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‘Moderate’ Fatah Keeps Bragging It Has More Terrorists Than Hamas
People hold Fatah flags during a protest in support of the people of Gaza, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in Hebron, in the West Bank, Oct. 27, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma
Fatah is refusing to give up its status among Palestinians as the leading terror organization targeting Israelis.
Seeing Hamas’ popularity surge among Palestinians after the October 7 Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel, Fatah — the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s ruling party — has stressed throughout the war that it has more terrorists, prisoners, and “Martyrs” against Israel “than any other faction.”
Already on October 7, Fatah was bragging that it participated in Hamas’ massacre, so as not to be left out of popular Palestinian support for the atrocities.
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) published a video showing terrorists wearing yellow Fatah headbands participating in the terror invasion. Throughout the video, chants of “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah is greatest”) are played in the background.
Note that Nahal Oz is not a military base, as claimed by Fatah in the video, but is an Israeli civilian kibbutz, and that most of those murdered on October 7 by Hamas and Fatah terrorists were Israeli civilians.
Since then, Fatah has continued to brag that “more than two-thirds” of terrorist prisoners are from Fatah, and that Fatah was active on the terror scene “even before” October 7. They also emphasize the great number of dead Fatah terrorists — the so-called “Martyrs” — who are also said to far outnumber Hamas’ “Martyrs” in general.
Furthermore, Fatah officials take pride in the fact that not only are their members terrorists, but, at the same time, some of them are also members of the PA Security Forces carrying out a double role as police officers by day and terrorists by night, as PMW has reported in the past.
Western leaders have been eager to promote Fatah and the PA as “moderates” who are suitable to form a new government in the Gaza Strip “the day after” the war. They would do well to read and watch these statements, and understand who the PA and Fatah really are.
Fatah official brags: Fatah has more terrorists than any other faction
Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki: “We [in Fatah] are peaceful, but our Martyrs [i.e., dead terrorists] are more numerous than the Martyrs of all the factions combined,and also our prisoners [i.e., terrorists] are more than two-thirds of the prisoners in the prisons.” [emphasis added]
[Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki, Facebook page, May 16, 2024]
Fatah official brags: “Even before” Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre, Fatah “had already sacrificed more than 133,000 Martyrs”
Fatah Revolutionary Council member Abdallah Kmeil: “Even before Oct. 7, we had already sacrificed more than 133,000 Martyrs, and these are Fatah’s statistics. Fatah alone sacrificed 133,000 Martyrs throughout the years of the Palestinian revolution.” [emphasis added]
[Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page, May 21, 2024]
Fatah: Most terrorist “Martyrs” are from PA Security Forces or Fatah
Fatah Spokesman and Fatah Revolutionary Council member Jamal Nazzal: “In recent years, most of the Martyrs were from the [PA] Security [Forces] or from Fatah, and this has significance and meaning that everyone sees. The West Bank, in other words the PA, as you see is not in a state of repose, calm, submission, or waiting.” [emphasis added]
[Alghad TV (Egypt), YouTube channel, March 21, 2024]
Fatah spokesman brags of Fatah terror: “More than half” of terrorist prisoners are from Fatah, some are PA Security Forces members
Fatah Spokesman Abd Al-Fattah Doleh: “Most of the Martyrs in the West Bank since the aggression [i.e., Gaza war] and even before that are Fatah members. More than that, they’re from the [PA] Security Forces… More than half of the prisoners in the occupation’s (i.e., Israel’s) prisons are Fatah members. The other half, in other words, less than half are from all the rest of the factions together. 90% more or less of the Martyrs who ascended to Heaven in the Palestinian West Bank are from Fatah.” [emphasis added]
[“Fateh_Pal65,” X (Twitter) account, Nov. 20, 2023]
Fatah Deputy Secretary: “A great number of the Martyrs are members of [the PA] security forces and Fatah activists”
Fatah Central Committee Deputy Secretary Sabri Saidam [in a] speech he gave on behalf of Fatah … emphasized that … those who ask where Fatah stands regarding what is happening [in the Gaza Strip], the answer lies in how a great number of the Martyrs who have ascended to Heaven in the Gaza Strip and West Bank are members of its security forces and Fatah activists. .. and how more than half of the prisoners are Fatah members” [emphasis added]
