The Palestinian Authority (PA) daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida published an editorial on April 25, 2023 titled "MEMRI Attests to It," after MEMRI translated and published excerpts from an interview given by Ziad Al-Nakhalah, secretary-general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), to an Iraqi television channel. In the interview, Al-Nakhalah said that Iran has provided billions of dollars to the PIJ and to Hamas. He added that tens of thousands of rockets of the resistance in Gaza and Lebanon surround Israel, and that the resistance forces in the region have established a situation of deterrence in the struggle against it.[1]
The editorial harshly criticized the PIJ and Hamas, saying that they serve not the Palestinian people but rather Iran, which is seeking to deepen its hegemony in the region. It states further that by acknowledging that his organization has received billions of dollars from Iran, Al-Nakhalah has served Israel's propaganda, and that the MEMRI clip is evidence of this. Furthermore, it accused the PIJ and Hamas of corruption and called for the Palestinians to hold Al-Nakhalah to account.
The Al-Hayat Al-Jadida editorial: "MEMRI Attests to It"
In an earlier editorial, published April 18, the newspaper had also criticized Al-Nakhalah's statements. This editorial argued that the PIJ and Hamas are not resistance movements, and that only one thing could change the balance of power vis-à-vis Israel – that is, intra-Palestinian unity, not the thousands of rockets that the PIJ and Hamas boast about.
To view the MEMRI TV clip of Al-Nakhalah's statements, click here or below:
The following are translated excerpts of Al-Hayat Al-Jadida's April 25 and April 18 editorials.
Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 25, 2023: In MEMRI Clip, Al-Nakhalah Admits That His Movement Has Received Billions Of Dollars From Iran
Al-Hayat Al-Jadida's April 25 editorial stated: "The Middle East Media Research Institute is a Zionist institute that monitors the media and claims to be a non-profit! Headquartered in Washington, according to Google it has branches in London, Berlin, Jerusalem, Rome, Shanghai, Baghdad and Tokyo... This Zionist institution, known as MEMRI, has a television channel [the reference is to a YouTube channel], which last week posted an interview given by PIJ secretary-general Ziad Al-Nakhalah to six journalists on an Iraqi satellite channel. [The footage shows] Al-Nakhalah [sitting] in the middle, flanked by three people on his left and three on his right, and talking with crazy enthusiasm about the aid consistently extended by Iran to the 'Palestinians,' as he puts it. He says that this aid has amounted to billions of dollars in the last 30 years, of which $150 billion was transferred annually to Hamas in the last 10 years!!!
"If we believe Al-Nakhalah's claim about the billions of dollars transferred to the Palestinians, we must naturally ask: What results did these billions have for Palestine's various economic infrastructures?? Absolutely none. But we know that by 'Palestinians' Al-Nakhalah meant his movement [PIJ] and Hamas. Both organizations have indeed received billions of dollars [from Iran], but these billions have had no impact at all on the lives of the Palestinians, especially in the wounded Gaza Strip, whose residents still yearn for rehabilitation. The $150 billion that Hamas receives [annually] from Iran, for example, are not used to rehabilitate anything, except for the movement's [weapons] depots and its divisive regime, whose sickening greed causes it to impose more and more illegal and illegitimate taxes on our people in the wounded [Gaza] Strip!!
"Political funding [of this sort] is obviously meant to subjugate [the recipient] as a tool serving the interests of the one providing the funds. The statements [in the clip] are essentially a clear admission by proxy-general Al-Nakhalah [a play of words on Al-Nakhalah's title of secretary-general], that his movement and Hamas have received billions of dollars, but that these billions have done nothing to benefit the national Palestinian interests. On the contrary, they have greatly promoted, and continue to promote, the inciting media, the spreading of bombastic populist slogans, and the despicable [intra-Palestinian] schism! This is because the one providing the funds [Iran] is not interested in any objective that serves the Palestinian cause and the struggle of the Palestinian people to [achieve] liberation under the banner of its sole legitimate representative, the PLO. [Iran] is always interested only in its plan to overtake the region in order to achieve more influence in it!!!
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"Our goal [here] is not to hurl accusations at the one who is providing the funds [Iran], because as long as Ziad Al-Nakhleh is a Palestinian, it is inappropriate to blame anyone else... and he should be held accountable within the [Palestinian] national arena... In fact, is it not flagrant corruption when billions of dollars are transferred without any oversight and there are money reserves the Palestinian people do not even know about[?]!
"Now one question remains: What caused MEMRI to post [the clip] about this interview with Al-Nakhalah with subtitles in several languages, including Farsi... What propaganda is MEMRI pushing by publicizing this interview of Al-Nakhalah's, other than the vile Zionist propaganda about [Iran] spending billions of dollars on terror in order to destroy Israel? This [propaganda] brings [Israel] billions of dollars and strengthens its fake narrative. Will Al-Nakhalah understand this fact? Next time, will he think twice before making statements that serve the Zionist media-propaganda machine, as indicated by MEMRI's [clip]?"[2]
Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 18, 2023: The PIJ And Hamas Are Tools Of Iran, Not Resistance Movements
On April 12, 2023, on the eve of International Qods Day that is marked by the pro-Iran axis on the last Friday of Ramadan, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) delegation visited Iraq. During the visit PIJ secretary-general, Ziad Al-Nakhalah, who headed the delegation, made remarks to the Iraqi media in which he praised Iran and the armed struggle against Israel. In an interview on Iraqi TV, he said that the Palestinian resistance and other resistance forces in the region had "created deterrence in the struggle against the Israeli occupation," and that Iran was supporting the PIJ and Hamas with weapons and money. He added that "tens of thousands of the resistance's rockets in Gaza and Lebanon are surrounding the Israeli entity."[3]
In response to Al-Nakhalah's remarks, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida's April 18 editorial harshly condemned the PIJ and Hamas, stating that they are not resistance movements acting for the benefit of the Palestinian people, but rather tools of Iran. It added that only one thing could really change the balance of power vis-à-vis Israel – namely, intra-Palestinian unity, not thousands of rockets.
