Khaled Abu Toameh
While Abbas was talking in Stockholm about his
intentions to revive the peace talks with Israel, leaders of his Fatah faction
in the West Bank were sending a completely different message to the
Palestinians. They were not talking about any peace process with Israel. They
were making statements that would only radicalize Palestinians and give them
reason to hate Israel even more. They are leading their people toward eternal
confrontation, and not reconciliation, with Israel.
The EU is not helping advance the cause of
peace in the Middle East. On the contrary, the EU continues to turn a blind eye
to the anti-Israel campaign, and is generously funding it through dozens of
NGOs in the Palestinian territories.
Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah faction in the
West Bank is trying to divert attention from its problems at home by further
inciting Palestinians and the international community against Israel.
In recent weeks, Fatah gunmen and Palestinian
Authority [PA] policemen have been clashing almost on a daily basis in the
Balata and Jenin refugee camps in the northern West Bank. Meanwhile, Fatah
leaders have been busy badmouthing each other -- a sign of deepening divisions
among the faction's top brass.
This incitement, which includes reviving the
old disproven claim that Israel was behind the 2004 death of Yasser Arafat and
calls for boycotting Israeli companies, is playing into the hands of Hamas and
other Palestinians who are opposed to any peace process with Israelis.
During his recent visit to Sweden, Abbas announced that he would work to revive the peace
talks with Israel. But while Abbas was talking in Stockholm about his intention
to resume peace talks, leaders of his Fatah faction in the West Bank were
sending a completely different message to Palestinians.
Unlike Abbas, these leaders were not talking
about any peace process with Israel. Instead, they were making statements that
would only radicalize Palestinians and give them reason to hate Israel even
more.
Not surprisingly, the voices of the Fatah
leaders, closely associated with the Palestinian Authority president, did not
reach the government officials in Sweden, who went out of their way to roll out
the red carpet for Abbas.
So while Abbas was inaugurating the Palestinian Embassy in
central Stockholm, the first-ever Palestinian embassy in Western Europe, his
officials held a press conference in Ramallah to announce a boycott of Israeli
companies.
At the press conference, Mahmoud Aloul, a
senior Fatah official, announced a new campaign to boycott products made by six
Israeli food companies. Aloul warned Palestinian shopkeepers to clear their
shelves of the Israeli products within two weeks. "Activists of all
Palestinian factions will be touring the territories to confiscate the products
after the two-week deadline," he said.
The latest Fatah-led campaign is not the first
of its kind. In the past, Fatah activists in the West Bank have played a major
role in the "anti-normalization" campaign, aimed at
foiling any meetings between Palestinians and Israelis. The Fatah activists are
even opposed to soccer matches between Israeli and Palestinian children and
meetings that bring together journalists from both sides.
Further, while Abbas held talks in Brussels
this week with European Union leaders, including European Parliament President
Martin Schultz, about ways of reviving the peace process with Israel, another
senior Fatah official repeated the fabricated charge that Israel was behind the
"poisoning" of Yasser Arafat.
Tawfik Tirawi, member of the Fatah Central
Committee and former commander of the Palestinian Authority's General Intelligence
Service in the West Bank, made the "dramatic revelation" during an
interview with a Palestinian TV station in Bethlehem.
According to Tirawi, who heads the Palestinian
commission of inquiry into Arafat's death, "We have managed to identify
the person who put the poison [in Arafat's food]. We just need some time to
confirm our investigations. But of course we know that Israel was behind the
assassination operation. But we are searching for the person who was directly
involved."
Tirawi did not reveal the identity of the
person allegedly involved in the death of Arafat. Nor did he provide any
evidence that Israel was behind the alleged assassination.
Yet by repeating the claim that Israel was
behind the death of Arafat, the top Fatah official is simply fuelling more
hatred against Israel.
How does such an unfounded accusation against
Israel contribute to Abbas's reported talk about renewing the peace process?
And how do calls for boycotting Israelis and their products pave the way for
peace and coexistence?
These are only two recent examples of how Abbas
and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority are leading their people toward
eternal confrontation, and not reconciliation, with Israel.
Add to this the daily threats by Abbas and the
PA leadership to file "war crimes" charges against Israelis with the
International Criminal Court. Once you state that your goal is to punish and
boycott Israel, it becomes extremely difficult to talk about any peace process
in the future.
Abbas and his "moderate" Fatah
faction have not only failed to prepare their people for peace with Israel;
they continue to whip up anti-Israel sentiment among Palestinians and other
Arabs. If Abbas and Fatah have already determined that many Israelis are
"war criminals" who also poisoned Yasser Arafat, how can they ever
return to any negotiating table with Israel? How will they then justify to
their people that they agreed to resume peace talks with "war criminals?"
Fatah's anti-Israel incitement and campaign to
delegitimize and isolate Israel has made it unsafe even for Palestinian
children to play soccer with Israelis. Under the current circumstances, it has
also become dangerous for Israeli peace activists to
visit Ramallah and meet Palestinian colleagues.
The EU leaders who met with Abbas last week are
either unaware of the anti-Israel incitement by his Fatah faction or simply
prefer to bury their heads in the sand. In both cases, the EU is not helping
advance the cause of peace in the Middle East. On the contrary, the EU
continues to turn a blind eye to this anti-Israel campaign, and is generously
funding it through dozens of NGOs in the Palestinian territories.
Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute, February 16, 2015
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