An official TV channel of the Palestinian Authority repeatedly broadcast a song calling for violence against Israel last week, the watchdog group Palestinian Media Watch reported Monday.
The broadcast of the song “Long Live Fatah Men” occurred during Fatah’s party conference, from November 29 to December 4. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas unanimously won reelection to lead the party at the conference, after barring the opposition from attending.
The music video, which includes footage of soldiers brandishing weapons, reiterates Fatah’s “oath” to destroy Israel, and describes how that should be accomplished. It notably credits Fatah with beginning its efforts to “free the state” by bombing the Eilaboun tunnel, a part of the National Water Carrier of Israel, some two and a half years before the Six-Day War. As the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and Golan Heights were all controlled by Arab powers at the time, the lyrics indicate that Fatah seeks to “free” Israeli territory within the 1949 armistice lines.
Shoot the Dashka [machine gun] and the cannon
Let the whole world hear:
The Palestinian will never bow other than to the Lord of the universe…
Eilabun [in 1965] was the first shot [at Israel] and Fatah was responsible
The oath is to free the state from the hands of the Zionists
Long live all the Fatah men
No one prevailed over us
We burst over the borders…
Strike, mortar, strike!
Slice open the enemy’s chest, slice it
I’m a Palestinian and I want my right
My full right…
The difficult way is our way
Bullets! Sing for us!
The sound of the rifles gives us joy
Fatah taught me, thank you, Fatah
I have no love other than the love of the rifle.
Marwan Barghouti, who is currently serving five life sentences in Israeli jail for his role in plotting murders and terrorist attacks during the Second Intifada, received the most votes for Fatah’s Central Committee. “The election of Barghouti in the Fatah movement radicalizes the culture of incitement and terrorism,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday, adding that this “only serves to alienate prospects of peace.”
[Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90 ]