Hamas, Fatah Post Facebook Threats
JERUSALEM, Israel -- To understand the ideology embraced by Hamas and Fatah, a working knowledge of Arabic is very helpful. The two Palestinian factions formed a unity government in early June.
The Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) staff makes it their business to monitor both factions' Arabic-language websites, Facebook pages, Tweets and satellite television programs.
In a song aired earlier this week on Hamas' al-Aqsa TV, the terror group urges its people to seek "martyrdom for Allah through suicide bombings in cafés and buses" in Tel Aviv. Click here to read the lyrics.
While some Western leaders insist that Fatah is a true partner for peace with Israel, the party's Facebook page tells a slightly different story.
In a post Wednesday in Arabic, Ofir Gendelman, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, asked the P.A. chairman if reconciliation with Hamas is an avenue to unite against Israel. Gendelman's post included a cartoon showing Hamas and Fatah gunmen shaking hands as they aimed their rifles at an Israeli soldier.
The Fatah Facebook administrator's response: "Yes, this is what we want."
Gendelman asked a second time, "President Abbas, is this what you want?"
"Yes," he answered. "This is what we want."
Earlier this week, PMW translated an Arabic-language post from Fatah's official Facebook page in which a Fatah Central Committee member and advisor to Abbas warned Israelis to "prepare all the bags you can for your body parts."
Posting in Hebrew, Hamas warned Israelis to "wait for suicide attacks on every bus, café and street."
"Start counting the number of coffins you'll need," it warned, accompanied by several Hebrew-language videos depicting stabbings and suicide bombings.
"Zionists, wait and see terror attacks, stabbing[s] everywhere. Wait for suicide attacks on every bus, café and street. Wait for the rage and for revenge for Gaza, wait for the flames of the West Bank [Judea and Samaria] inside you."
Another Fatah post promised, "Death will reach you from the south and the north the KN-103 rocket is on its way [to] you."
The late PLO chairman Yasser Arafat often said one thing in English and another in Arabic. It seems the tradition lives on in the Palestinian Authority unity government.
