Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Fatah's military wing: "Armed resistance until the liberation of all of Palestine"

The period of "calm has ended"
Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
Fatah's military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, has announced they "will adhere to the option of armed resistance until the liberation of all of Palestine," the independent Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported. The expression "the liberation of all of Palestine" is a common Palestinian euphemism used to refer to the destruction of Israel.

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is also the head of Fatah and his movement's military wing stressed that the "calm has ended, as the occupation continues to kill, Judaize and settle." They urged Mahmoud Abbas not to accept US Secretary of State John Kerry's plan and not to give in to "political extortion by the Western powers." [Ma'an, March 11, 2014]

Earlier this year, Palestinian Media Watch reported that Fatah posted a video promising to "turn Tel Aviv into a ball of fire."

In a video posted on Facebook on "Fatah - The Main Page," the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades promised Israelis the following:

  "We swear to you that we will turn the beloved [Gaza] Strip into a graveyard for your soldiers, and we will turn Tel Aviv into a ball of fire."
Click to view

PMW has documented that throughout the current peace talks Fatah has supported a return to armed violence as a valid option alongside negotiations. A few months into the peace talks (September 2013), under the headline "Fatah - All means of struggle until statehood," the administrator of one of Fatah's Facebook pages posted three pictures showing different "means of struggle." Violence was one of them.

[Facebook, "Fatah - The Main Page," Sept. 8, 2013]
The following is the report in Ma'an on Fatah's military wing's call for armed resistance:
"The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (Fatah's military wing) in Palestine said they will adhere to the option of armed resistance until the liberation of all of Palestine.
In a statement received by [independent Palestinian news agency] Ma'an, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades stated that the [period of] calm has ended, as the occupation continues to kill, Judaize and settle. They emphasized that the blood of the Martyrs (Shahids) will never go unavenged. They called on President Mahmoud Abbas to stand firm and reject the Kerry plan, [and said that] 'the Palestinian people with all its groups and factions stand behind you against any [form of] political extortion by the Western powers.'"
[Ma'an, independent Palestinian news agency, March 11, 2014]
      

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