseparable part of the Palestinian Arab people, condemned the ethnic cleansing policy that Israel is still perpetrating against the Palestinians, [and added] that the Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) has not yet ended."
Official PA daily uses non-recognition terminology: "The '48 areas"
"Political activists and academics emphasized the importance of the fighting role of our people in the '48 areas (i.e., Israel), and said that they are the witnesses to the occupation's crimes of stealing the homeland and the Palestinian land."
PA daily op-ed: "There is and never has been any sort of Temple... in Palestine... [Israelis] have not found a single thing connected to Judaism in all of Palestine, and not just in Jerusalem"
"[UN secretary-general] Antonio Guterres clearly and explicitly sinned against peace and the Palestinian-Israeli political agreement when he claimed yesterday [Jan. 29, 2017] in an interview with the Hebrew-language Voice of Israel [radio] that he 'believes in the connection between Jerusalem and the Jews.' In contradiction to the UNESCO resolutions, history, and facts, the secretary-general claimed that it is as clear as day - in his opinion which is far from the truth and the facts - that 'The Temple in Jerusalem that was destroyed by the Romans was a Jewish Temple'...
Mr. Antonio... [you should know that] Jerusalem and all of Palestine - from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea - are the land of the Palestinian people, and their history is its history... Jerusalem is Palestinian Arab. It belongs only to the followers of Islam and Christianity, and not Judaism, but this does not prevent followers of the Jewish religion from visiting it. What is called the 'Wailing' Wall is nothing but the Al-Buraq Wall (i.e., the Western Wall). There is and never has been any sort of Temple of Prophet Suleiman (i.e., King Solomon) in Palestine. The Israelis have been excavating for nearly 100 years throughout the length and breadth of the land since occupying it in its entirety in June 1967 (sic., 50 years), and they have not found a single thing connected to Judaism (sic., numerous Jewish artifacts have been unearthed -Ed.) in all of Palestine, and not just in Jerusalem..."
PLO official: We will never recognize a Jewish State
Source: Donia Al-Watan (independent Palestinian news agency), Jan. 25, 2017
Headline: "Rafat: We will not agree to any Israeli soldier remaining on our land"
"PLO Executive Committee member Saleh Rafat emphasized that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, the pillars of his government, and all those who stand by its side or support it know well that there will never be a Palestinian that agrees or can agree to renounce even one of the Palestinian rights that have been anchored in the agreements and decisions of international bodies…
He continued: 'Our recognition of Israel as part of the 'Oslo' declaration of principles agreement (i.e., 1993 Oslo Accords) does not mean in any way that we have recognized what is called the "Jewish state," and that recognition will never take place, just as no Palestinian will agree to even one Israeli soldier remaining in the territories of the Palestinian state.'"
Hamas leader responds to accusations of Antisemitism: We're not against Jews, we're against Zionists, "who [are] occupying our lands"
Source: Al-Jazeera, Jan. 25, 2017
Al-Jazeera English program UpFront, interview with senior Hamas leader Osama Hamdan
Reporter Mehdi Hasan: "You and many other Hamas officials often say that you're in conflict with the Israelis, and it's a political conflict, that you're opposed to Zionism, not Judaism. You often say it's not a religious war, you're not Antisemitic, you're not against Jews. And yet the Hamas charter is filled with Antisemitic references to Jews being behind Communism, being behind World War I, World War II. It endorses the famous Antisemitic conspiracy, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a global Jewish conspiracy. Aren't you embarrassed by that kind of language? Why not take it out of the charter, to show good faith, to show that you're not all Antisemitic?"
Senior Hamas Leader Osama Hamdan: "When we talk about the Jews we are not against their religion, we are not against their beliefs, we are not against them as a people who believes. In fact, we believe in Musa (i.e., Moses), we believe that he was a prophet, like Muhammad, and we believe they are the same. So we are against the one who is occupying our lands. We are against the ones who is occupying our cities, villages."
Click "full article" for a longer excerpt from the interview
PLO official Ashrawi: Britain needs to "correct the historical injustice of the Balfour Declaration"
Headline: "Ashrawi met with British Consul General Alastair McPhail"
"PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi met yesterday [Jan. 23, 2017] with British Consul General [to Jerusalem] Alastair McPhail at her office in Ramallah…
In light of the approaching date of the meeting between British Prime Minister Mrs. Theresa May and American President Donald Trump, Ashrawi called on the government of Britain to fill a positive and constructive role in everything connected to ending the Israeli occupation, and to correct the historical injustice caused to the Palestinian people as a result of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration)."
Official threatens PLO will revoke recognition of Israel in response to US embassy move
Source: Ma'an, independent Palestinian news agency, Jan. 18, 2017
Headline: "Khaled: We must remind Trump about international law"
"PLO Executive Committee member Tayseer Khaled warned against the dangers of any uncalculated adventure that American President-elect Donald Trump might set off on at the US Presidential Inauguration Ceremony this Friday [Jan. 20, 2017] or afterwards, through a declaration on the transfer of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem…
Tayseer Khaled again emphasized that we must move from non-credible verbal threats to active steps which have been long awaited, if Donald Trump sets off on an uncalculated adventure like this. This would be by the PLO declaring the end of the transition period, ending the unfair obligations that are imposed on it - including the revocation of the Palestinian recognition of the State of Israel which was given for free, relying on UN General Assembly Resolution 67/19 on recognition of the State of Palestine (i.e., the granting of non-member observer state status to the PA in 2012) and on the recent [UN] Security Council Resolution 2334 last Dec. 24 (sic., Dec. 23, 2016), and calling on the international community to bear its responsibilities and to stop working with Israel as an unusual state that is above the law and has a right to act according to the law of the jungle."
Click "full article" for context on UNSC Resolution 2334.
UN Security Council Resolution 2334 was passed on Dec. 23, 2016, by a vote of 14-0 with one abstention.
The resolution condemned the establishment of Israeli "settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem," saying it "has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-Stat
Through the Balfour Declaration, Britain "laid the foundations for the crime of the century in 1948," i.e. Israel's establishment, and still continues its "colonialist way"
"The conservative British government led by [UK Prime Minister] Theresa [May], in its position contradicting the conclusions of the [2017 Paris] conference, was as if it wanted to say that Britain, the central player in the Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) of the Palestinian Arab people, is continuing the same policy. It has not learned lessons from history, has not retreated from its colonialist way, has not tried to atone for its errors towards the Palestinian people, and is still hostage to the Israeli policies.
Nonetheless, in my opinion the Palestinian leadership will not close the doors on dialogue and contact with the British government, will act to influence its erroneous positions, and will press it to reexamine its policies, as they are quite far from support for the option of peace. This [will be done] by demanding that it atone for its policies that led to the Nakba of the Palestinian people, and particularly the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) and its results that laid the foundations for the crime of the century in 1948."
Non-recognition terminology: PA daily refers to Israel as "1948 territories"
Headline: "Death of a criminal prisoner from Jerusalem in an Israeli rehabilitation center"
"A criminal prisoner from Jerusalem passed away yesterday [Jan. 16, 2017] at a rehabilitative work center in the village of Tamra within the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel).
The prisoner was Mahmoud Nabil Bseileh, 17, from Al-Mawlawiya Street in the Al-Sa'adiya neighborhood of Jerusalem. He passed away early yesterday morning at the rehabilitation center, and had been imprisoned for the past two years on a criminal background."
Fatah condemns Britain at Paris Peace Conference, calls Balfour Declaration a 'crime'
Source: WAFA, official PA news agency, Jan. 16, 2017
Headline: "Fatah condemned the position of Britain and called on it to atone for the crime of 'the Balfour Promise'"
"The Fatah Movement expressed its condemnations of the position of Britain regarding the declaration of the Paris Peace Conference (Britain refused to sign the declaration, see note below –Ed.), and its reservations on the position of the international consensus that calls for the two-state solution on the basis of the June 4, 1967 borders (i.e., the ceasefire line between Israel and the neighboring Arab countries, 1949-1967), opposes all changes that harm this solution, and supports international [UN] Security Council Resolution 2334, which opposes settlement and considers it illegal…
The statement added that what doubles the condemnations of the British position is the fact that Britain alone bears the historical responsibility for the Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) that befell the Palestinian people through the crime of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration). It would have been appropriate for it to immediately recognize the Palestinian state whose capital is East Jerusalem, instead of disagreeing and abstaining from supporting the legal right of the Palestinian people to freedom and independence.
Fatah glorifies intifada and Martyrdom: We will "remain the spearhead in the struggle with the Zionist enemy"
Source: Official Fatah Facebook page, Jan. 16, 2017
"A statement from the Palestinian National Liberation Movement 'Fatah':
O masses of the heroic Palestinian people,
O descendants of the first Martyrs (Shahids) and bearers of the flag of the struggle,
O protectors of Jerusalem and the holy sites, and gatekeepers of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque,
O those who exalted Allah chose to defend the land of the fathers, to protect their national heritage, and to continue the path of the revolution that was started by the first leaders, who protected their achievements with their souls and died while still defending our honor and our national identity...
Your movement [Fatah] – the movement of the Martyrs, wounded, and prisoners, which initiated the first Launch (Intilaqa) and led the outbreak of the first Intifada (i.e., Palestinian wave of violence and terror against Israel, 1987-1993) and the intifadas and uprisings that came after it, is still loyal to the promise of the Martyrs and the sighs of the prisoners and wounded. It will remain the spearhead in the struggle with the Zionist enemy and will continue to raise our issue in the world. We will not raise the white flag, and we will not bow except before Allah... Together until the establishment of the independent Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem, this is a revolution until victory."
The image shows the Fatah logo, which includes a grenade, crossed rifles, and the PA map of "Palestine" that presents all of Israel as "Palestine" together with the PA areas.
PLO official: Britain should oppose Israeli policies, especially because of upcoming anniversary of "the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration)"
Headline: "Erekat condemned the positions of Britain and Australia and called on them to recognize Palestine"
"Today [Jan. 16, 2017] Secretary[-General] of the PLO Executive Committee [and Fatah Central Committee member] Saeb Erekat strongly condemned Britain and Australia's reservations about the concluding statement of the Paris Peace Conference…
Erekat called on Britain and Australia to bear their historical, political, and legal responsibility and to recognize the State of Palestine. He added: 'We expected that Britain in particular would fulfill a balanced and just role and be a central and active part of the international alignment opposing the occupation and settlement… especially since our people, which has been the victim of an unfair historical injustice, stands today at the gates of marking the 100th anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration). Therefore we call on [Britain] to correct this error and to recognize the State of Palestine, as this constitutes one of the conditions for protecting the two-state solution that it calls to implement.'"