The following are excerpts from the editorial:
"In the area of populist slogans, PIJ Secretary-General Ziad Nakhalah outdid [Hamas leader] Yahya Sinwar's 1,111 rockets[4] when he declared that the resistance has tens of thousands of rockets surrounding the Zionist entity [i.e. Israel] from Gaza to Lebanon, [and] that the entity has begun to feel the [change in] balance of power, due to the balance of deterrence imposed by the resistance! This is the first resistance in history that just boasts about its rockets – since of those tens of thousands of rockets, only hundreds have [actually] been fired, in order to promote positions and specific partisan slogans. Those few hundred rockets did no real damage to the Israeli occupation, either in lives or property. The only deterrence they achieved was [Israel's] deterrence [established] by means of the understandings and lull achieved following Israel's war on Gaza in 2014 – a war that left the [Gaza] Strip with wounds that to this very moment are still bleeding.
"We remember the Israeli airstrike that killed several PIJ leaders in Gaza, while Hamas did nothing.[5] Moreover, [this year too], Hamas threatened to make the earth shake under the Israeli occupation's feet if the latter crossed the line at Al-Aqsa, but then failed to fire a single bullet at the occupation forces from wounded Gaza. Instead, it and the PIJ went to South Lebanon, as part of an Iranian arrangement brokered by Hizbullah, and fired rockets from there, and then denied doing so!
"This reality begs the following important question: Is creating a 'power-balance' or a 'balance of deterrence' – something that exists only between states – [really] one of the goals of the resistance? Or should the resistance formulate an integral plan for the struggle and for delivering blows and carrying out operations on an ongoing basis, so as to achieve victory and defeat the enemy? And can there be resistance without a united national front, and while Hamas and the PIJ [are acting] as players and [Iranian] tools in the regional arena?
"The Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, calls on the Arab and Muslim states to unite and cooperate, and the PIJ calls for 'uniting the arenas [of struggle].' But neither of them directs a single glance at the situation in the Palestinian arena. Neither of them says anything about the need for unity within it or calls for unity!
"Historically, neither Hamas nor the PIJ invented the resistance. The [resistance] archive still documents various types of active resistance carried out by Fatah, and contains no [record of] these two organizations, who are subordinate to capitals in the region [probably a reference to Doha and Tehran]! We are tired of speeches about rockets, which seem to achieve [only] a balance of understandings, not a balance of power, which requires more than rockets to achieve. [A balance of power] is not achieved through weapons, but through every [other] aspect of the conflict. When it comes to a moral balance of power, national unity is the best and sharpest weapon, which will achieve not only balance, but an advantage.
"The Israeli occupation delivered a sore blow to the Palestinian national unity when it redeployed around the Gaza Strip [the reference is to Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005], which paved the way for Hamas to achieve this despicable schism in the Palestinian arena. That is indeed what happened, and Hamas has continued to cultivate this schism with tender loving care!
"Between Gaza and Lebanon – [an area that] according to Ziad Al-Nakhalah holds thousands of rockets surrounding Israel – there is [also] the resisting West Bank, as well as Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, where [people] are calling [to defend Al-Aqsa] and are manning the front. It is they who are still fighting the occupation and its fascist arrogance.
"Ultimately, we must [ask]: What are those rockets, allegedly rockets of the Palestinian resistance, doing on Lebanese soil, unless they are something completely different, [i.e. Iranian rockets]? Especially given that... when Nakhalah visited Baghdad recently, he went [straight] to the Iranian embassy there and met with the Iranian ambassador, before [meeting] with any Iraqi official!"[6]
[1] Al-Nakhalah gave the interview while on an official visit to Iraq at the head of a PIJ delegation. See Paltoday.ps, April 16, 2023.
[2] Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (PA), April 25, 2023.
[3] Paltoday.ps, April 16, 2023.
[4] In an April 30, 2022 speech, Sinwar called on the Palestinians to prepare for a large-scale campaign against Israel that would begin with a salvo of 1,111 rockets. See MEMRI TV Clip No. 9527, Hamas Gaza Leader Yahya Sinwar: We Will Desecrate Synagogues Throughout The World If Al-Aqsa Is Desecrated; Israel Wants A Religious War – We Accept The Challenge; This Will Scorch The Earth, Change The Planet; Palestinians Should Carry Out Lone Wolf Attacks; Israeli-Arabs Should Prepare Their Guns, Cleavers, Axes, Knives, May 30, 2022.
[5] On this, see MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 10132, Journalist Close To Hamas: Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) Should Not Have Allowed Itself To Be Drawn Into Confrontation With Israel , August 10, 2022.
[6] The reference is to the meeting between the PIJ delegation and Iran's ambassador in Iraq, Mohamad Kadhim Al-Sadiq, who told them that "the resistance axis has now become stronger, more united and more coordinated" (Alalam.ir, April 13, 2023).