[WAFA, official PA news agency, Dec. 31, 2023]
Fatah official: Even Hamas and Islamic Jihad admit “majority of life-sentenced” terrorists are from Fatah
Fatah Revolutionary Council member Abdallah Kmeil: “Even Hamas and the Hamas leaders say, and the brothers in Islamic Jihad also say that the great majority of those who were sentenced to long [prison] terms, the life-sentenced prisoners in the Israeli prison, are Fatah Movement members and [PA] Security Forces members.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Dec. 18, 2023]
Fatah spokesman: “More than half” of the terrorists in prison “are from Fatah”
Official Fatah Spokesman Abd Al-Fattah Doleh: “Today we are speaking about nearly 8,000 prisoners inside the occupation’s prisons. More than half of the prisoners’ movement are from Fatah, and the remaining less than half are from the rest of the factions together. This shows that Fatah still adheres to the benefit of the struggle. It has carried the flag of armed struggle, it carried the flag of popular resistance in the Stone Intifada (i.e., 200 Israelis murdered), it returned to armed resistance in the Al-Aqsa Intifada (i.e., 1,100 Israelis murdered), and today it is in favor of popular resistance (i.e., violence and terror), and these strategies change and replace each other at every stage, but Fatah has not abandoned any one of its (i.e., terror) options.” [emphasis added]
[Falestinona, Fatah’s Information and Culture Commission in Lebanon, YouTube channel, Jan. 1, 2024]
Fatah official in Lebanon: “75%” of terrorist prisoners are from Fatah
“Secretary of Fatah and the PLO factions in Lebanon Fathi Abu Al-Ardat said: ‘59 years of Martyrs – tens and even hundreds of thousands of Martyrs – of wounded, and of heroic prisoners in the occupation’s prisons. Yes, 75% of these prisoners are from Fatah, with full honor and pride.’” [emphasis added]
[WAFA, official PA news agency, Dec. 31, 2023]
Fatah official stresses Fatah’s support for Hamas, “all Palestinian forces are fighting” against Israel
Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi: “The Israeli steps and the situation that existed before Oct. 7 are what led to what happened on Oct. 7 … Everything that happened is what led to this explosion…In the West Bank, all the Palestinian forces are fighting against the occupation. They are all united and are everywhere and in all the cities, fighting as one with a joint decision against this occupation and against this aggression.” [emphasis added]
[Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi, Facebook page, Oct. 25, 2023]
Fatah official: “Fatah has never relinquished the rifle” and “participates” in Hamas’ war on Israel
Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi: “Who said that Fatah is not participating in the fighting (i.e., Hamas’ terror war on Israel)? Who gave you this information and misled you that we are not participating? … All the Palestinian organizations in the West Bank are fighting and coordinating among themselves on the ground… How many Martyrs are from Fatah? … Fatah has never relinquished the rifle, and it has never relinquished the struggle.” [emphasis added]
[Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi, Facebook page, Nov. 18, 2023]
PLO official: “No Palestinian will condemn” massacre of Israel on Oct. 7, Hamas and Fatah “together in struggle until [Israel] disappears”
Head of the PLO Political and National Guidance Commission and PA Security Forces Spokesperson Talal Dweikat: “Not just His Honor President Mahmoud Abbas. They will not find [one] Palestinian who will make a decision like this and condemn what happened on Oct. 7… Currently the [Hamas-Fatah] rift in the Palestinian mindset is already behind us. Today we are all united against this [Israeli] aggression, and the occupation and all those attempting to break the Palestinian unity will be unable to succeed with these plans… We will continue together in our struggle at all levels until this occupation disappears, and until a Palestinian boy and girl wave the flag of Palestine from the minarets, walls, and churches in Jerusalem.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Nov. 12, 2023]
Fatah official two weeks after Hamas’ massacre on Oct. 7: “We are united and aiming our bullets” at Israel
Fatah Nablus Branch Secretary Muhammad Hamdan: “We as the Palestinian people are united in all the arenas of confrontation. We are united and aiming our bullets at the occupier and at the settlers.” [emphasis added]
[Fatah Movement – Nablus Branch, Facebook page, Oct. 21, 2023]
For decades, PMW has documented that the PA and Fatah glorify and financially reward terror, profiling themselves to Palestinians as leading the terror campaign against Israel. For example, at the end of 2022, Fatah stressed that it had murdered 20 Israelis that year and that 90% of terrorist “Martyrs” were Fatah members. Back in 2016, PMW exposed that Fatah took pride in the fact that it has murdered 11,000 Israelis.