Paris Peace Conference - A peace conference was held in Paris on Jan. 15, 2017, attended by representatives from over 70 countries, but with no representatives from Israel or the PA. The conference issued a declaration calling for a negotiated peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians based on the two-state solution and praising UN Security Council Resolution 2334. Britain and Australia refused to sign the declaration, with Britain arguing that the declaration, which was made as part of the French Peace Initiative, might harden the Palestinian negotiating position, particularly given its timing right before the inauguration of US President Donald Trump's administration. The following day Britain blocked the EU Foreign Affairs Council from adopting the declaration.
Abbas threatens to cancel recognition of Israel if US embassy is transferred to Jerusalem
Headline: "The [PA] president [Abbas] calls on participants in the Paris Conference to take tangible steps to implement the international decisions – transferring the American embassy will hinder the peace process, and canceling our recognition of Israel will be one of our options"
"[PA] President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday [Jan. 14, 2017] inaugurated the Palestinian embassy at the Vatican. He met with Pope Francis, and again warned against the plan of US President-elect Donald Trump to transfer the American embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem. During the inauguration of the embassy…
President Abbas emphasized that he 'extends his hand to President-elect Trump for cooperation in order to reach peace on the basis of international law.' He added that 'any attempt to give legal validity to the illegal annexation of Jerusalem by Israel will eliminate the prospects of the political process, dispel the hopes of a solution based on two states, and encourage the extremism in our region and in the world.' … President Abbas said that he wrote to Trump and warned him of the consequences of the transfer of the embassy, and noted that this 'will not only negate any legitimacy of the US to fill a role in settling the conflict, but will also annihilate the two-state solution.'
He added that the Palestinians will discuss several options for a response, after consultations are held with Arab states, and said: 'Cancelling our recognition of Israel will be one of them, but we hope that we will not reach that, and that instead we will be able to work with the next American administration.'"
A similar item appeared on official PA TV News on Jan. 14, 2017.
PLO official supports "Jerusalem Intifada" as response to "attacks on our Islamic and Christian holy sites" and "Judaization" of Jerusalem
Headline: "Marking Palestinian Martyrs' Day in Gaza – Al-Agha: A national strategy is needed…"
"[PLO Executive Committee member Zakariya] Al-Agha said that Martyrs' Day comes at a time when the Jerusalem Intifada (‎‎Palestinian euphemism for several months of Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis 2015 - 2016 -Ed.) still continues, as a result of the continuation of the aggression, occupation, repeated attacks on our Islamic and Christian holy sites, and criminal acts that are taking place in the holy city [of Jerusalem] – the acts of murder, the arrests, and the acts of Judaization – and also as a result of the continuation of the destructive settlement enterprise. [He added that] therefore the struggle of our people continues until realization of the dream of the Palestinian state with full sovereignty, whose capital is Jerusalem…
[PA] Minister of Labor Ma'moun Abu Shahla gave a speech on behalf of [PA] Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, in which he conveyed the blessings of the government to the families of the Martyrs…He mentioned the last will of the three Martyrs Fuad Hijazi, Muhammad Jamjoum, and Ataa Al-Zir (i.e., terrorists who murdered Jews in the 1929 Hebron Massacre), [which they conveyed] the day before June 17, 1960 (sic., 1930), the day of their execution. In it they said that they gave their souls and their skulls in order to get rid of the occupation (sic., Israel did not declare its independence until 1948), and demanded that everyone adhere to unity and Jihad in order to fight the enemies who stole the land and destroyed the [Palestinian] existence."
Official PA daily uses non-recognition terminology: "'48 territories"
Headline: "The occupation arrested 34 civilians, among them three women and a child"
"The occupation police yesterday [Jan. 4, 2017] arrested young Nael Kmeil and Zakariya Zakarneh from the village of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, at their workplace within the '48 territories (i.e., Israel)."
PLO official: If US embassy is moved to Jerusalem, PLO will "cancel its recognition of Israel and the agreements that were signed"
Headline: "Erekat: We will respond to the transfer of the American embassy to Jerusalem with fateful decisions"
"Secretary[-General] of the PLO Executive Committee Saeb Erekat said that the Palestinian National Council (i.e., the legislative body of the PLO) will make very fateful decisions, if the administration of new American President Donald Trump transfers the American embassy to Jerusalem.
Erekat added in a radio interview yesterday [Jan. 4, 2017] that transferring the embassy to Jerusalem means the destruction of the peace process, and that in doing so the US will turn into part of the problem and will no longer be able to be a mediator in the peace process, which will obligate the [Palestinian] National Council to cancel its recognition of Israel and the agreements that were signed with it."
PLO official complains to British MPs that Israel commits "summary executions of Palestinians"; calls concept of Jewish state "racist"
Headline: "Ashrawi demanded that Britain bear its historical responsibility"
"PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi… met yesterday [Jan. 4, 2017] with a high-ranking British parliamentary delegation that included MPs from the British Conservative Party and Labor Party who are visiting the Palestinian land in order to be updated from up close on the real situation on the ground…
Ashrawi referred to the actions of the Israeli occupation state on the ground and the fact that it continues to perpetuate its racist way with its insistence that the Palestinians recognize the Jewishness of the state, and also continues to build settlements and to expand those that exist in the Palestinian territories, and particularly in East Jerusalem. This is in addition to the acts of killing and summary executions of Palestinians that are carried out against children and women under the pretext of terror."
Throughout the terror attacks from Oct. 2015 to the present, the PA has maintained that Israel commits "summary executions" of Palestinians on the pretext that Palestinians were committing attacks. Even in cases when video footage proved that Palestinian terrorists tried to stab Israelis, the PA accused the Israeli army of killing unarmed youth. Click to view a bulletin with more information regarding this libel.
Click to view a recent bulletin documenting that Hanan Ashrawi rejects Israel as a Jewish state.
PLO's Hanan Ashrawi reacts to Kerry's speech, rejects Israel as a Jewish state, rejects Jerusalem as Israel's capital
Official PA TV program State of Politics, hosting PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi
PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi: "The six principles that [US Secretary of State John] Kerry presented are undeniable Zionist principles that serve Israeli interests. For example, he spoke about Jerusalem - a capital of two states. He didn't say that East Jerusalem is occupied, but rather that Jerusalem is a capital of two states... Secondly, he said "a Jewish state," giving them [Israel] a great prize. We have refused and still refuse to say that Israel is a Jewish state... Even on the issue of the refugees, he [Kerry] automatically denied them the right of return, and said that it is necessary to reach a just solution of compensation and resettling and the like. In other words, there is no right of return."
Click "full article" for an excplanation about Kerry's "six principles"
PA daily op-ed: Western countries had "colonialist malicious intent to carry out the crime of the modern era," i.e. Israel's establishment, "by giving a state to one who is not entitled [to it]"
Headline: "Happy new year to Fatah and the revolution"
Excerpt of an op-ed by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, regular columnist of the official PA daily
"The [Palestinian] leadership has adopted several political directions, [including] suing the British Mandate state for issuing the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) even before stepping foot in Palestine, and before the League of Nations gave it the mandate to it (i.e., Palestine) in 1922. This proves that the colonialist countries of the West in general, and Britain in particular, had colonialist malicious intent to carry out the crime of the modern era, by giving a state to one who is not entitled [to it] on the lands of the original residents of the land, members of the Palestinian Arab people."
PA daily uses non-recognition terminology: "1948 territories"
Headline: "The international Palestine Marathon is a quality sporting demonstration with which the streets of Bethlehem are adorning themselves"
"Approximately three months separate us from the start of the international Palestine Marathon…
As part of the start of preparations for the marathon, centers for selling participation tickets were designated in the various cities of the West Bank, including Jerusalem, in the Gaza Strip, and soon in the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel) too."
Senior PLO official: If US embassy is moved to Jerusalem, the "PLO needs to retract the recognition of Israel"
Official PA TV program State of Politics, hosting Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee Saeb Erekat
Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee Saeb Erekat: "I tell you frankly – this is my personal opinion – in the next meeting of the Palestinian National Council (i.e., the legislative body of the PLO), if the administration of [US] President-elect [Donald] Trump moves the embassy to Jerusalem, or the ambassador who was appointed works in Jerusalem, the PLO needs to retract the recognition of Israel. Our recognition was not given for free, as [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas] said in his speech before the Seventh [Fatah] Committee…
I think that the Arab peoples also will not agree to having American embassies in any of the capitals [of the Arab states] if they [the Americans] carry out this step."
Official PA host: "You are talking about the Arab peoples, and not the Arab governments?"
Saeb Erekat: "I am also talking about the governments."
Official PA daily refers to Israel as "occupied Interior"
"Nineteen-year-old Ma'amoun Qashua… played in the past at the Hapoel Petah Tikva club in the occupied Interior (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel)."
PA daily uses non-recognition terminology: "Occupied Interior"
Headline: "One civilian was killed and eight were wounded in an awful traffic accident in the occupied Interior"
"A 30-year-old Palestinian woman from the city of Umm Al-Fahm (i.e., an Israeli Arab city) was killed in an awful traffic accident on Highway 6 in the occupied Interior (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel)."
PA daily op-ed: Israel "was established on a colonialist foundation and a fake mythical narrative… even before its establishment by the criminal Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration)"
Op-ed by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, regular columnist for the official PA daily
"The Israeli state - and I am not talking only about the existing political system - is a state that was established on a colonialist foundation and a fake mythical narrative, was aided by the Jewish immigration from a variety of nations, and was faked even before its establishment by the criminal Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) and incomparable capitalist Western support that continues to this day. If not for this, and if not for the political, diplomatic, military, financial/economic, and cultural aid, and the ongoing immigration, it would not have been established and would not continue to exist until now. This prelude is known to all members of the Palestinian people and to a large part of the Arab peoples and even the peoples of the world. Therefore, it does not constitute a new addition to the reader, but this creation and its racist elements can only lead to colonialist racist consequences, no matter how much the West will try to educate or to embellish the image of the distorted state. This is because the distorted birth of a strange creature will in the end lead to distorted data, whatever the clothing or cosmetics that a person, institution, state, or any other body may place on the face of this creature."
Fatah posts text written by planner of Munich massacre calling not to recognize Israel
Source: Official Fatah Facebook page, Dec. 10, 2016
Text and photo posted on the official Fatah Facebook page
Posted text: "A generation will come that will tear up the signed document and say that the recognition of Israel and the reconciliation with it are a sin that the Arab nation cannot accept
There are international balances of power that may impose a certain thing, and we understand this well. However, there is a famous saying that I always repeat, according to which even if the balances of power will come and force the entire Arab nation to sign a document of recognition of Israel and reconciliation with it, and will even force the small children, the young men, and the young women to sign it, a generation will come that will tear up the document and say that the recognition of Israel and the reconciliation with it are a sin that the Arab nation cannot accept. I am sure of this, as our generation was not educated to accept Israel.
