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Special Dispatch No. 11003
Palestinian Officials Justify Hamas' October 7 Massacre: It Was Not Terror But A Natural Reaction To Occupation; 'The Next Explosion, Even More Violent, Will Be In The West Bank'; Hamas Is And Will Remain Part Of The Palestinian Fabric
The Palestinian Authority (PA), and its ruling Fatah party have yet to condemn the Hamas October 7, 2023 mega-terror attack in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and about 240 were kidnapped. Moreover, PA and Fatah officials have blamed Israel itself for the attack and warned that, if it does not change its policy towards the Palestinians, additional and worse attacks may soon occur in the West Bank.
For example, Fatah official and Palestinian Football Federation Chairman Jibril Rajoub, whose name has come up as a possible successor to President Abbas, justified Hamas' terror attack on several occasions, calling it a “natural reaction” to the occupation and part of a defensive war by the Palestinian people. He said that Israel is to blame for the attack, and warned that it may be the first of many, and that “the next explosion, far more violent, will be in the West Bank.” He added that Hamas is part of the Palestinian fabric, and expressed hope that October 7 will usher in a new phase of Palestinian unity.
Fatah Deputy Chairman Mahmoud Al-Aloul made similar remarks, blaming the October 7 attack on Israel's policy towards the Palestinians and warning that “the next explosion” may “soon” occur in the West Bank. He too said that Hamas is part of the Palestinian people, and added that Israel will not be able to eliminate Hamas.
Another figure who spoke in this vein is Munib Al-Masri, a well-known Palestinian businessman and millionaire, who, before Abbas' election to the presidency, was mentioned as a possible successor to the previous president Yasser Arafat. In an article he published in the Palestinian Al-Quds daily, he too called the Hamas attack a “natural reaction” and a “legitimate right,” anchored in international law. He congratulated the Palestinian resistance and “its legitimate struggle,” which, he said, had “restored the Palestinian cause to its rightful place at the top of the international agenda.”
The following are translated excerpts from the statements by these Palestinian figures.
Fatah Official Jibril Rajoub: The October 7 Attack Was Not Terror But A “Natural Reaction” To The Israeli Occupation; This Attack “Was Nothing Compared To The Explosion Expected In the West Bank”
Jibril Rajoub, secretary of Fatah's Central Committee and chairman of the Palestinian Football Federation, said in an interview on the MBC Egypt television channel: “What happened on October 7 did not come out of nowhere. The ongoing crimes of the occupation are to blame for it, because it was part of the Palestinians' defensive war. It will surely be the first of [multiple] explosions, and the next explosion, far more violent, will be in the West Bank…
“I say to everyone, especially to the Egyptians and the Jordanians, who are the ones who suffer the most from this ongoing conflict that also threatens the regional and global stability, that the explosion of October 7 was a natural reaction to this terror [by Israel], for the leaders of Israel represent a new Nazi model. The quagmire of this fascist occupation has become huge.”
Asked about the chances of reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, Rajoub answered: “First of all, I say to everyone that blood is thicker than water. Hamas is and will remain part of the [Palestinian] national fabric, part of the [Palestinian] struggle and the Palestinian political fabric. This campaign [i.e., the Gaza war] will be a springboard for attaining Palestinian national unity, with one people, one leadership and one goal: the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with complete sovereignty over all the Palestinian territories.”
It should be mentioned that Rajoub shared this interview on his Facebook page, and wrote: “…What happened on October 7 was not terror but a natural reaction to the Israeli occupation.”
