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Senior Palestinian Leader Urges People to Use Precise Systematic Terror Plan– Like the First Intifada
Palestinian Olympic Committee President Jibril Rajoub, who also heads the Palestinian Football Association, holds a news conference to update the media about challenges facing Palestinian sports ahead of the Olympics in Paris, in Ramallah, in the West Bank, June 12, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Jibril Rajoub yearns for the good old days of united Fatah-Hamas terror — like during the First Intifada — when more than 200 Israelis were murdered from 1987-1993.
Rajoub said that back then, there was proper organization and scheduling, even for a month ahead of time when “every civilian knew his role”:
The first Intifada was characterized by tight organization, the timing of daily activities, and the provision of a framework for all sectors of society. There were clear plans for 10 days, 20 days, and even a full month, during which every civilian knew his role. This planning helped the continuity of the popular movement and created a balance with the armed occupying power [i.e., Israel].”
[Palestinian daily Al-Quds, December 11, 2024]
Rajoub hopes that Palestinians will reinstitute such a golden age of organized violence and terror, saying that such an achievement is not out of reach:
Today, in the shadow of various methods of oppression, the same approach is still possible if the [Palestinian] factions will agree on a comprehensive national plan and clear plans … When the coordination between the factions will return and a clear plan of action will be provided to the people, we will be able to replicate the model of comprehensive popular resistance that gained international support and embarrassed the occupation [i.e., Israel] in the face of global public opinion…”
[Palestinian daily Al-Quds, December 11, 2024]
The Palestinian term “popular resistance” refers to individuals who murder Israelis using knives, rocks, Molotov cocktails, car rammings, and even shootings — as long as those responsible are not organized units. Hence the word “popular.”
So what must be done, in Rajoub’s view, to get to that point?
According to him, Palestinians must focus on what unites them — violence against Israel:
To revive this [first Intifada] model, the forces must agree on a common basis and focus on what unites and not what separates, and then the public will unify, and the leadership will restore the confidence of the street…
[Palestinian daily Al-Quds, December 11, 2024]
Rajoub’s most important message regarding what the new generation can learn from the First Intifada is that national unity can be achieved under figures such as arch-terrorists Yasser Arafat, Abu Jihad, and Abu Iyad:
The central message is the need to restore the national unity and end the rift. In the first Intifada, the PLO led by [then PLO leader] Yasser Arafat, along with figures like [Khalil Al-Wazir] ‘Abu Jihad’ [i.e., terrorist, responsible for murder of 125], [Salah Khalaf] ‘Abu Iyad’ [i.e., head of the Black September terror organization], and others, embodied the peak of cohesion and coordination with the popular will.”
[Palestinian daily Al-Quds, December 11, 2024]
The First Intifada used terrorism led by Arafat and other terror leaders from overseas.
Nevertheless, according to this senior Palestinian leader, it still “gained international support and embarrassed the occupation (i.e., Israel) in the face of global public opinion” because it successfully duped world leaders into believing that it was just a “popular” uprising rather than an organized campaign.
Rajoub now calls on Palestinians to unite using the same tactics. As opposed to perpetrating attacks like that of October 7, 2023, which was condemned internationally as organized terror, Rajoub believes Palestinians should continue murdering Israelis in disorganized terror to make it seem like it is “popular,” i.e., not being directed by the leadership.
And these are the people that many in the Western world keep funding and want to put in charge of Gaza.
Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Itamar Marcus is PMW’s Founder and Director. A version of this article originally appeared at PMW.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
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