And this is despite there being facts and balances of power in the world that we must take into account.
Signed: Martyr (Shahid) Salah Khalaf 'Abu Iyad'
Beirut, March 24, 1974"
Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad) - One of the founders of Fatah and head of the terror organization Black September. Attacks he planned include the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics (Sept. 5, 1972) and the murder of two American diplomats in Sudan (March 1, 1973). It is commonly assumed that his assassin, a former Fatah bodyguard, was sent by the Abu Nidal Organization, a rival Palestinian faction.
Official PA daily uses non-recognition terminology: "48 territories"
Headline: "A worker from Yatta was critically injured within the 1948 territories"
"A worker from the village of Yatta, south of Hebron, was critically injured yesterday [Dec. 1, 2016] after he fell from a [great] height during his work in the city of Holon within the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel)."
PA National Minister of Finance: Palestinian people have been suffering from "the Israeli occupation of our land since 1948"
Headline: "Odeh took part in marking the International Day of Solidarity with our people in Beirut"
"[PA] National Minister of Finance Abir Odeh emphasized that the fact that the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia marks the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People every year constitutes a confirmation by the international community of the continuation of the suffering and oppression that our Palestinian people are suffering from due to the Israeli occupation of our land since 1948."
Official PA daily op-ed: UN partition plan created Israeli uprooting colonialist state, Britain should be prosecuted over Balfour Declaration
Headline: "The 29th of November"
"The 29th of November has a special significance in the life of the Palestinian people as it brought us bitterness, pain, and tragedy in 1947, when the UN adopted international Resolution 181 (i.e., the UN partition plan) which allowed the establishment of the Israeli uprooting colonialist state, which uproots, expels, and displaces, on 56.74% of the territories of historical Palestine… thus it brought it after 30 years, also a sort of apology to the Palestinian people, when the [UN] General Assembly voted in 1977 on international Resolution 32/40 B, which determines that Nov. 29 every year is the international day of solidarity with [the Palestinian people]…
Op-ed in PA daily: Israel's founding was a "conspiracy" based on a "completely unfounded myth"
Excerpt of an op-ed by Issa Abd Al-Hafiz
"We have a sacred cause… we were subjected to an international conspiracy, which was greater than us and our capabilities, and even greater than the capabilities of all of the Arab countries together. A conspiracy unprecedented in history, in which an entire people was uprooted from its land and another people was planted [in its place] on the basis of a completely unfounded myth."
PA and Fatah: UN Partition plan was a "historical injustice caused to the Palestinian people and the land of Palestine by the forces of colonialism"
Headline: "On the International Day of Solidarity: The international community must fulfill its role in order to do justice with our people"
"Today (Tuesday) [Nov. 29, 2016] is the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which was set to Nov. 29 every year by the UN…
The [PA] Ministry of Information said that [UN] resolution 181 on the partition of Palestine (i.e., the UN partition plan) is a dark chapter in the history of the Palestinian cause…
The Palestinian National Liberation Movement Fatah emphasized that it honors and appreciates all of the peoples and countries that determined that every year on Nov. 29 would be the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. It said that this day is a type of reminder to the nations, peoples, countries, and governments that the Palestinian people has a historical and natural right in its homeland, Palestine.
A statement from the [Fatah] Information and Culture Commission said: 'Setting the International Day [of Solidarity with the Palestinian People] on the same date as when the resolution on the partition of Palestine was made proves to all those who seek the truth in the conflict with the Israeli occupation and settlement project on our land that the free peoples of the world and the countries of the world that care about human rights for all cannot ignore the historical injustice caused to the Palestinian people and the land of Palestine by the forces of colonialism."
For more, click "full article."
PA Minister of Foreign Affairs to youth: The Balfour Declaration "stole and plundered our land 100 years ago"
Source: Facebook page of the PLO Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs, Nov. 29, 2016
Images and text posted on the Facebook page of the PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports
Posted text: "The [PA] Minister of Foreign Affairs [Riyad Al-Malki] welcomed the delegations participating in the First International Palestinian Youth Camp
Ramallah – Publicity [Department] of the [PLO] Supreme Council for Youth and Sports
Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Riyad Al-Malki welcomed the delegations participating in the First International Palestinian Youth Camp today [Nov. 29, 2016] at his office in Ramallah…
Al-Malki said: 'We still insist on ending the occupation, because that is our obligation and because the problem began with the existence of the occupation and the issuing of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), which stole and plundered our land 100 years ago.'"
PFLP member: PLO plan for Palestinian state within the '67 borders is a "temporary goal and does not mean that Palestine belongs to the Jews"
Headline: "If we had accepted the partition agreement 69 years ago, would our situation have been better? Wattan asks the opinions of analysts and the factions"
"Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) political bureau member Khalida Jarrar, in her interview with the [independent Palestinian news] agency Wattan, referred to [UN] partition Resolution 181 and asked how the Palestinians could have accepted the partition resolution at a time when Balfour had given a promise (i.e., the Balfour Declaration) that Palestine is the national homeland of the Jews! From this starting point, the refusal was a matter of principle as Palestine belongs to the Palestinians.
Jarrar denied the possibility of the implementation of the resolution at the time if the Palestinians had agreed to it, as the Zionist project is based on them settling in all of Palestine, and not in part of it.
Regarding the PLO, she said: 'The national consensus plan of the PLO talked about a fully sovereign Palestinian state within the '67 borders as a temporary goal and does not mean that Palestine belongs to the Jews. It means that the matter depends on the right of return, in other words, a fully sovereign independent Palestinian state together with the right of all of the refugees to return to the homes from which they were expelled.'"
For more information about Khalida Jarrar and a description of the Balfour declaration, click "full article."
PLO member group: 1947 UN partition plan "granted false legitimacy to a plundering entity [i.e., Israel] on the land of Palestine at the expense of its [Palestine's] people"
Source: WAFA, official PA news agency, Nov. 29, 2016
Headline: "The Palestinian Arab Front: The international community must end the occupation, just as it laid its foundations in the partition resolution"
"The Palestinian Arab Front (PAF) (i.e., a member of the PLO) said that our Palestinian people has experienced and continues to experience a historical injustice, which obligates the international community to pass a clear resolution on the end of the occupation, just as it laid its foundations in the partition resolution (i.e., the UN partition plan)…
The front added in a press release on the anniversary of the Palestine partition resolution and the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People: 'Sixty-nine years ago the UN General Assembly passed resolution 181 which ordered the partition of Palestine and granted false legitimacy to a plundering entity on the land of Palestine at the expense of its [Palestine's] people.'"
Palestinians burn Israeli flag, celebrate fires raging in "the Palestinian territories that were occupied in '48"
Source: Donia Al-Watan (independent Palestinian news agency), Nov. 25, 2016
Headline: "In pictures: The fires in the occupied territories are spreading to the bleachers in Gaza"
"The Palestinian public responded to the fires raging (i.e., a wave of Palestinian arson attacks in November 2016) in the Palestinian territories that were occupied in '48 (i.e., Israel), which have become the topic of the day in the international, Arab, and local media outlets, with the burning of the flag of the [Israeli] entity state during games of the League in the Gaza Strip.
During the meet of Khidmat Rafah with its counterpart Khidmat Khan Younis that was held today, Friday afternoon [Nov. 25, 2016], at the municipal grass field of Rafah in the center of the Rafah district in the Gaza Strip, [the spectators] burned the flag of the Israeli entity and chanted calls against the occupation state, in addition to sounding calls to prayer on the field before the beginning of the game in response to the occupation's decision to ban [the sounding of] the prayer calls (the "Muezzin Law," see note below –Ed.) in Jerusalem."
The picture shows a Palestinian spectator burning an Israeli flag in the bleachers at a game in Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
On Nov. 13, 2016, a bill to ban religious institutions from broadcasting over loudspeakers was approved for a preliminary reading in the Israeli Parliament. The bill is intended to prevent noise pollution. This bill is referred to by many as the "Muezzin Law," although it does not refer to any specific religion.
For a list of other countries that have already approved or attempted legislation for regulating the use of loudspeakers in mosques in order to limit noise pollution, click "full article."
PA daily: Balfour, like Hitler, wanted to get rid of the Jews, so he sent them to Palestine instead of killing them
Source: Falestinona, website of Fatah's Information and Culture Commission in Lebanon, Nov. 23, 2016
Headline: "Reconsidering the Balfour Declaration"
"[Former British Foreign Secretary Arthur] Balfour was himself an Antisemite, and he often attacked the Jews who immigrated to Britain during his term as prime minister from 1903-1905 (sic., 1902- 1905), and he said that they are not assimilating among the residents, and issued laws that limited the Jewish immigration (Aliens Act) [parentheses in source]. He reasoned that the Jews, as an organic group, could not solve their problem within the European cultural structure, in other words, through assimilation in the [European] societies (sic ., Balfour was quoted as saying Jews could either assimilate in Europe or establish a state in Palestine; see note below). The solution would only be possible outside of the cultural structure, in other words, through colonialism…
The difference between [Adolf] Hitler and Balfour in this field was that Balfour had colonies, among them Palestine, and he sent the Jews there in order to get rid of them. Hitler did not have colonies, and therefore he got rid of them through extermination. However, the true victims of both Balfour and Hitler were the Palestinians and the Arabs, and we are still paying the price after 100 years."
PA National Security Forces presents map of Palestine replacing Israel: "It was never your homeland"
Source: Facebook page of the PA National Security Forces, Nov. 21, 2016
Image and text posted on the Facebook page of the PA National Security Forces
The image shows a Palestinian woman standing next to the PA map of "Palestine" that presents all of Israel as "Palestine" together with the PA areas. On the map are written the names of cities in the PA areas as well as in Israel.
Names of Israeli locations listed on the map:
"Safed," "Tiberias," "Acre," "Nazareth," "Haifa," "Beit Shean," "Ramle," "Be'er Sheva," "the Negev"
Names of PA locations listed on the map:
"Jenin," "Tulkarem," "Nablus," "Jericho," "Ramallah," Gaza," "Bethlehem," "Hebron"
Names of locations located partly in Israel and partly in PA areas:
"Jerusalem," "the Dead Sea"
Posted text: "#The_[PA_]Palestinian_National_Security_Forces"
"It (i.e., Palestine) belonged to our forefathers before us
And will remain for our descendants after us
You have others aside from it
And we have no other aside from it
So do not consider it [your] homeland
As it was never your homeland."