The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.
The post ‘Moderate’ Fatah Keeps Bragging It Has More Terrorists Than Hamas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Indigo wants the law to block an online boycott promotion that appropriates bookstore branding
Canadian bookstore chain Indigo is seeking a court injunction ordering internet service providers to block a website that the company says causes the brand “irreparable harm,” while also infringing on its copyright and trademark. Indigo’s lawyers appeared in a virtual Federal Court hearing Sept. 17 to ask a judge for an injunction that would order […]
The post Indigo wants the law to block an online boycott promotion that appropriates bookstore branding appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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‘F—king Jews’: Protester Interrupts Hate Crimes Hearing at US Capitol Over Focus on Antisemitism
US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaking at a press conference about the United States restricting weapons for Israel, at the US Capitol, Washington, DC. Photo: Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
An anti-Israel agitator on Tuesday unleashed an antisemitic tirade during a congressional hearing in Washington, DC on rising hate crimes across the United States.
The US Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to address growing numbers of attacks against minority religious and ethnic groups in the United States. While Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) delivered a presentation condemning anti-Israel protests on college campuses, an angry demonstrator stood up and hurled expletives targeted at the Jewish community.
“F—king Jews and the Israelis themselves!” the man shouted, apparently frustrated and angry at Cruz for focusing on the deluge of reported antisemitic attacks following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
“Talk about the 40,000 [casualties in Gaza]. Talk about all these people. Why is [this presentation] about antisemitism? F—k the law,” the agitator said before being escorted out by Capitol Police.
“We now have a demonstration of antisemitism. We have a demonstration of the hate,” Cruz responded.
Cruz then slammed Democrats for exhibiting what he described as weakness on antisemitism and vowed to punish antisemites if Republicans secure a Senate majority and the presidency in November. He accused the Biden administration and the US Justice Department of turning a “blind eye” to antisemitism.
“I’ll tell you this. Next year, if there’s a Republican majority on this committee, you will see real leadership. Next year, if there’s a Republican administration, you will see people prosecuted for this sort of violence,” Cruz said.
Senate Republicans criticized Democrats for insisting on broadening the scope of the hearing from antisemitism to a “generic” discussion about all forms of bigotry. Some critics pointed out that Democrats previously condemned use of the phrase “All Lives Matter” in lieu of “Black Lives Matter,” accusing conservatives of attempting to minimize anti-black racism.
Earlier in the hearing, US Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), chair of the Judiciary Committee, defended shifting the focus of the meeting off antisemitism specifically, stating that “prioritizing which group is being discriminated against the worst” is not a “valid exercise of [the committee’s] authority.” He went on to argue that hatred is a problem “that extends beyond the Jewish population” and also affects “the Arab population” and “the Palestinian population.”
Progressive lawmakers have been under fire from pro-Israel voices in the months following the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7 for allegedly being too soft on Hamas and placing unrealistic restrictions on Israel’s war effort in Gaza. Recent polling suggests that large swaths of Democratic voters have soured on Israel, with many supporting the implementation of an arms embargo on the Jewish state. Younger Democrats, in particular, are reporting significantly greater sympathy for Palestinians than the citizens of Israel. Many Democratic staffers have also reportedly revolted against party officials, demanding that they adopt a more adversarial posture against Israel.
In response, Democratic elected officials have sharpened their rhetoric against the Jewish state, with some suggesting that Israel has committed a “genocide” in Gaza. Democratic politicians have also sought to pressure US President Joe Biden to withhold certain weapons from Israel.
Tuesday’s hearing came amid a record surge in antisemitism across the US since Oct. 7.
