As U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Israel and the Palestinian territories to move along peace talks, a report emerged that Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas claimed all of Israel is occupied Palestinian land.
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported that at a memorial event last month a speech delivered in Abbas’ name asserted that all of Israel was called “occupied Palestinian land.”
The event, which memorialized a Fatah and PLO leader from the 1970s, included the performance of a song that glorifies death and included the lyric, “My Weapon has Emerged.”
The memorial was broadcast live on Palestinian TV on Oct. 9. Fatah Central Committee member Jamal Muhaisen delivered “the speech of Mahmoud Abbas, president of the state of Palestine.”
According to PMW, Muhaisen stated, “not an inch of the land of Palestine” has been “liberated,” including the “1948 lands,” which is a term the PA and Fatah use to refer to Israel within the Green Line.
“All our holy places are still under occupation, and so far we have not liberated one inch of Palestinian land. All Palestinian land is occupied – Gaza is occupied, the West Bank is occupied, the 1948 lands [Israel] are occupied and Jerusalem is occupied.”
PMW reported that a poster announcing the event stated it was held “under the auspices” of Abbas.
Earlier, PMW reported that Abbas’ Fatah movement called released murderer Issa Abd Rabbo “one of our nation’s symbols and one of our greatest leader.”
The remarks appeared on Fatah’s Facebook page in late October.
Abd Rabbo had been jailed for murdering two Israeli university students, Ron Levi and Revital Seri, who were hiking south of Jerusalem on Oct. 22, 1984. Abd Rabbo attacked them, tied them up at gun point, put bags over their heads and then shot them to death.
He was released from two life sentences in October as part of a larger prisoner release – he was one of 104 prisoners who were freed – as a Palestinian precondition for renewing negotiations.
The Fatah Facebook page stated, “On this great day, Oct. 21, 1984, we stand respectfully, proudly, and with admiration for one of our nation’s symbols and one of our greatest leaders, who spent his best years in the Zionist occupation’s fortresses [prisons]… On this great day we express feelings of utmost loyalty and devotion to our brother Issa. We will continue to walk in his path, the way of resolve and defiance, the way of loyalty to our great Martyrs, foremost among them our symbol and great leader, Yasser Arafat ‘Abu Amar.’”