Poem in official PA daily: Chase Jews out of Palestine with Islamic call to prayer
Headline: "Rise and call to prayer"
Excerpt of a poem by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, regular columnist for the official PA daily, referring to the "Muezzin Law" to limit the decibel level of loudspeakers at religious sites
"O, our sheikh, call 'Allahu Akbar' as much as your soul desires
Without requesting permission
And our [Christian] father,
ring the church bells
At any time
Cause them to tremble [in fear]
From the reciting [of the Quran]
And the call to prayer
Chase them everywhere
On the generous land of the homeland
Until they leave our skies and lands
And Palestine again becomes
As it once was
And will wear a mantle of glory and Arabness
Without colonialism
And will sing in the name of return,
freedom, and independence"
Other countries have already approved or attempted legislation for regulating the use of loudspeakers in mosques in order to limit noise pollution. These include India, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Bahrain, the United Emirates, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France, the UK, Austria, Norway, and Belgium, and the US. The PA has also passed legislation regarding the use of loudspeakers in mosques in order to reduce noise pollution.
PA non-recognition terminology: "The 1948 territories"
Headline: "A worker from Ramallah was injured with burns within the 1948 territories"
"A worker from the Ramallah district was injured with burns over his entire body two nights ago [Nov. 15, 2016] within the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel), and was transferred to the Khalil Suleiman Government Hospital in Jenin."
PA Parliament: Britain "established the occupation and settlement in Palestine," must recognize its "serious mistakes" against the Palestinians (i.e., the Balfour Declaration)
Headline: "PA Parliament: It is not possible to continue to recognize Israel without an end of the occupation"
"For the 28th anniversary of the [Palestinian] declaration of independence (see note below –Ed.), the PA Parliament (Legislative Council) emphasized that the struggle of our people continues, and it is undeterred by the violence and terror of the occupation…
The PA Parliament demanded that the UN act to implement its resolutions on Palestine, and called on the state that established the occupation and the settlement in Palestine approximately 100 years ago (refers to Britain and the Balfour Declaration –Ed.) – and that which still grants its patronage to the last occupation in the world – to stop supporting and defending [the occupation], to recognize its (i.e., Britain's) serious mistakes against our people, and to rescue [our people] from the Israeli occupation that denies all of the agreements that were signed with it. This is because it is not possible to continue to recognize Israel for free without it ending the occupation and recognizing the State of Palestine, and the peoples are always ready to sacrifice in order to restore their legal rights and to live in dignity."
Palestinian declaration of independence - On Nov. 15, 1988, before the Palestine National Council (PNC), the Palestinian parliament in exile in Algeria, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Yasser Arafat declared the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. Although the borders were not specified in the declaration, it recognized the UN partition plan of 1947, which called for the creation of a Jewish state and an Arab state in the former British Mandate for Palestine.
The Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917 was a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Baron Rothschild stating that "His Maj
Abbas advisor:"Israel is disturbed by the call to prayer because it reminds [Israel] five times a day that this land is Palestinian and a waqf that belongs only to the Muslims"
Headline: "Al-Habbash: The call to prayer will be sounded and our mosques are full of believers, despite the occupation's opposition"
"Supreme Shari'ah Judge and [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas'] advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash condemned the steps of the occupation with all its institutions... especially in everything regarding the decision of the committee of Israeli government ministers to bring the bill banning the sounding of the call to prayer in the mosques to what is called the 'Israeli Parliament' for ratification.
In a press statement this evening (Monday) [Nov. 14, 2016], Al-Habbash described these steps as steps of oppression and a harsh blow to the freedom of worship… He clarified that these steps will lead the occupation and its leaders to the International Criminal Court as war criminals, especially after the latest resolutions of UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), according to which the Jerusalem Noble Sanctuary (i.e., the Temple Mount) is Islamic and the Old City of Jerusalem is an exclusively Islamic heritage [site]. He added that Israel has gone crazy in the wake of UNESCO's latest resolutions…
The supreme shari'ah judge emphasized: 'Our mosques will remain full of believers, and no one in this world will be able to silence the call to prayer as long as there is one Palestinian on this land.' He noted: 'Our mosques precede the occupation state; it has never happened and will never happen that they will not sound the call to prayer.' Likewise, he clarified: 'Israel is disturbed by the call to prayer because it reminds [Israel] five times a day that this land is Palestinian and a waqf (i.e., an inalienable religious endowment in Islamic law) that belongs only to the Muslims."
PLO official: PA demands Britain apologize for "ominous" Balfour promise which was "historical mistake"
Headline: "Demands for an apology from Britain for the Balfour Promise, and calls on the world to save Palestine from this historical mistake"
"PLO Executive Committee member Hanna Amira said that through the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), Britain gave something it had no ownership over to one who has no right to it, which matches what successive occupation governments are carrying out when they give the Palestinian land to settlers.
Amira said in an interview with [the official PA radio station] The Voice of Palestine that the Palestinian [PA] Ministry of Foreign Affairs is holding talks with the British government regarding the entire ominous promise so as to inform them about the petition to the [UN ] International Court of Justice on this issue."
Abbas' spokesman: Balfour Declaration" was "crime of the century," a "historic mistake" that should be reevaluated and corrected
Headline: "Abu Rudeina: The Balfour Promise is the crime of the century"
"Official [PA] Presidential Spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina described the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) as the crime of the century, and emphasized that it will not pass in silence.
Abu Rudeina added in a press release on the [99th] anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise [Nov. 2, 2016] that this crime led to tragedies, uprooting, and refugees , whose price has been paid by the Palestinian people and the Arab nation, and [led] to consequences that still have an effect on everyone. Abu Rudeina called on those who issued this ominous promise to reevaluate it and correct the historic mistake, which will remain a mark of shame on the forehead of humanity."
Fatah official: Balfour Declaration was "a project initiated by one who has no ownership for one who has no right"
Text and image posted on the Facebook page of Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi. The image shows former British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour and a copy of his letter to Baron Rothschild.
Posted text: "The Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) was not a promise and word of honor, but rather a project initiated by one who has no ownership for one who has no right. And to those who do have the right to freedom and dignity, we promised to remain loyal to the path until [the achievement of] freedom."
PA Foreign Minister on Palestinian radio: Britain must "issue a new promise that will end the promise from 99 years ago [i.e. the Balfour Declaration, considered basis for Israel's establishment]"
Source: The Voice of Palestine, official PA radio station, Nov. 2, 2016
Official PA radio station The Voice of Palestine program A New Day, interview with PA Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad Al-Malki on his meeting with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson
PA Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad Al-Malki: "We spoke not only about the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) but also about several additional topics that we think are of great significance and which should be monitored together with the British officials. Regarding the Balfour Promise we pointed out that it is most important that Britain issue a new promise that will end the promise from 99 years ago. A new promise that will speak about Britain's commitment to the Palestinian people's right of self-determination, and Britain's support for the establishment of a Palestinian state and the recognition of the State of Palestine, that is the minimum. Likewise we spoke about the historical responsibility of Britain in light of what happened as a result of the Balfour Promise and the apology required from Britain if it has the daring and the courage to bear responsibility in light of what happened to the Palestinian people as a result of the Balfour Promise..."
Note: Al-Malki stated that in his meeting with Johnson it was agreed that the British government would give a response in the coming days.
PA National Security Forces Facebook: Balfour Declaration was "promise by one who has no ownership to one who has no right"
Source: Facebook page of the PA National Security Forces, Nov. 2, 2016
mages posted on the Facebook page of the PA National Security Forces
Text on top right picture: "A promise by one who has no ownership to one who has no right"
Text on bottom left image:
"The 99th anniversary of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration)
The tragedy began here"
The images show various pictures of Palestinian refugees, and at the bottom left a logo is seen bearing a "99" with "1917-2016" under it, referring to the 99th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, which was issued in 1917.
PLO official: Balfour Declaration was "colonialist agreement" and a "sin"
Headline: "How can Britain atone for the Balfour Promise?"
By Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee and Fatah Central Committee member Saeb Erekat
"The Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) was never a report on paper or a promise given by one of the British statesmen, but rather an occupation colonialist agreement that aided and set the basis for committing one of the tragedies of the century, the tragedy of a people that is still paying the price of the conspiracy against it by some of the colonialist states…
Israel alone could not have taken over the land of Palestine and planted itself there without Britain and the international community supporting the occupation project and giving it immunity from accountability. Britain gave Palestine to the Jews for free, and its support of the Balfour Promise was the first declared link in the realization and establishment of the occupation of Palestine… In order to atone for the sin of the Balfour Promise, Britain must recognize the State of Palestine in the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital, as one of the conditions for protecting the two-state solution it calls to implement..."
Fatah in Lebanon: The Balfour Declaration, promising a Jewish national home, was a "crime"
Headline: "Fatah in Lebanon: Britain must bear its responsibility and recognize the crime of the Balfour Promise"
"The Lebanon branch of the Fatah Movement said on the anniversary of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) that Britain - which was the direct cause of our tragedy, the loss of our land, and the harassment of its people and its expulsion – must bear its full responsibility and fully recognize the crime that it committed through Balfour's promise to the Jews to establish a national homeland for them on the land of Palestine. The movement demanded in its statement that was published today, Wednesday [Nov. 2, 2016], that the United Kingdom fully recognize the need to establish an independent Palestinian state whose capital is East Jerusalem, to implement the right of return of the Palestinian refugees to the lands that they were expelled from based on UN Resolution 194, to support the resolutions of the international bodies regarding the fate of our people, and to do justice with it by supporting its legal rights, and particularly its right to international protection."
Click "full article" for background information
Fatah Facebook post condemns "ominous" Balfour declaration, "that was given by one who has no ownership to one who has no right"
Posted text: "A homeland that refuses to be forgotten"
"We will not forget the ominous promise
The Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration)
That was given by one who has no ownership to one who has no right
Nov. 2, 1917"
The image shows Palestinian refugees, and on the right former British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, with flames superimposed over his picture.
Fatah Facebook: "Ominous Balfour Promise… will remain a curse upon the colonialist"
Posted text: "It will remain a curse upon the occupier"
Text on image: "Nov. 2, 1917
The ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration)
The Balfour Promise
will remain a curse upon the colonialist"
Fatah Facebook condemns Balfour Declaration that promised establishment of Jewish national home
Posted text: "The Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration): A promise of one who has no ownership to one who has no right (the text of the Balfour Declaration follows –Ed.)"
The image shows former British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour with Arab refugees seen in the background.
Text on image: "The Balfour Promise
A promise of one who has no ownership to one who has no right"
Fatah cartoon depicts Balfour Declaration, given by Britain, "one who has no ownership," to Jew, "who has no right"
Headline: "The Balfour Promise"
The cartoon shows two men standing under a light fixture labelled "The Balfour Promise." The man on the right represents Britain and is passing a rolled piece of paper symbolizing the Balfour Declaration to the other. On his sleeve is written: "One who has no ownership." The man on the left represents the Jews. He is dressed as an ultra-orthodox Jew and on his sleeve is written: "One who has no right."
