Fatah on Trump’s peace plan: Palestine must be defended ‘with blood’

US President Donald Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’ peace plan “will not pass,” Fatah has declared, calling on Palestinians to “defend Palestine with their blood and souls.”

In a series of cartoons posted to Facebook and printed in the official Palestinian Authority daily paper al-Hayat al-Jadida, Fatah has made explicitly clear its scorn for Trump’s deal, and its insistence that Palestine must include the whole of what is currently Israel, as well as the West Bank and Gaza.

— Pal Media Watch (@palwatch) February 2, 2020
A picture posted to Fatah’s official Facebook page on January 30 depicted the Dome of the Rock, along with the text: “Down with the deal of the century. Palestine Is not a homeland that is sold and purchased But rather a piece of the Quran that we will defend with [our] blood and souls,” according to NGO Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), which monitors Palestinian media outlets for inflammatory messaging.

Another, posted to the same page on the same day, depicts a man wearing a keffiyeh lying cross-armed, completely filling the current borders of Israel and the Palestinian territories with a defiant look on his face under the words “From the Sea to the River,” referring to the Mediterranean sea and the Jordan river. Legs crossed, the sole of one of his sandals is showing, with the words “Deal of the Century” written upon it. To show the sole of one’s shoe is considered a gross insult in Arab culture.

— Pal Media Watch (@palwatch) February 2, 2020
Palestinian children are regularly included in propaganda efforts that insist all of Israel is ‘Palestine,’ an example of which was posted again on the same day: dozens of children formed the shape of the PA map of Palestine with a Palestinian flag planted in the middle, indicating Palestinian authority over the whole area with no room for the Jewish population. Text posted to Facebook accompanying the image read: “The school students express the rejection of the deal of the century in the street. Long live Palestine.”

And again on the same day and page, a third cartoon depicted Hamas Political Bureau Chairman Ismail Haniyeh, Palestinian National Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, Islamic Jihad Movement leader Khaled Al-Batsh, and other Arab figures standing with their arms interlinked, protecting “Palestine,” which again included all of Israel. A picture of the Dome of the Rock with the Palestinian flag flying over it and the word ‘Palestine’ in English were upon the map, while under the image was the text: “No to [Israeli] annexation of the Jordan Valley; Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine; down with the deal of the century.”

The cartoon was meant to depict Abbas statement following Trump’s announcement of the deal, in which he called for Fatah and Hamas to unite in opposition to the plan.

“As chairman of both the Palestinian Authority and Fatah [Abbas] may assert that the Palestinians are only interested in a “Palestine” on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, but the messages from his own Fatah contradict this,” PMW noted on their website.

Unification between Palestinian allies was the theme of a cartoon which appeared in al-Hayat al-Jadida days later, on February 1, which carried a split panel. In the top half two men are seen standing separately with arms raised, saying “Down with the deal of the century.” In the panel below, they are repeating the slogan, this time united with arms around each others’ shoulders.

Abbas has reacted angrily to the peace plan floated by Donald Trump, telling an emergency meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo on Saturday that his has decided to sever all relations with Israel and the US in protest.

In response, Blue and White leader Benny Gantz tweeted: “Abbas has once again not missed an opportunity to be a rejectionist. The time has come to start working on behalf of the future generations and peace, instead of getting stuck in the past and preventing a future of hope for the entire region.”