Al-Rajoub made similar remarks to Kuwaiti journalists during his recent visit to that country. The following are excerpts from a report about his statements in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Nahhar: “[Al-Rajoub said]: 'October 7 was an earthquake in every respect. It was an unprecedented event. From the very first day it was evident that this was a significant juncture that must not be misconstrued, and that [the attack] was part of a defensive war that the [Palestinian] people have been waging for 75 years. This event is part of a path, of battles, and heroic acts that the [Palestinian] people have been leading for 75 years. This event must be understood in the context of a defensive Palestinian [war], and responsibility for it rests with the Israeli aggression against all the Palestinian territories and Muslim and Christian holy places…'
“Al-Rajoub added: 'What happened on October 7 first of all shattered the myth of the powerful Israeli army, revealing that this is a lie and that [this army is actually as weak] as cobwebs. [It also] undermined the Israeli citizens' sense of security and their faith in the settlement enterprise. A quarter of a million Jews are [currently] living in hotels out of fear and a sense of personal insecurity. What happened on October 7 thwarted the attempt of the Israeli right to integrate Israel in the Middle East without addressing the Palestinian issue…”
“Asked about the difficulty of promoting the two-state solution in the present situation, and about his assessment that an explosion in the West Bank is imminent, Rajoub said: 'What happened on October 7 was nothing compared to the explosions that will occur in the West Bank in the absence of a firm and decisive international stance on dealing with the occupation, the settlement, and the cancer [of the settlements]. This is a danger to the Israelis who live in peace and a danger to regional stability and world peace.
“Al-Rajoub also addressed the fact that there are three million Palestinians in the West Bank and two million in the Gaza Strip, as opposed to [only] 700,000 Nazi fascists living in the settlements adjacent to the Strip and in the West Bank. He clarified that Israel is an imperialist enterprise whose decisions are [actually] taken in the White House, for the U.S. is the one nourishing this cancer. He also noted that there would be no Palestinian state without Jerusalem and Gaza.
“Al-Rajoub said: 'We recognize the fact that [the movements of] political Islam, headed by Hamas, are part of the fabric of our struggle and of our social and political fabric, and believe that their participation does not harm [this fabric]. He noted that the Palestinian state, and its legitimate representative [the PLO] is an umbrella [framework] for everyone, and that there is a source of authority for the solution, while stressing the need to recognize the unity of the Palestinian territories.
“He added: 'We seek liberation, not istishhad [i.e., martyrdom], [although] as individuals we seek istishhad. We face public criticism because of this, and we understand this [criticism]. Our compass is national and is based on national, moral and human principles that have nothing to do with any partisan interests or with the will of any regional element. The indirect goal of everything that is happening is the Palestinian national identity…”
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Special Dispatch No. 11002
Palestinian Journalist: With Its Coverage Of Hamas, Al-Jazeera Is Brainwashing The Arabs In The Service Of Qatar's Political Plan
In an article in the London-based Emirati daily Al-Arab titled “The Dimensions Of Hamas And The Media Exaggeration,” Palestinian journalist Hamid Karman came out against Qatar's use of its Al-Jazeera channel to promote its agenda. This channel, he said, brainwashes the Arab public with inflated claims about Hamas' capabilities and popularity, such as the claim that Hamas' strength is comparable to that of the Israeli army.
Karman argued that Al-Jazeera is a soft power tool of the Qatari regime, which seeks to create a power vacuum in the Middle East which it can fill by means of its economic and political influence over the various regional branches of the Muslim Brotherhood – as it did in Egypt during the Arab Spring, for example.
He added that, despite Al-Jazeera's inflated claims about Hamas' power, support for it in Gaza is reportedly waning, now that the Gazans have realized the true scope of its power and understand that they have fallen victim to a reckless adventure carried out by this movement.
Hamid Karman (Al-Arab, London)
The following are translated excerpts from Karman's article:
“The Arab media has never stopped cultivating models of exaggeration and deception in times of crisis and war. An example of this is Ahmad Sa'id, the most prominent presenter of the Sawt Al-Arab [radio] station, who was famous during the 1967 war [with Israel], one of the greatest Arab defeats of the 20th century. Another example is Saddam Hussein's information minister, Muhammad Sa'id Al-Sahhaf. He excelled at promoting a media strategy based on self-aggrandizement and on deluding the Arab peoples regarding [Iraq's] military capabilities [by spreading claims] about soldiers armed with strategies and plans that would defeat the enemy, weaken it and expose its shame and failure. When Baghdad, Iraq's capital, fell, our logic collapsed into the swamp of political gullibility that Muhammad Sa'id Al-Sahhaf had created with his terminology and words.
