Economist decides that the PA supports only “non-violent” resistance

An article in the Economist (“A new type of Palestinian militia is emerging”, March 2), on the Lion’s Den terror group, included the following:

Unlike other militias, the group claims no link to any Palestinian party. It has emerged amid dissatisfaction with the Palestinian Authority (PA), which calls for non-violent resistance in the face of increasingly deadly Israeli raids, and infighting between Palestinian factions.

It’s unclear what the Economist writer is referring to.  What calls for strictly “non-violent” resistance have been issued by the PA or Mahmoud Abbas?

Every now and then, usually under pressure from the US, Abbas will issue mealy-mouthed criticism of ‘terrorism’.  But, while the PA argues that “popular resistance” is “peaceful” and non-violent, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has shown that the terms “popular uprising/resistance” and “peaceful uprising/resistance” are used by PA leaders to refer to deadly terror attacks – and not merely peaceful resistance.

For instance, Abbas defined as “peaceful popular” resistance the 2015-2016 ‎terror wave (“The Knife Intifada”), in which 40 people were killed.

And, often Abbas and Fatah will expresses outright support for violent ‘resistance’.

Examples abound.

As documented by PMW, in Feb. 2022, after the IDF killed three terrorists who previously carried out multiple terror attacks, and were planning another one, Abbas called on Palestinians to “dish out to them twice as much as we’ve received”, meaning that six Israelis should be killed to avenge the terrorists’ deaths.

Here’s Abbas last year praising Nasser Abu Hmeid – Palestinian terrorist and a commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades – who murdered seven Israelis in a 2000 shooting attack on Route 443 in central Israel.

That’s not exactly consistent with support for “non-violence”, is it?

PA institutions controlled by Abbas also incentivise and subsidise terror by paying salaries to attackers – who he routinely praises as “brave” – and their families, and routinely publish propaganda designed to incite Palestinians to carry out more acts of murder.

Further, Fatah, the PA’s ruling party which is headed by Abbas, is even more explicit in its call for violence.  Just last month, Fatah praised the Palestinian who murdered two brothers, Avraham and Yaakov Paley, aged 6 and 8, and a man aged 19, for “continuing the path” of other terrorists.

Fatah also praised, as a “hero”, the Arab terrorist and resident of Jerusalem Khairy Alqam, who murdered 7 civilians outside the Ateret Avraham Synagogue on Shabbat in late January.

Finally, in this end of year video posted on their official social media accounts, they announce their terrorist ‘achievements’ in 2022 – an end of year report of sorts on their ‘success’ at launching deadly attacks on Israelis.

The fact that the Economist accepts the talking points of Mahmoud Abbas about the PA’s commitment to “peaceful resistance” at face value show that, for all the media outlet’s putative fair-mindedness and objectivity, their understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is sometimes no less biased than the Guardian’s.

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1 Comment

  1. says: Lesley Silver

    I’d be interested to know who the Economist’s writer was. That might be more informative than just saying The Economist wrote it.

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