Fatah Leader, School Books Supports Terrorism Against US in Iraq

Ezra HaLevi

A leader of Mahmoud Abbas's US-backed Fatah party has come out in support of the terrorist war being fought against US and British forces in Iraq. PA text books for school children also push attacks on American and British forces Mahmoud Ismail, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, expressed his support for the war on the US during an interview on official Palestinian Authority (PA) TV, which is under the control of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The clip was recorded and translated by Palestinian Media Watch, which monitors incitement on PA television.

Ismail further defined the US -Britain alliance fighting in Iraq as the Arab Nation's "enemies, the imperialists," and justified the "right to struggle and to resistance [euphemism for terror -PMW] in all possible ways in all the occupied lands." Those occupied lands, he said, include "Palestine" and Iraq.

PMW translated Ismail’s complete statements, made on PA television on February 26, 2008:

"I want to cite the actions and future actions of President [Abbas], from the starting point that the Palestine cause is the essential and central cause of the Arab Nation. It's not surprising that [to] certain journalists of the current despicable American era, our [Arab nationalist] language of the 50s and 60s is outdated, when we talk about the nature of the struggle between the Arab Nation and its enemies: the Imperialists and Zionists, who attack and occupy our territories inside Palestine and outside, in Iraq, in the remains of South Lebanon and the Golan.

"We [however,] take pride in this [Arab nationalist] language because we are the authentic Arabs who believe in our Arabism, our faith, our cause, our Nation, in our right to struggle and to resistance [euphemism for terror] in all possible ways in all the occupied lands, in Palestine, Lebanon the Golan and Iraq..."

PA Text Books Call For Fighting Americans and British in Iraq
"Palestinian support for those fighting American and British soldiers in Iraq is mainstream Palestinian ideology," Palestinian Media Watch Director Itamar Marcus says. One example given is a recently published PA textbook for schoolchildren, Contemporary Problems (grade 12, p. 92), in which fighting between the Islamic-Arab world and the West is described as a "Clash of Civilizations." The book frequently expains that the clash is led by the United States and Iraq, PMW reports.

Fighting against American and British soldiers in Iraq is "brave resistance to liberate Iraq" from "occupation" according to the Grade 12 textboom "History of the Arabs and the World in the 20th Century." (p. 147)


"Islam is said to promote Human Rights (Contemporary Problems, pp. 95-96), while the US and the West are described as 'the colonialist states, [who] are taking advantage of it [human rights]' and 'interfering in the matters of other states, as is happening in Afghanistan, Iraq, Darfur...' (ibid, p. 101) America is guilty of 'violations of international humanitarian law in Iraq and Afghanistan...' (ibid, p. 108)

According to PMW, the PA schoolbooks were published with foreign money, primarily from Belgium.

The following is a translated passage from the new 12th grade Palestinian history book:

"The President of the United States, George Bush Jr [sic], gave the Iraqi president in 2003 an ultimatum of 48 hours to leave Iraq, or face a war to disarm him. The Arab League rejected this ultimatum. The U.S. and Britain [forces]... stormed Iraqi cities with the participation of military forces from different countries and Baghdad fell. The Iraqis did not surrender to this occupation but succeeded in organizing themselves, and a brave resistance to liberate Iraq began." [History of the Arabs and the World in the 20th Century, grade 12, p. 147, published 2006]