“Today, as Israel's devastating war against Gaza continues, some of the Arab media have resumed cultivating media models of exaggeration and deception that serve the agendas of various regimes in the Middle East.
“This [media] industry is well-known to media experts and political analysts. It creates models that excel at presenting detailed descriptions and terminology that play with the head of the Arab people, who, charged with a sense of historical defeat, believe what they are told as part of [a campaign to] brainwash the collective Arab mind. [Every] entity becomes a colossus, and [every] movement becomes a vast army. [But] the colossus vanishes and the vast army does not survive.
“[This] article sheds light on the coverage of a certain satellite channel supported by a small country in the Gulf [i.e., Qatar's Al-Jazeera channel], coverage that is based on the inflation and exaggeration of Hamas' capabilities by the channel's reporters and political and military analysts. This channel has turned the [Hamas] movement into an entity equal in power to the occupation, [i.e., to Israel], with its vast military capabilities and American support.
“This coverage has continued as part of [the channel's] modus operandi and numerous political connections – and then we were surprised when Gaza fell overnight to the occupation army, and by the fact that Hamas' limited and simple military means could not stop the columns of Israeli infantry and armored vehicles that established themselves in several parts of the northern Gaza Strip. At the same time, the stream of Gazans moving from the north [of the Strip] to the south increased, not out of fear but out of disgust with the war that was forced upon the Palestinian people of Gaza. These people have realized the truth: that they alone are the victims of the reckless adventure carried out by Hamas. [This movement] lacks any means to stand fast except speeches on the media and television, given by often-masked idols [i.e., Hamas operatives], or else by those who live in luxury and travel between Arab capitals [i.e., Hamas' leaders abroad]. They decry the Israeli crime, which is abetted by the West, with slogans and statements that are hollow, especially given that the so-called resistance axis, its chief [Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah], and its supreme leader [Iran's leader Ali Khamenei] – may Allah grant him a long life – shook [with fear] at the sight of the American and British navies that rushed to make a show of force and of ongoing control in the region.”
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Hamas MP Marwan Abu Ras Calls On West Bank To Rise Up Against The Palestinian Authority: Mahmoud Abbas Is a Traitor; May Allah Take Revenge On Criminal, Nazi America
Hamas MP and member of Board of Trustees of the International Union of Muslim Scholars Marwan Abu Ras said in a December 2, 2023 show on Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas-Gaza) that the Israeli occupation is worse than the Nazis, and that in fact such a comparison is an insult to the Nazis. He added that there is not a single crime that America did not commit against Gaza, and he asked Allah to “settle the score” and take revenge against “that criminal Nazi country.” Abu Ras said that Israel is powerless in the face of the young men who strive for martyrdom, more than it and its people strive for life.
Click here to view this clip on MEMRI TV
Marwan Abu Ras: “The [Israeli] occupation is worse than the Nazis. Such a comparison is an insult to the Nazis. It is a worse criminal than fascists. It is a worse criminal than any criminal that has ever walked the face of the earth.
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“The occupation must be defeated and have its nose rubbed in the mud of Gaza. The occupation knows full well that it is facing fierce resistance by the young men that are known to have been brought up in mosques, nurtured on the Quran and on the Sunna of the Prophet Muhammad, the martyred Jihadi leader, the honorable and infallible Prophet Muhammad. These young men were nurtured on the honorable Sunna of the Prophet Muhammad. I say to [Israel] that it is powerless in the face of these young men, because they strive to be martyred more than you, your soldiers, and your country strive to live.
[…]
“If it was up to that criminal [Palestinian] Authority that engages in security cooperation with the occupiers – be it the Zionist occupier or the Nazi Americans… If it wasn't for the resistance, we would be living in humiliation and disgrace because of this shameful Authority. Rise up against the [Palestinian] Authority, do not let it rule over you!
[…]
“Everything that this enemy does, it does with American equipment, even American personnel, and an American plan. A short while ago, it was reported that the United States said that it viewed the new war plans for the second round of the war against Gaza. There isn't a single crime that the U.S. has not committed against Gaza. May Allah settle the score with America, and may He take revenge on that criminal Nazi country.”
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