PA and Fatah: Britain should apologize and compensate the Palestinians for the Balfour Declaration
Headline: "Ninety-nine years to the Balfour Promise: Britain is morally, legally, and politically responsible for the suffering of our people"
"[For] 99 years since the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), in which 'One without ownership gave [Palestine] to one without a right [to it],' Palestine has been a hostage of this promise – in the hope that 2017 will be the year of the end of the occupation. Advisor to [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas] on Diplomatic Affairs Majdi Al-Khaldi said that… the Palestinian diplomatic [service] is trying to make the government of Britain recognize the State of Palestine as compensation for the mistake that it made then, especially considering the fact that it had no authority over Palestine, and its behavior stemmed from it being a colonialist state that gave itself permission to issue a promise like this…"
Balfour Declaration led to "establishment of a homeland for the Zionist movement in return for.. a tool for carrying out the ambitions of the capitalist West in Palestine… and also in order to resolve the Jewish issue in Europe"
Headline: "Putting Britain - giver of the [Balfour] Promise - on trial"
"Tomorrow, Wednesday [Nov. 2, 2016], will be the 99th anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), the promise of the Foreign Secretary of Not-Great Britain [Arthur Balfour] to the members of the Jewish religion to establish 'a national homeland' for them in Arab Palestine, the historical homeland of the Palestinian Arab people since the creation of mankind on earth. The barbarity of this offensive promise made by the government of the state of the British Mandate in Palestine is not expressed solely by its being issued, but also by the activity to implement it in the field, as the Supreme British Commissioner in Palestine, the Jew Herbert Samuels, legislated laws and regulations that assisted in the implementation of the ominous promise on the Palestinian land. Likewise, it created all of the social, political, economic, and legal conditions for the establishment of a homeland for the Zionist movement in return for it [the Zionist movement] constituting a tool for carrying out the ambitions of the capitalist West in Palestine and in the Arab homeland, and also in order to resolve the Jewish issue in Europe, at the expense of the Palestinian people..."
Abbas' advisor: PA will ask Britain to apologize for Balfour Declaration
Headline: "Advisor Zumlut: We are continuing our legal battle against the occupation"
"Advisor to [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas] for Strategic Affairs Husam Zumlut emphasized that the [PA] leadership is continuing its legal battle against the occupation and the Israeli extremism and settlement government in order to hold the world legally, ethically, and politically responsible for finding a fair solution to the Palestinian cause similarly to many of the international disputes…
He added that the leadership is serious about opening the topic of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), and about holding Britain legally, ethically, and politically responsible for what happened to the Palestinian people for an entire century, following the decision to give what was not in its ownership to one who had no right to it. He noted that Britain has taken the Palestinian position very seriously, and that a meeting will be held on the subject in the coming days between Palestinian and British top officials in order to discuss the Palestinian position that demands that the British government apologize to the Palestinian people for what has happened to it, recognize its political rights and the State of Palestine, and help end the occupation..."
Palestinian National Council: Britain must "atone for its crime and historical sin against our land and against our people" (i.e. the Balfour Declaration)
Source: Ma'an, independent Palestinian news agency, Nov. 1, 2016
Headline: "The National Council demands that Britain atone for the sin of the Balfour Promise"
"The Palestinian National Council (i.e., the legislative body of the PLO) demanded that Britain, which gave the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e, Declaration), bear the legal and moral responsibility for all the tragedies that have befallen the Palestinian people… In an announcement that it published today (Tuesday) [Nov. 1, 2016], the Palestinian National Council emphasized that it is important to unify the efforts of the Palestinians, the Arabs, and people of conscience living in the world. This is in order to pressure the government of Britain and to force it to do justice to the Palestinian people and atone for its crime and historical sin against our land and against our people, who have lived in Palestine, they and their forefathers, for thousands of years. The National Council demanded that the British House of Commons in particular reopen the Balfour Promise file, discuss it, pressure the government of Britain to immediately recognize the State of Palestine, and force it to help the Palestinian people receive all of its rights… Likewise the council demanded that the Palestinian and Arab institutions, the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Non-Aligned Movement, and everyone who identifies with us support the call of [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas to submit a lawsuit against the government of Britain for issuing the Balfour Promise…"
PA Minister of Foreign Affairs demands Britain take responsibility for the Balfour Declaration, which "was the main reason for the official establishment of the State of Israel in 1948"
Headline: "Al-Malki demands of Britain that it not participate in [the celebrations of the] 100th [anniversary] of the Balfour [Promise]"
"[PA] Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad Al-Malki demanded that Britain recognize the State of Palestine, support giving full membership to Palestine in the UN, and not participate in the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration). This was during an official visit in London, the capital of Britain, which will last two days and which Al-Malki began with a meeting with his counterpart, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson…
At the end of the meeting, Al-Malki spoke about the position of the PA regarding the participation of Britain in marking [the anniversary] of the Balfour Promise. He demanded of his British counterpart that Britain not participate in the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of this ominous promise. Likewise, he demanded of him that an official British position be taken and that the government of Britain bear the moral and historical responsibility for this promise, which was the main reason for the official establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and its consequences: the uprooting of the Palestinian people from its land, and its expulsion to all parts of the world."
PLO official: Balfour Declaration "constituted the basis for all of the injustices... committed against the Palestinian people, as well as the Palestinian holocaust that has been continuing for the past 100 years"
Headline: "National condemnation of the Balfour Promise, and the [PLO] Department for Refugee Affairs prepares to launch a campaign against the ominous promise"
"PLO Executive Committee member and Director of the [PLO] Department for Refugee Affairs Tayseer Khaled called on all Palestinians of all political and ideological affiliations in the Palestinian Interior (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel), the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the refugee camps, and the countries of the exile and the diaspora to unite around the national campaign denouncing the colonialist Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration).
This is for the approaching 100th anniversary of this promise, which constituted the basis for all of the injustices that the Zionist movement and the State of Israel committed against the Palestinian people, as well as the Palestinian holocaust that has been continuing for the past 100 years before the eyes and ears of the international community."
Op-ed in PA daily claims Israeli government forges archaeological findings to invent a Jewish connection to "historical Palestine," including forging the bible
"[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and his extremist government are in a race against time to prove any connection of the Jews to historical Palestine, whether by forgery, fraud, or bullying. Their situation has become more grave and miserable after UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) passed two important resolutions in the last two weeks, in which it denied any connection between Judaism and the Islamic sites in the capital, East Jerusalem, and especially to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Al-Buraq Wall (i.e., the Western Wall). This caused the ones who forged the bible (the Old Testament) [parentheses in source] themselves [and violated] obligations, to turn to an act of forgery that is clear to all, to which Jewish professors responded even before the Palestinians and Arabs.
Last Wednesday [Oct. 26, 2016] Israeli archaeologists - who have no connection to archaeology - claimed that they discovered a papyrus parchment on which there was Hebrew script from the 7th century BCE..."
PLO demands Britain apologize for the Balfour Declaration in year-long campaign
Source: Al-Ayyam, Oct. 31, 2016
Headline: "The [PLO] Department for Expatriates calls to the [Palestinian] communities to unite their efforts in a campaign to mark 100 years of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration)"
"The PLO Department for Expatriates emphasized… in a letter that it sent to the Palestinian communities in foreign countries… that one of the conditions for the success of the campaign, which is expected to last from Nov. 2, 2016 to Nov. 2, 2017, is its reliance on the national consensus plan led by the PLO. It noted that they must not be satisfied with publication of notices of condemnation, but rather must act to take advantage of the international momentum that supports the Palestinian people in order to accumulate achievements for the right of the Palestinian people and for the right of its cause… The department emphasized the supreme importance of setting clear goals for the campaign, and primarily a call to turn 2017 into the year of the establishment of the Palestinian state and to demand of Britain that it apologize for the Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) and the suffering that it [Britain] caused the Palestinian people, and [that it] atone for the crime that it committed by recognizing the Palestinian state."
PLO calls Israel an "illegal entity," calls the Balfour Declaration "invalid"
Headline: "On the 99th anniversary of Balfour: A call to Britain to support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state"
"The PLO Department for Refugee Affairs called on Britain to act in a serious manner to support the demands of the Palestinians to establish their independent state whose capital is Jerusalem, and to return the refugees to their homes in accordance with the international resolutions. The Department for Refugee Affairs said today, Monday [Oct. 31, 2016], in a press release for the 99th anniversary of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) that the time has come to end the international negligence that relates to this illegal entity, 'the occupation,' as a state above the law.
PLO Executive Committee member and Director of the Department for Refugee Affairs Zakaria Al-Agha clarified that the Balfour Promise is invalid due to the illegality of its content, as the subject of the promise is the treaty with Zionism to expel the people of Palestine from their homes and to give it to foreigners…"
Fatah official: UNESCO resolution "showed that the Jews do not have a historical right to the land of Palestine," Israel falsifies archaeological findings to prove there was an "alleged Temple"
"Fatah Central Committee member Dr. Muhammad Shtayyeh… commented on the latest resolutions published by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), and clarified that it is important to build on them and to turn to the UN General Assembly with them so that it will adopt them.
He added: 'We thank all of the states in UNESCO who supported us, and the leadership is determined to continue with activities of this type. We clarify that the importance of these resolutions is expressed in how they exposed the lies of Israel, and torpedoed the occupation authorities' words regarding the Al-Buraq Wall (i.e., the Western Wall) and what they term "the historical right."'
Shtayyeh continued: 'The latest UNESCO resolutions have torpedoed the excuses for talk about their right to a "Jewish state," and showed that the Jews do not have a historical right to the land of Palestine.'
He said: 'Ever since the occupation in 1967, they are excavating day and night without finding anything regarding the alleged Temple (sic., numerous archaeological relics from the Temple have been found), which has caused them to place fake graves. Likewise, they brought ancient floor tiles in an attempt to claim that they were Jewish graves, but the falsehood of its (i.e., Israel's) stories is well known.'"
For context on the UNESCO resolution mentioned, click "full article."
Op-ed in PA daily: Israel is deluding "itself and the world that there is any connection between the Jews and Judaism and Palestine"
"In the madness of the Zionist search for any [Jewish] remnants throughout the historic land of Palestine – and especially beneath or around the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Palestinian people – in order to delude itself and the world that there is any connection between the Jews and Judaism and Palestine, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu committed to personally participate this week in the removal of soil from under the Al-Aqsa Mosque."
