Jibril Rajoub
Jibril RajoubFlash 90

A senior Palestinian Authority (PA) official last Wednesday declared that his organization has made a "political decision" to support Arab terrorists "slaughtering" Jews living in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem.

Jibril Rajoub, head of the PA Sports Authority and Deputy Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee, made the statements on the independent Palestinian Arab TV channel Awdah. Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) exposed and translated the interview.

"OK, brother, here is the occupation, am I stopping you from slaughtering a settlement? No one is stopping anyone...our political decision is resistance in the occupied territories in order to bring an end to the occupation [using] all forms of resistance," Rajoub said.

Rajoub opened by saying "I'm telling everyone: Fatah has decided that our relations with the Israelis are relations between enemies. There is no kind of coordination between the Israelis and us." Apparently he was referring to the coordination between the PA security forces and Israel.

The comments are especially meaningful because Rajoub holds a close relationship with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. In February, Rajoub made an official trip to Iran as Abbas's representative, where he said "if the talks fail, armed struggle against (Israel) could be a strategic solution."

Fatah's "military wing," the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, this month announced a full return to terrorismdeclaring "open waron the Jewish state. Those calls have already been acted on in several shooting attacks and attempts at such attacks.

Just two weeks ago, the group falsely claimed to have murdered 11,000 Israelis, and has likewise called for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel.

Fatah's position is in line with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) charter of 1968, which calls for "armed struggle" and "armed revolution," declaring "armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine," and calling on local Arabs to "be prepared for the armed struggle." 

Following the charter, the PLO and Fatah were defined internationally as terror organizations, a status which was removed during the 1993 Oslo Accords process.