The post ‘F—king Jews’: Protester Interrupts Hate Crimes Hearing at US Capitol Over Focus on Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli Cyber Expert: Explosives Planted in Hezbollah Pagers in Op Planned Months Before War
An ambulance arrives at a hospital as thousands of people, mainly Hezbollah fighters, were wounded on Sept. 17, 2024 when the pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
An Israeli cyber and national security expert has claimed that the exploding pagers carried by Hezbollah members in Lebanon, which left thousands wounded and killed at least nine people on Tuesday, were part of a sophisticated attack that was planned at least half a year before the war in Gaza erupted.
Dr. Eyal Pinko, a former navy commander and senior research fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, dismissed theories that the blasts were caused by lithium batteries that were hacked to become overheated, and said that the nature of the wounds seen in footage emerging from Lebanon was consistent with those caused by explosives such as TNT and HTB.
“To get this kind of wound you need to have between one to two grams of type of explosives, which is not a big technological issue — you just need to open the beeper,” Pinko said during a briefing with reporters on Tuesday evening. He added that a stable explosive that wouldn’t detonate accidentally would have been inserted into the device, along with a small control mechanism capable of receiving remote commands via a call or page.
Such an operation would have required significant infiltration of Hezbollah’s communication systems, according to Pinko, and planting explosives in pagers would necessitate a serious breach of the supply chain. “This is an intelligence operation that was very well planned, prepared for more than one and a half years,” Pinko said
Pinko alluded to the possibility of a coordinated effort, suggesting that Israel may not have acted alone if it was behind the attack in Lebanon, where Hezbollah wields significant political and military clout. He noted efforts by Germany, France, the US, and the UK to prevent escalation in the region.
Israel has so far been quiet about the explosions, but senior Lebanese officials have blame the Jewish state. So too has Hezbollah, which said Israel would receive “its fair punishment.”
The operation clearly appeared to serve as a message to Hezbollah, showcasing vulnerabilities in its security apparatus and serving as a form of deterrence, Pinko said. “It’s saying that, ‘you’re already being penetrated. We know where you are and what you do. Now look what we can do: In one single shot, in less than a second, we can eliminate almost 3,000 terror operatives.’”
Meanwhile, Sky News Arabia quoted an Israeli military source as saying that Hezbollah’s supply chain was infiltrated with the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, placing PETN, a highly explosive stable material, on the batteries of the devices.
A source close to Hezbollah, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the pagers were “sabotaged at the source” before being imported by Hezbollah, an Iran-backed terrorist organization based in Lebanon.
Al Jazeera said that the pagers had been in use by Hezbollah operatives for five months.
Brigadier General (res) Amir Avivi, founder of the Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF), told The Algemeiner that the attack “had the Mossad’s fingerprints all over it.”
“Hezbollah certainly got the message,” Avivi said, adding that war between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group was “imminent.”
However, Pinko said that Tuesday’s coordinated attacks were not a prelude to a full ground invasion into Lebanon and that Israel was likely to adopt a “wait and see” approach. “Israel doesn’t want to go towards further escalation; not in the north, and not with the Houthis in Yemen. They just want to finish the business in Gaza.”
The explosions came hours after a revelation by the Israeli Shin Bet security agency that a Hezbollah cell had infiltrated Israel with the intent to assassinate a former senior defense official in Tel Aviv using a mobile phone, camera, and remote detonation.
Hezbollah has fired barrages of rockets, missiles, and drones at northern Israel almost daily following the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists on the Jewish state’s southern region. Since then, both sides have been exchanging fire constantly while avoiding a major escalation as war rages in Gaza to the south.
About 80,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate their homes in northern Israel and flee to other parts of the country amid the unrelenting attacks from Hezbollah.
Israeli leaders have said they seek a diplomatic resolution to the conflict with Hezbollah along the border with Lebanon but are prepared to use large-scale military force if needed to ensure all citizens can safely return to their homes.
On Monday night, Israel’s security cabinet expanded its war goals to include returning the displaced Israelis from the north.
The post Israeli Cyber Expert: Explosives Planted in Hezbollah Pagers in Op Planned Months Before War first appeared on Algemeiner.com.