Controversy continues to swirl around comments made earlier this month by a prominent Fatah official who declared that the Palestinians are enemies of Israel and would use nuclear weapons against the Jewish state if they possessed them. Jibril Rajoub, a member of the Palestinian Fatah faction’s Central Committee, made the statements in an interview with the Hezbollah-linked Al Mayadeen television station.

In the interview, which took place earlier this month, Rajoub emphasized that Fatah now supports popular resistance, but has not abandoned the idea of armed resistance. “As the people of the Fatah movement, we keep resistance on the agenda in all its forms,” he said.

“At present, we are satisfied by the popular resistance,” Rajoub added, but explained, “We the Palestinians are a source of concern for Israel. We are in this country, and this country is ours. They are our enemy and our battle is against them.”…

“Until now we have not had nuclear weapons,” he declared, “but in the name of Allah, if we had nuclear weapons, we’d be using them.”

In the link above, Israel’s Yedioth Ahronot notes that Rajoub was a signatory of the Geneva Initiative, which was hailed by some foreign policy analysts as a watershed development in the peace process. In February Israeli security sources identified Rajoub as being behind a wave of terror incidents throughout the West Bank and Jerusalem. Rajoub’s comments are bound to heighten skepticism regarding Palestinian intentions toward Israel.

[Photo: Hovev / Wiki Commons]