While Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas insists that the PA wants peace with Israel, several other senior figures in the PA have assured the public that violence remains an option. A video clip created by members of Abbas' Fatah faction and broadcast recently on PA TV declares, “We continue the struggle... We won't throw down our weapons.”

The music video also contains the line, “We treat the rifle as our brother.” It was translated by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).




Similar statements appeared recently in the PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida. Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi told the paper, “our people will not lay down the rifle until our land is liberated and the independent Palestinian state arises with Jerusalem as its capital.”

A second Fatah Central Committee member, Nabil Shaath, said, “We are aware that at the present time it is impossible to return to the armed struggle, despite its being the right of Palestinians.”

The Governor of Jenin, Qadura Musa, had told Al-Hayat Al-Jadida less than one week earlier that Fatah remains loyal to its slogan “rebellion until victory.” The word “rebellion,” like “resistance,” has often been used by the PA to describe terrorism.

Musa also stated “the rifle will always be independent, and its aim is defense of the Palestinian people.”

A student leader from Jenin, interviewed on the same day, said that Fatah “is the mother of the first shaheed (martyr), the first prisoner, and the first bullet,” and “will continue to be the symbol of rebellion.”

“Fatah has not laid down the rifle, despite its call for peace,” he said.