Amid increasing attacks on Israelis, Palestinian Authority officials call for Intifada, Islamic war

Israeli security and emergency services work at the scene of a bomb attack in Tel Aviv, Israel, August 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Moti Milrod

Why did the IDF launch a major offensive in several cities in Judea and Samaria two nights ago?

Perhaps it is because senior members of the Palestinian Authority (PA) are calling for a full-scale intifada and terrorists from all Palestinian factions are actively seeking to carry out attacks in Israeli cities.

The suicide bombing in Tel Aviv last week was just the latest in a series of major attacks that failed just before they were carried out.

And PA officials have been at the forefront of calls for systematic violence.

Director of the PLO Commission for Prisoners’ Affairs, Qadura Fares: “The time has come to express our anger… I ask Almighty Allah to inspire us to the right path and the right choice, and that we will go on intifada against criminal Netanyahu and all his gangs.” (emphasis added)

(PLO Commission on Prisoner Affairs, Facebook page, July 18, 2024)

The PA-led terror campaign of 2000-2005, which the PA calls an “intifada,” killed more than 1,100 Israelis and wounded tens of thousands. To call for an “intifada” is to call for a terror war.

Furthermore, at a conference attended by senior PA officials, including Fares and Fatah Central Committee Deputy Secretary Sabri Saidam, the host made similarly inflammatory remarks ahead of August 3, 2024, “the international day in support of Gaza and the Palestinian prisoners”:

Conference Host: “If Allah wills, August 3 (2024) will be a spark for the Palestinian people and this spark will continue until we are freed from the yoke of occupation. It is not strange for this people to lead an intifada like this…

The (first) Intifada spread throughout the homeland. This is a great honor that belongs to our entire Palestinian people. In 2002 (sic., 2000), (then Prime Minister) Sharon entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque and then the (second) Intifada broke out and continued. It is not strange to our people that an intifada like this begins on August 3.” (emphasis added)

(Official PA TV, July 30, 2024)

These calls for an “intifada” have been accompanied by statements from other senior PA officials, such as Mahmoud Abbas’s adviser Mahmoud Al-Habbash, who incites terrorism throughout Israel – what he calls a “jihad”:

Mahmoud Al-Habbash, adviser to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on religious affairs and Islamic relations: “Your best Jihad is Ri hit (i.e. a religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic), and your best rib is Ashkelon. Where is Ashkelon? Ashkelon is a city in Palestine, and the country of Palestine is a country of rib and jihad until the Day of Judgement.

His (Muhammad’s) beloved followers came while performing Jihad for Allah to Palestine and Greater Syria, and liberated it from Byzantine occupation. Saladin liberated it from Crusader occupation. And today it will be liberated, if Allah wills. Palestine will return and be liberated, sooner or later.”

(PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ adviser on religious affairs and Islamic relations, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, August 9, 2024)

Al-Habbash went one step further and called for state-sponsored violence against Israel by all Islamic states:

Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “All Islamic states — big and small, far and near — must take the same position, make the same effort to protect Jerusalem, against Judaization and the occupation plans to uproot Jerusalem from the Islamic body. This is a great responsibility that President (Abbas) wanted to put before the Arabs and Muslims: O Muslims, you must join hands with your Palestinian brothers to take back Jerusalem with all the energy and power that we have and with all the means and ways.”

(Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, August 16, 2024)

Abbas’s adviser’s call for Islam to “take back Jerusalem” by “any means and means” — and citing examples of violence and terror — is an explicit call for those states to join the current war against Israel. Israel is currently fighting terror from Gaza, Judea and Samaria, Lebanon, Iran and Yemen, while Turkey and Algeria have threatened to join the fight. Al-Habbash’s call for additional Muslim states to join the war at this time should not be taken as mere rhetoric. It is a real threat.

Itamar Marcus is the founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch. A version of this article originally appeared on PMW.