Fatah official falsely claims that archaeologists have confirmed "no [Jewish] archaeological artifacts of any sort" in Israel
Headline: "Zaki: Netanyahu's participation in excavations at the Al-Aqsa Mosque is playing dirty"
"Fatah Central Committee member [and Fatah Commissioner for Arab and China Relations] Abbas Zaki said that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's announcement of his participation in excavations under the Al-Aqsa Mosque (sic., Netanyahu's actual statement appears in a note below) challenges the UN resolutions and is a violation of international law. He emphasized that the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) resolution was a slap on the cheek for him [Netanyahu]…
In a radio interview that he [Zaki] gave yesterday [Oct. 25, 2016], he said that the UNESCO resolution was a shock for Netanyahu, who boasted that the land is Jewish and claimed that the world gave him permission to continue his crimes…
Zaki emphasized that archaeologists already confirmed in the past that there are no [Jewish] archaeological artifacts of any sort (sic., Jewish archaeological artifacts abound in Israel), which exist according to the Israelis' claim. He noted that no one, not even in the occupation state, will accept Netanyahu's decision because this holy land is a historical site that appears in the UNESCO list."
PLO launches campaign against Balfour Declaration, calls Israel "colonialist project" of Britain
Headline: "Official and popular preparations for the launch of a campaign on the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Promise"
"Palestinian leaders, representatives of the factions of national activity, representatives of civil society organizations, union members, academics, and jurists emphasized the importance of uniting the official and popular efforts and the unity of the Palestinian communities in the homeland and the diaspora during the events to mark the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration)… Director of the Department for Refugee Affairs Tayseer Khaled said that… the department is preparing, through intensive daily discussions with the communities in the diaspora, to launch a broad campaign from Nov. 2, 2016, to Nov. 2, 2017, which will include different activities that will extend over the course of an entire year, in order to make the international community, and Britain in particular, face its historical responsibilities and to call on it to atone for the great crime that it perpetrated and to correct the historical injustice done to the Palestinian people. Khaled said: 'The Balfour Promise is at the base of a colonialist project that was dressed in a false religious and mythical cover in order to realize the colonialist aspirations of Britain and its stepdaughter, the Zionist movement, which to this day is connected through its colonialist project – the State of Israel – to the imperialist interests and their current leader, the US.'"
PA daily: Israel is "colonialist pawn and spearhead of the capitalist West," founded on "fabricated Zionist narrative"
Headline: "Us, the UN, and its anniversary"
Excerpt from op-ed by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, regular columnist for the official PA daily
"Yesterday [Oct. 24, 2016] a ceremony was held in Ramallah for the 71st anniversary of the establishment of the UN…
As the organization (i.e., the UN) was starting out, the Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) of the Palestinian Arab people took place in May 1948. On Nov. 29, 1947, the organization adopted [UN] Resolution 181, regarding the division of historical Palestine – the land and homeland of the Palestinian Arab people – into two states (the Partition Plan, rejected by Arab leaders and governments –Ed.). One of them was named Israel, the colonialist pawn and spearhead of the capitalist West, [which the UN] allowed to exist, and gave it all that was needed in order to survive and live so as to serve its purposes, but [as opposed to this] it prevented the establishment of the Palestinian Arab people's state, and through pretexts and ridiculous excuses did not allow the return of 800,000 Palestinian refugees, who were exiled by the Zionist gangs that occupied their land...
One of the main goals for the establishment of the organization was to guard 'human rights,' and they established this by publishing the 'Universal Declaration of Human Rights' in 1948. [However,] these are the same states that caused a new global tragedy that same year, by establishing the Israeli ethnic cleansing state…
They established on the land [of the Palestinians] a rogue outlaw state, the State of Israel, and brought to it all of the Jews of different nationalities, who accepted the false and fabricated Zionist narrative and aligned with it."
PA daily: Israel's "false narrative and claim that it has a history from 2,000 years ago in the Palestinian land... has been rejected by Israeli academics"
Headline: "The failing Israeli war"
"The government of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu continues its attack against the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) resolution from two weeks ago on Thursday, Oct. 13 [2016] - which rejected the connection between the Jews and Judaism and the Al-Aqsa Mosque [plaza] (i.e., Temple Mount) and the Al-Buraq Wall (i.e., Western Wall) - through its desperate efforts to impose its false narrative and its claim that it has a history from 2,000 years ago in the Palestinian land, which has been rejected by Israeli academics."
UNESCO passed a resolution in Paris on "Occupied Palestine" on Oct. 13, 2016, with 24 countries voting in favor, 6 against, and 24 abstentions.
In the resolution UNESCO refers to the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, only as " Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif," and presents it only as a "Muslim holy site." The resolution condemns "escalating Israeli aggressions" and Israeli "violations" at the site, and calls on Israel "to respect the integrity, authenticity and cultural heritage of Al-Aq?a Mosque/Al-?aram Al-Sharif… as a Muslim holy site of worship." The resolution likewise refers to the Western Wall Plaza as the "Al-Buraq Plaza 'Western Wall Plaza,'" adding quotation marks to the Jewish name for the site.
For more information on which countries voted for and against the resolution, click "full article."
PA daily op-ed: Balfour Declaration was "ominous promise"
Excerpt of op-ed by Issa Abd Al-Hafiz
"Acre is the city of the three Martyrs (Shahids) (i.e., terrorist murderers Muhammad Jamjoum, Fuad Hijazi, and Ataa Al-Zir) who the British Mandate authorities strangled on Red Tuesday, this date that remains preserved in the black history of the [British] mandate and in the Palestinian memory of previous generations.
Along the coast, on the sea of Acre (i.e., the Mediterranean Sea), the graves of the three Martyrs have remained witnesses to the crime of the British Mandate that was lenient and allowed the bringing in of tens of thousands of Jewish migrants to Palestine after [then British Foreign Secretary Arthur] Balfour published his ominous promise (i.e., the Balfour Declaration), in which he committed to the establishment of a national homeland for the Jews on the land of Palestine while exploiting its being under the mandate after the collapse of the Turkish Empire in World War I, even though the ominous promise was published two full years before the end of the war (sic ., the Balfour Declaration was published on Nov. 2, 1917, while World War I ended on Nov. 11, 1918)."
Muhammad Jamjoum, Fuad Hijazi, and Ataa Al-Zir "committed particularly brutal murders [of Jews] at Safed and Hebron," according to the report by British Government to the League of Nations. They were convicted of attacking British soldiers and murdering Jews in the 1929 Hebron Massacre, in which 65 Jews were murdered. They were executed by the British in 1930.
Oct. 2016 poll: 75% of Palestinians support Abbas' call on Britain to apologize for 1917 Balfour declaration promising establishment of Jewish homeland
Source: Center for Opinion Polls, An-Najah University website, Oct. 17, 2016
Q: "Do you support or reject a call from President Mahmoud Abbas on Britain to accept the historical, legal, political, material, and moral responsibilities relating to the consequences of [the] Balfour Declaration including offering an apology to the Palestinian people for the catastrophes and injustice committed against them?"
Total West Bank Gaza Strip
I support 75.0 78.7 68.8
I reject 17.5 17.3 17.8
No opinion/
I do not know
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0
Note: "Following are the results of the Palestinian Public Opinion Poll no. 53
PA Ambassador to France: Balfour Declaration "stemmed from the desire to solve… 'the Jewish problem' in Europe by creating a homeland for them… so that Europe would be rid of the problem of its Jews"
Headline: "Palestine participates in a seminar in the French Senate marking 100 years since Sykes-Picot"
"The Vigilance Committee for Real Peace in the Middle East (CVPR-PO) yesterday [Oct. 10, 2016] held a seminar in the French Senate… Ambassador of Palestine in France Salman Al-Harfi… said that this [Balfour] Promise stemmed from the desire to solve what was called 'the Jewish problem' in Europe by creating a homeland for them (i.e., the Jews) and transferring them to it, so that Europe would be rid of the problem of its Jews."
PA non-recognition terminology: "1948 areas"
Headline: "Two young people from Tulkarem and Yatta were killed in two traffic accidents within the green line"
"A young person from Tulkarem was killed yesterday [Sept. 28, 2016] in a traffic accident that took place next to Shfar'am within the '48 areas (i.e., PA term for Israel)…
Likewise, yesterday it was announced that young Muhammad Yusuf, 33, from the village of Yatta south of Hebron, died of his injuries that were caused when he fell from a [great] height at a building site during his work in Be'er Sheva within the 1948 areas three days ago [Sept. 26, 2016]."
Palestinians prepare for year-long campaign against the Balfour Declaration, demand apology from Britain
"The embassy of the State of Palestine in the United Kingdom held a meeting to consult and prepare for the series of activities that will take place throughout the 100th year since the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration). More than 22 representatives of different associations that support the Palestinian cause in Britain were present at the meeting.
Ambassador Manuel Hassassian opened the meeting with a speech, in which he mentioned the tragedy that befell our Palestinian people as a result of this discriminatory [Balfour] promise, of which [only] the part that benefits the Israelis was implemented, while the part connected to the Palestinian people was not implemented. He emphasized that the fact that the British government is not participating in marking the 100th anniversary of this promise is just proof of its support of all [the crimes] that Israel perpetrates against the Palestinian people. He demanded to pressure the British government again so that it would take a firm stand regarding the settlements and the blockade and recognize the State of Palestine, as a minimum apology for the Balfour Promise."
PA daily: "There are no archaeological remains of Jews in historical Palestine"
Headline: "The racist arrogance of Netanyahu – part 1"
"Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu is a clown who does not know how to amuse and a pathetic demagogue…
He says something and its opposite – one time [he says that]: 'The UN has become a farce,' and another time he says that: 'The UN also changes, and everything is changing quicker than you think.' Another time he announced that: 'The UN Human Rights Council is a big joke, because every year it condemns Israel more than any other state in the world'…
Afterwards he continued with an attack against the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and said that it 'denied the close connection of 4,000 years between the 'Jewish' people and its holiest site, 'the Temple Mount' (meaning the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the first direction of prayer, and the third holiest sanctuary) [parentheses in source]. There are no archaeological remains of Jews in historical Palestine. Seventy years have passed and the Israeli archaeologists have not found any proof of their existence on the land and homeland of the Palestinian people."
Fatah official refers to Israel using non-recognition terminology: "The lands occupied in 1948"
Source: Official Palestinian Authority TV, Sept. 24, 2016
Official PA TV program Topic of the Day, on PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' speech at the UN General Assembly on Sept. 22, 2016, hosting Fatah Central Committee member Jamal Muhaisen
Fatah Central Committee member Jamal Muhaisen: "The settlers are a time bomb on the Palestinian land, which is liable to cause an explosion at any moment, and therefore there is no choice and no solution other than their returning to the lands occupied in 1948 (i.e., one of the ways the Palestinians refer to Israel)."
