Senior Fatah figure urges violence in wake of UAE-Israel peace deal

Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub has a history of praising terrorists and inciting violence.

By DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDS
FATAH LEADER Jibril Rajoub (right) (photo credit: MOHAMAD TOROKMAN/REUTERS)
FATAH LEADER Jibril Rajoub (right)
(photo credit: MOHAMAD TOROKMAN/REUTERS)
A top Palestinian official has reiterated that terror is a legitimate option in "the struggle" against Israel, in the wake of the Jewish state's normalization deal with the United Arab Emirates.
“Our interest is that the struggle will damage the occupation, and that the cost of the occupation will be on the occupation and not on us," Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub told official PA TV on August 17, according to Palestinian Media Watch.
"But all the possibilities are open to all the types of resistance in the occupied lands against all expressions of the occupation, the symbols of the occupation,” he continued, using a well-known Palestinian euphemism for violence.
Israel has witnessed two terrorist attacks in recent weeks following a period of calm, suggesting that the message from Palestinian leaders is being heard.
Shay Ohayon, 39, was stabbed to death at the Segulah Junction in Petah Tikva on August 26 by a 46-year-old Palestinian from a town near Nablus in the West Bank. The motive for the attack is being investigated. His death came two weeks after another man was found critically injured in Rosh Ha'ayin, believed to have been the victim of a terror attack. Medics were able to save the victim's life.
Palestinian leaders have made a number of statements inciting violence in recent months, firstly in response to Israeli plans to annex part of the West Bank, and then in response to normalization of relations between the UAE and Israel.
In late July, PLO Executive Committee member Wasel Abu Yusuf confirmed that a third intifada is being planned by Fatah, the PLO and other Palestinian groups. "Of course[it will be] a comprehensive intifada, a national rebellion, and everything connected to ending this criminal occupation, which is implementing all its crimes and aggression against the Palestinian people. This is something necessary, and actually this is all being developed," Yusuf told PA TV.
Rajoub’s advocacy for violence is also nothing new. In April, he praised a number of terrorists by name, calling them "martyrs [who carried out] glorious acts that teach generations."


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