Following the transfer of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, and the violent demonstrations on the Gaza border in which scores of Palestinians were killed, Palestinian Authority (PA) officials and the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida stepped up their rhetoric against the U.S. At a May 14, 2018 meeting of the Palestinian leadership, Palestinian President Mahmoud 'Abbas declared three official days of mourning for the Palestinians killed during the "Great Return March" demonstrations, and added: "I heard they opened the [American] embassy [in Jerusalem] today. It is a den of settlers, not an embassy... A den of American settlers in East Jerusalem. They opened it today, and said it was [located] in the land of the [Jewish] forefathers. This is a distortion of history. This Palestinian soil was the soil of our Canaanite forefathers, even before the era of our honorable [ancestor] Abraham, and we have continuously inhabited it [since then]."[1]
In its May 15 editorial, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida harshly attacked the U.S., saying that it has always relied on a policy of force, violence and bloodshed and even of exterminating small and weak nations, and that this policy has now reached a climax in America's treatment of the Palestinians.
Al-Hayat Al-Jadida columnists wrote in a similar vein. 'Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, for example, extolled the people of Gaza for their bravery and sacrifice in the demonstrations on the border. He called on them to "shock" the Israeli enemies and "sprinkle their pure blood upon [the enemies'] reeking heads," and to " fire the bullet of mercy killing" at them. He also referred to the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem as "the cursed cowboy's embassy."[2]
Harsh anti-American rhetoric also appeared on the official Facebook pages of the Fatah movement, led by 'Abbas, including images attacking and vilifying Trump and images presenting the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem as "a new settlement."
The following are examples of anti-American articles in the PA daily and posts on the Facebook pages of Fatah and Fatah officials.
Al-Hayat Al-Jadida Editorial: America's Policy, Based On Genocide, Has Reached A Climax With Its Treatment Of The Palestinians
On May 15, the day after the violent events in Gaza, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida published an editorial titled "The Ugly American, Once Again," which stated: "None of the American administrations were noted for nobility [of spirit] or for human traits such as compassion, tolerance and understanding [of the other]. [America] has always employed brutal policies towards small and poor nations. That is how it behaved toward the Native Americans, whom it called 'Indians,' during the violent and blood-soaked period of its birth. [The Americans] used guns, which were the deadliest of weapons at the time, and were unavailable to the natives. America's depraved brutality was also evident in its criminal use of [medical?] knowledge: it gave many of these [Native American] tribes blankets infected with the plague virus, which was deadly at the time, thereby killing millions of their members. Just read the book The Right to Sacrifice the Other: The American Genocides, by Mounir Al-'Akash."
"Japan was not more powerful than the U.S. during World War II, but [America's] violent cowboy culture spawned the nuclear bomb called Little Boy... which was dropped on Hiroshima, killing within seconds over 90,000 of its residents, who were not even on the front lines. America did not suffice with that, but attacked Nagasaki with another nuclear bomb, called Fat Man, killing 80,000 of its residents and raising a mushroom of smoke over the disaster-struck city.
"Space will not allow us to elaborate on America's violent military intervention in the Korea war, which started in the early 1950s and prompted American writer William Rederer [sic] to pen his famous book The Ugly American.[3] In the Vietnam War, the American napalm, whose use is considered a war crime, played a most hideous role after the U.S. forces made extensive use of it.
"It would be difficult to continue relating all the stories that appear in The Ugly American, which are full of bloodshed, systematic violence, a culture of brutality and attacks on small nations. All of these [traits] are manifest today, in all their hideousness, in [America's] brutality towards our nation, which possesses none of [the tools in America's] military and economic arsenal. [America's] excessive aggression towards our people is manifest in the U.S. administrations' consistent capitulation to every Zionist demand. Moreover, this administration has [now] moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem, in defiance of all the international and legal decisions, having declared that Jerusalem is the capital of the occupation state – and has thus become a completely Zionist administration... It is this [American] conduct that has finally brought an end to the peace process that the international community and its legal and moral conventions aspire [to achieve] in order to settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
"Here it is worth noting that, when a superpower like the U.S. sponsors an occupation and acts to perpetuate it, in defiance of all international resolutions and conventions, this obligates the international community, first of all, to unite and oppose this [policy]. This [American] policy is bereft of any moral standards, and threatens to impose the law of the jungle on the entire international community.