Abbas demands apology from Britain for the "ominous Balfour Promise" which facilitated "most terrible crime"
Official PA TV broadcast of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' speech to the UN General Assembly on Sept. 22, 2016
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: "One hundred years have passed since the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), according to which the British, Great Britain, unjustly gave the land of Palestine to another people. Thus they laid the foundation for the Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) of the Palestinian people and the loss of its land and its expulsion from it. They were not satisfied with this, but rather the British Mandate translated the promise into actions and policy that helped carry out the most terrible crime against a people that lived in security on its land, did not attack anyone, and did not participate in any war against anyone. Therefore we call upon Britain, on the 100th anniversary of this ominous promise and ominous deal, to draw the conclusions and learn a lesson, and accept on itself the historic, legal, political, material, and ideological responsibility for the consequences of this promise, including an apology to the Palestinian people for the Nakba, the tragedies, and the oppression that have afflicted it, and the correction of this historical tragedy and dealing with its consequences, at the very least by recognition of the Palestinian state. This is what is required of Britain after what it did to the Palestinian people."
PA daily refers to Israelis from Ashkelon as "settlers"
Headline: "Two settlers from Ashkelon stabbed a citizen in Idhna in Hebron"
"Two settlers from Ashkelon yesterday evening [Sept. 19, 2016] stabbed a citizen in the village of Idhna that lies west of Hebron. Israeli police reports claimed that the background of the stabbing crime was criminal, and that it occurred due to an argument over a repair to the settlers' car."
Note: Ashkelon is an Israeli coastal city in Southern Israel.
PA TV airs song addressing Israel: "Accursed is your grandfather who brought us the Balfour Promise"
Official PA TV program Holiday Morning, hosting poet Abdallah Qishta
Poet Abdallah Qishta begins to recite the poem "A Homeland That is Tired of Waiting"
Poet Abdallah Qishta:
"Oh my enemy, others are brighter than you…
You are a Nazi, do not lie and do not call for peace
The chaos of your corruption is running rampant in Muslim countries
Your ebb and flow have come to an end, the illusion has reached its end and dissipated
Your time has come, accursed is your grandfather who brought us the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration)
[Even if] a period passes, we will not forget and our veins will be renewed
Your fate is shame and disgrace, regardless of what will come to pass.
Tomorrow we will liberate our land and we will lay the cornerstone,
Sometimes with weapons, and sometimes with politics.
The soil always calls to us: 'Come with [your] head held high,
Wear the crown of glory, and break the head of the evil one'
Its [the soil's] knife will express our rage and will not allow the Al-Aqsa Mosque to be harmed…"
Official PA TV host: "We do not deny that the poem is wonderful and the style is very unique, especially as there is an attractiveness to the Nabataean or Bedouin poem, as some know it ."
PA daily describes Israeli city of Ashdod as "in the occupied Interior"
Headline: "The election ink has arrived, but the voter might be absent"
"The election ink (in Arab countries voting is conducted by dipping a finger in ink and making a fingerprint on one's selection –Ed.) arrived two days ago [Sept. 9, 2016] from Europe at the Ashdod port in the occupied Interior (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel), but according to indications, the voters are likely to be absent from the voting booths."
PA daily non-recognition terminology: Israel is "'48 areas"
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 9, 2016
Headline: "20 citizens were wounded in two separate traffic accidents in Jerusalem and Jenin"
"A traffic accident occurred between two cars and led to the injury of nine citizens, six of them in serious condition and three in moderate condition, and a number of them were transferred to hospitals within the '48 areas (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel)."
PA daily uses non-recognition terminology: "the '48 areas"
Headline: "As a sign of solidarity with our people: BDS calls to freeze the membership of the Israel Football Association"
"The BDS movement (i.e., Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement) in Italy called… to place Palestinian flags on social media pages yesterday evening [Sept. 5, 2016] as Italy is playing against Israel in the 2018 FIFA (i.e., Fédération Internationale de Football Association) World Cup qualifications in Haifa, which is in the '48 areas (i.e., PA term for Israel)."
Op-ed in PA daily: Balfour Declaration was "ominous promise" in which "those without ownership of the land of Palestine gave as a gift to those who are not entitled to it"
Headline: "Strengthening the Palestinian legitimacy!"
Excerpt of an op-ed by Yahya Rabah, regular columnist for the official PA daily and a member of the Fatah Leadership Committee in Gaza.
"The great mistake that was perpetrated against Palestine 100 years ago through the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), which those without ownership of the land of Palestine gave as a gift to those who are not entitled to it, which is the Zionist movement, and which considered a people that has existed for thousands of years (i.e., the Palestinians) as just a [group of] minorities whose humanitarian rights must be protected, without mentioning their political rights – a great mistake was the basis for the establishment of the State of Israel; it is the hinge on which all the regional and international alliances with Israel are based in different ways, and on its basis Israel continues to deny the existence of the Palestinian people, and therefore their rights as well."
Palestinian activist: Palestinians descend from ancient Canaanites, if Jews were in Samaria 3000 years ago it was "for a short period" as "guests"
Headline: "Journalists took a tour of the historic village of Sebastia"
"Activists of the village of Sebastia (i.e., where an ancient Jewish capital stood, see note below) in the Nablus district, during a meeting of journalists held yesterday morning [Sept. 4, 2016], declared that the village is the third [place] after Jerusalem and Hebron that is [most] under the threat of Israeli Judaization …
The hashtag campaign #Sebastia_sun_of_the_cultures, which was officially launched yesterday by young activists, declared that the village of Sebastia is under threat of Judaization…
Head of the Sebastia Municipality Mu'tasim Aliwi said: 'The Zionist occupation illegally insists that it has ownership of the place… Despite the occupation's claim that it has roots in this village for the last 3,000 years, the Canaanites were here before that and established their culture here 4,000 years ago…'
Spokesman of the #Sebastia_sun_of_the_cultures campaign Zaid Al-Zuhri emphasized that, 'Every bit of Sebastia tells of an ancient culture that has passed from here. They say it is Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom. Indeed, this is the Israeli version on which they base their historic right to Palestine, and we say to them: 'Perhaps we received you here as guests 3,000 years ago for a short period during the Roman period, but we have been here for more than 4,000 years. Sebastia is the direct continuation of Canaanite Shakim, in other words the city of Nablus."
The city Shomron (Samaria in Greek), near Nablus, was the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th and 8th centuries BCE. It was destroyed by the Assyrians in 722 BCE and rebuilt by the Judean King Herod in 27 BCE, who renamed it "Sebastia." For more information, click "full article."
PA daily uses non-recognition terminology: "'48 territories"
Headline: "Approximately half a million students from the '48 territories return to their schools"
"Approximately 530,000 Palestinian students from the '48 territories (i.e., PA term for Israel) returned yesterday [Sept. 3, 2016] to the study chairs at the beginning of the 2016/2017 school year."
PA daily uses non-recognition terminology: "Palestinian Interior"
Headline: "Ghannam: The occupation's fences and checkpoints will not divide members of the one people"
"District Governor of Ramallah and El-Bireh Dr. Laila Ghannam yesterday [Sept. 3, 2016], during a reception for female Arab advisors for advancing the status of women and empowering them in the villages and local councils in the Palestinian Interior (i.e., PA term for Israel), emphasized the unity of the blood and the cause, and also emphasized that the fences and checkpoints will not separate the souls of the one people and their national affiliation.
Ghannam clarified during the meeting that her goal was to have the female Palestinian activists of the Interior get to know the district governor and benefit from her experience, because we have full awareness and we understand the suffering of our sisters in the occupied Interior due to the racist acts being carried out against them."
Fatah official: Israel's existence constitutes "aggression against Arab territory"
Official PA TV program State of Politics hosts Fatah Central Committee member, Commissioner for Diaspora Branches, and PLO Central Council member Jamal Muhaisen
Fatah Central Committee member, Commissioner for Diaspora Branches, and PLO Central Council member Jamal Muhaisen: "The [Arab] Joint Defense Treaty determines that any aggression against Arab territory must be fought against. What about the Israeli aggression that extends 50 years already against the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem, and in addition, the territories that were occupied in '48? Why is the Joint Defense Treaty of the Arabs not being implemented regarding this issue?"
PLO official refers to Israel as "Palestine that was occupied in 1948"
Official PA TV program Palestine This Morning, interview with Secretary of the PLO National Committee for Education, Culture, and Science and Chairman of the Palestinian Writers' Union Murad Al-Sudani about the Palestinian Educational Cultural Forum
Secretary of the PLO National Committee for Education, Culture and Science and Chairman of the Palestinian Writers' Union Murad Al-Sudani: "The budget allocated by the occupation's Ministry of Education to the Arab sector in Palestine that was occupied in 1948 (i.e., Israel) is 10 or 20 times more than the budget of the Palestinian Ministry of Culture. They (i.e., Israel) understand the importance of culture, and they are trying to change the Palestinian awareness and erase it (i.e., Palestinian culture)."
PA government calls on Palestinians of the "Interior" to carry out Ribat at Al-Aqsa
"In its weekly meeting, which was held yesterday [Aug. 16, 2016] in Ramallah led by [PA] Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, … the [PA] government expressed appreciation for the heroic stand of our people who pray and carry out Ribat (i.e., religious conflict/war over land claimed to be Islamic), from among the women and the men, who stand against the attacks of the Israeli occupation's gangs and thwart their aggressive racist schemes against the first direction of prayer (i.e., Jerusalem). Likewise it called on our people in the [Palestinian] Interior (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel) and all of those who can reach Jerusalem to come to it, to be there constantly, and to carry out Ribat at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and its plazas, in order to respond to every attack against it."
Official PA daily op-ed: Western aid money is an "obligation towards the Palestinian people from… the capitalist West that created the Israeli ethnic cleansing state"
The following is an excerpt of the op-ed by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, a regular columnist for the official PA daily:
"The West is not dictating any sort of position to the Palestinian leadership in general, and [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas in particular. The [Western] aid money is not a favor from anyone; it is an obligation towards the Palestinian people from the entire world, and particularly the capitalist West that created the Israeli ethnic cleansing state and supported it. The revolution movement, Hamas, and its pawns have apparently not heard what was said in President Abbas' speech at the recent Arab Summit in Nouakchott, [Mauritania], in which he called on the Arab brothers to help the Palestinian leadership sue Not-Great Britain for giving the ominous promise, the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration)."
PA Foreign Minister: Balfour Declaration was "mistake and historical wrong" that Britain should apologize for, because it contributed to Israel's establishment
Source: WAFA, official PA news agency, July 28, 2016
Headline: "Al-Malki: It is the right of our people to settle accounts with those who caused its Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel), and Britain must apologize and recognize the State of Palestine"
"[PA] Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Malki emphasized that Britain must apologize for the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) and correct this historical mistake by recognizing the State of Palestine in the borders of June 4, 1967… Al-Malki said today (Thursday) [June 28, 2016] in an interview with Radio Mawtini: 'Palestine hoped that Britain would demonstrate historical and political courage and responsibility, and would come and officially declare that it apologizes to the Palestinian people for the Balfour Promise on its hundredth anniversary.' [...]
