The Palestinian Authority’s ruling faction, Fatah, is boasting that its members have carried out most of the recent terrorism against Israelis. “Fatah leaders are also calling for more violence against Israel,” and are praising the perpetrators of the recent massacre of Israeli as “heroic martyrs,” they have said.
Fatah is by far the largest of the 10 factions that make up the P.A. and its parent body, the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Fatah, the P.A. and the PLO were all headed by Yasser Arafat and are now chaired by his successor, 87-year-old Mahmoud Abbas. In signing the Oslo Accords of 1993-1995, Fatah committed to lay down its weapons, combat terrorists and live in peace with Israel.
Instead of living in peace with Israel, Fatah is “leading” the latest waves of anti-Israel violence, according to Fatah itself. The Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, on its official Facebook page on June 17, posted a video asserting: “If we ask about the armed resistance in the West Bank, the Fatah Movement is the one that is leading it. The Fatah members have more than two-thirds of the percentage of martyrs … ”
The U.S. State Department added the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades to the official U.S. list of designated terrorist groups but refused to acknowledge they were part of Fatah.
Finally, in June 2005, a study by the U.S. government’s own Congressional Research Service reported: “On December 18, 2003, Fatah asked the leaders of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades to join the Fatah Council, recognizing it officially as part of the Fatah organization.”
Later, it turned out that a telegram sent by the State Department to American embassies around the world on March 13, 1973 acknowledged the truth: “The Black September Organization is a cover term for Fatah’s terrorist operations executed by Fatah’s intelligence organization. … For all intents and purposes no significant distinction now can be made between the BSO and Fatah.”
The Biden administration, however, refuses to see any Fatah members carrying out attacks, refuses to hear Fatah officials endorsing terrorism, and refuses to say anything bad about Fatah—because to acknowledge the truth is to admit that Fatah never gave up terrorism, Arafat and Abbas never wanted peace, and creating a Palestinian state won’t bring peace. That’s a painful truth for many people to acknowledge. But the truth must be faced, no matter how painful.
Produced in association with Jewish News Syndicate