Al-Malki noted that the Palestinian leadership expects British recognition of a Palestinian state in the '67 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. This is as a correction of the mistake and the historical wrong it did with the Balfour Promise, which led to the Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel), uprooting, suffering, and prevention of the establishment of the Palestinian state, and it [Britain] did the opposite: It contributed to the establishment of the occupation state (Israel) [parentheses in source]..."
Click "full article" for a longer excerpt and for background information
PA Foreign Ministry demands Britain apologize for the Balfour Declaration
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 28, 2016
Headline: "The [PA] Foreign Ministry called on Britain to bear the historical responsibility for our people"
"The [PA] Foreign Ministry said that the ongoing historical injustice befalling our people places on Britain historical responsibilities that it cannot evade to help our people and to stand by its side in order to undo the historical injustice that it contributed to, and to stop the suffering of our people…
The ministry demanded of Britain that it submit an official historical apology for everything caused by the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) and the [British] Mandate – the expulsion, destruction, killing, and suffering that continues to this day, accompanied by official British recognition of the State of Palestine in the borders of June 4, 1967, whose capital is Jerusalem."
Official PA daily refers to Israel as the "'48 territories"
Headline: "Jenin hosts the Palestinian Clothing Festival"
"The Jenin district, the [PA] Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, and the National Committee for Education, Culture, and Science celebrated yesterday [July 25, 2016] the opening of the Palestinian Clothing Festival at the amphitheater of the tourist village of Hadad.
Taking part in the opening of the festival were Jenin and Nablus District Governors Ibrahim Ramadan and Akram Al-Rajoub… as well as delegations from the '48 territories (i.e., Israel)."
PA asks Arab League to help sue Britain for issuing Balfour Declaration, Britain should apologize for the Balfour Declaration like Germany did for the Holocaust
Source: Official Palestinian Authority TV, July 25, 2016
Official PA TV newsreader: "In a speech given in the name of President Mahmoud Abbas, [PA] Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad Al-Malki... asked the General Secretariat of the Arab League to help the [PA] leadership prepare a legal case..."
PA Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad Al-Malki in speech at the Arab League Summit representing PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: "We ask the General Secretariat of the Arab League to assist us in preparing a legal case in order to file a lawsuit against the British government for its issuing the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) and for its (i.e., the Declaration's) implementation afterwards, as a mandatory authority, which caused the Nakba of the Palestinian people and its expulsion..."
Expert on International Law and Secretary General of the PA Islamic-Christian Council for Jerusalem and the Holy Places Hanna Issa: "It is the right of the Palestinian Arab people to sue Britain... If they refuse to accept it [the lawsuit] in the International Criminal Court, we can turn to the UN [General] Assembly... and [demand] the establishment of an international criminal court with the jurisdiction to place sanctions on Britain… I present as an example the Nazis' Jewish Holocaust against the Jews in World War II. Germany even apologized and until now it has expressed political, economic, social, and cultural apologies. It even has funded the Israeli entity with billions of dollars until now, and therefore it is similar to the holocaust carried out against the Palestinian Arab people."
PA daily condemns "colonial Israel, which arose on the ruins of the Nakba of the Palestinian people in 1948 and still occupies its land, and steals and Judaizes it"
"Whoever knows the most extreme, racist, and fascist prime minister in the history of colonial Israel, which arose on the ruins of the Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) of the Palestinian people in 1948 and still occupies its land, and steals and Judaizes it and the Palestinian people's interests, knows that the leader of the Likud (i.e., Israeli political party) is the enemy of peace."
For more details click on "full article"
Father of terrorist: "We have 6,000 years in this land, while those people... came as part of an international plot that solved the problems of the Jews and the problems of Europe"
Official PA TV program Palestine This Morning, report on the resolve of the father of Palestinian terrorist Anan Abu Habseh from the Qalandiya refugee camp, whose home has been demolished twice
Visual: The camera focuses on a poster.
Text on poster: "The heroic Martyr (Shahid) Anan Abu Habseh, who carried out the stabbing operation at Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem. The date of his death as a Martyr: Dec. 23, 2015"
Father of Palestinian terrorist Anan Abu Habseh: "The first time [my home was demolished] was in '75, when I was arrested, and this time it was because of the Martyrdom (Shahada) of my son, may Allah have mercy on him. Praise Allah, Lord of the Worlds, these things – as I told you, since '48 our homes, villages and cities are being destroyed, and our sons, fathers, uncles, and relatives are dying as Martyrs – and the journey continues. There are no flaws and no retreat from our journey. This policy of destruction is in the occupation's blood, from '48 until now. We are the Canaanites, we are the Jebusites, we have 6,000 years in this land, while those people, who came as part of an international plot that solved the problems of the Jews and the problems of Europe at the expense of the Palestinian people, they are like the empires that invaded this land and left defeated. Therefore they will [also] leave it defeated, Allah willing…"
Official PA TV reporter: "We thank you for being with us, have a good morning. We salute your resolve. [May Allah have] mercy on Anan's soul, and [may Allah have] mercy on all the righteous Martyrs, who are more honorable than all of us. Freedom for our brave prisoners, and of course we wish a speedy recovery for our injured."
For a description of the terrorist, click "full article."
Official PA daily calls Israel "the Interior"
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 4, 2016
"Shabab Al-Khalil defender Tamer Tatour decided to leave the [football] club and play in the Interior (i.e., Israel) league for the Hapoel Kfar Kanna club."
PMW note: Hapoel Kfar Kanna is an Israeli-Arab football club.
Official PA daily calls Israeli city of Haifa "occupied;" and Israel is "the interior that was occupied in 1948"
Source: Website of official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 28, 2016
Headline: "With a computer, O watermelon"
"Three Palestinian students from the interior that was occupied in 1948 (i.e., Israel), who are studying software engineering at the College of Applied Sciences at Technion University in the occupied city of Haifa, have succeeded in inventing a small device that reveals the quality of the watermelon before the purchase."
Lecturer on PA TV: The Anti-Christ is the leader of the Jews
Source: Official Palestinian Authority TV, June 20, 2016
Official PA TV program Palestine in the Quran, broadcast on the occasion of the month of Ramadan
Former lecturer and a regular presenter on the show Bassam Jarrar: "The Jews will leave Palestine, and this time eastward. If you pay close attention, culture and social organization is moving eastward, and in the West there are crises. Among the Jews, since 1990, articles have begun to appear that support a connection with the East. Therefore it appears that they will go eastward, and they will have alliances with the East after they leave Palestine. After a certain amount of time, we don't know how long, they will try to return to Palestine under the leadership of the Anti-Christ . For what is the purpose of the campaign of the Anti-Christ, who continues to advance until he arrives here? He continues until he arrives here, that is to say his destination is here. Because the Anti-Christ is a Jewish leader, or he is the leader of the Jews. It may also be that the Jews will create him. What does it mean that they will create him? That's another topic. He will return [to Palestine]."
Jarrar, a former college lecturer in Ramallah who had his own show on official PA TV in 2015 on numbers in the Quran, claims on his website on Islam called the "Noon Center For Quranic Studies and Researches" that the events of the "Anti-Christ" will take place sometime around 2022 CE.
Palestinian political analyst legitimizes murder of Israeli civilians: "Since it is a colonial, settler, racist, occupying entity, all of those in it are soldiers"
Source: Al-Ayyam, June 15, 2016
Headline: "Tel Aviv operation (i.e., terror attack, 4 murdered) – between the sanctification of the weapon and its definition as a crime"
Op-ed by senior Palestinian political analyst and columnist Hani Al-Masri
"If the main method of activity is appropriate for a certain period, that doesn't mean that it is necessary to negate, reject, or condemn other types. On the contrary, the experience of struggle throughout history, including the Palestinian experience and the experience of India, South Africa and others, has proven that it is possible to integrate peaceful and armed methods of struggle, whether the method of the struggle at one stage or another is peaceful or armed, and no one side can alone determine the appropriate method of struggle. The nature of the conflict, its unique characteristics, the circumstances, the factors influencing it, and the conduct of the other side are what actively contribute to determining the method that will be adopted...
Armed resistance must always be present, as it is an anchored right, and it must be carried out in accordance with the circumstances, and must not be altogether uprooted, nor defined as a crime under any circumstances...
Likewise, we cannot help but examine the matter of harming civilians in Israel. Since it is a colonial, settler, racist, occupying entity, all of those in it are soldiers, and the proof of this is that weapons are common in all the different regions, and hundreds of thousands of civilians carry them on the streets. All of them, other than the ultra-orthodox Jews, serve in the army. However, most of the ultra-orthodox Jews, like all the rest, are radicals who incite the murder of non-Jews."
For more, click "full article"
PA TV Ramadan lesson teaches that Islam prohibits Israel's right to exist: "Holy Palestine is a waqf... It is forbidden to relinquish a single grain of its soil"
Head of the Waqf's Al-Aqsa Academy of Heritage and Antiquities Najeh Bakirat: "Every grain of soil in Palestine (i.e., including all of Israel) is ours. The status of Hebron is part of the status of Palestine, as it is an integral part of the Palestinian land, like the status of Nazareth in our eyes, and Acre, Haifa, and Jaffa (i.e., all are cities in Israel). Every grain of soil in Palestine is part of the blessed Palestine, the holy Palestine which is a waqf. Therefore it is forbidden to relinquish a single grain of its soil."
A waqf is an inalienable religious endowment in Islamic law.
The presenter, Najeh Bakirat, is listed as the director of this PA TV program and also appears on the show as one of the presenters.
Broadcast on official PA TV, Palestine in the Quran show
Official PA daily implies Jews have no connection to land of Israel, says "Judaism is a religion, and is not a nationality in any way"
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 5, 2016
Headline: "Between complete refusal and accepting the facts"
"The great lie, as we know, which was spread by the leaders of the Zionist movement such as Israel Zangwill (i.e., a British author and a close associate of Theodor Herzl) and Theodor Herzl (i.e., one of the founders of the modern Zionist movement), says that Palestine is 'a land without a people for a people without a land.' In this slogan there is no truth of any kind, as Palestine and its people existed together, and as the Jews were citizens of the lands from which they came in ships of the Zionist movement project. Likewise, Judaism is a religion, and is not a nationality in any way, and the 'Ashkenazi' Western Jews tried and are still trying to change Judaism into that."
Abbas' advisor: Jews "are thieves who stole the land… we have been here for 5,000 yea