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"The American administration is currently going very far in establishing the policy of arrogance and racism and cultivating the occupation and its blood-soaked policy. This poses a threat to the future security and stability to which all of humankind aspires. The international community must oppose this, before the disease of racist and aggressive policies spreads and before its flames spread and destroy everything.
"As for us Palestinians, who are at the forefront of the conflict, we will continue opposing this policy and its expressions, whatever they may be. We have said in the past, and we [continue to] say and to emphasize that even if the American administration transfers all its headquarters from Washington to occupied Jerusalem, this will not discourage us or weaken our resolve, our free will and our insistence to continue on the path of freedom until [we achieve] independence.
"The entire world, and especially the American administration, should know that the only peace that can [possibly] be realized in Palestine is a true, just and honorable peace, nothing else. No deal will be made in this century except that kind of deal. [We] leave the depraved plague deal to the Ugly American."[4]
Images vilifying Trump on Fatah's official Facebook page (@Officialfateh1965, May 13-15, 2018)
Al-Hayat Al-Jadida Columnist Calls On Gaza To Shock The Bloodsucking Enemies, Sprinkle Its Pure Blood Upon Their Reeking Heads
In his May 15 column, 'Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul praised the Gazans for participating in the demonstrations on the border against the "bloodsucking" enemies, and urged them to continue shedding their pure blood until they "fire the bullet of mercy killing" at the Israelis. He wrote: "Oh Gaza, flag of nationalism and the jewel in its crown; oh Gaza, glory of the people and of the nation... symbol of giving and of martyrdom... At a time when the way is lost... you rise from the dust, starvation, siege, and catastrophe, as if reborn on the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, and declare the reemergence of the era of the revolution...
"Oh glorious Gaza, sheaf of light in the darkness of the Arab night! Oh port city that smiles on the Palestinians and the Arabs! Shock, with all [your] might, your enemies and the bloodsucking pillagers of the soil of the homeland, who are sponsored by the cowboy of Zionist crusaderism, [and] who aspire to destroy you and Palestine as well, and Jerusalem, and peace.
"Oh [Gaza]... daughter of Canaan, who preceded the birth of Jesus, the messengers, and the prophets, the hymns, the psalms, the tribes, and all the commentary... Sprinkle your pure blood on their reeking heads infected with the path of capitalism and sunk in the mud of the plundering of the peoples and of planting the satanic Zionist sapling in the inhabited home and homeland...
"Oh Gaza... shake off the garment of sadness... Purify your body of contamination and adorn your garment with the colors of the flag of the sons of free men – the flag of Palestine, of the Arab nation, and of the glorious accomplishments...
"Oh Gaza... icon of peace... Oppose with your hand the blade of the cowardly, plundering Israeli enemy who conceals himself... Release your great shout to slice the skies... Expose the shame of the plunderers of the history of the nation of knights... Fire at them the bullet of mercy killing, so that the nation will awaken from its very prolonged slumber. Spread the scent of the blood of the martyrs in the skies of freedom, so that the Arabs of nationality will awaken from the dullness of [their] lack of independence and arise from the intoxication of pointless death... Knock again on the gate of history, as you did when you lit the wick of the modern revolution and the first Intifada, when the path of struggle proceeded from neighborhood to neighborhood, from street to street, from village to refugee camp, until it crossed all the squares of the cities... Trample the honor of the enemies every[where], and bury their missiles beneath the earth... despite the pain of death and the mothers' wails for their martyred sons...
"Oh Gaza, symbol of glory, freedom, and independence, on the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, and in light of the perverse promise to transfer the cursed cowboy's embassy [to Jerusalem], you were the jewel in the crown of the [Palestinian] cause, [you] bear the [flag] of the covenant of nationalism, and [you are] the first line of defense of the national destinations... A thousand blessings upon you; a billion [times] peace upon the souls of the righteous martyrs, and speedy recovery to your wounded heroes... Despite the flowing blood, you will remain the sublime point of light in the lethal darkness of Arabness."[5]
Post on personal Facebook page of Fatah's spokesman Osama Al-Qawasma, shows Ivanka Trump's dress stained with the blood of slain Palestinians (@Osama.qawasma.5, May 15, 2018)
Posts on Fatah's official Facebook page (@Officialfateh1965, May 15, 2018)
[1] Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (PA), May 15, 2018
[2] Al-Hayat Al-Jadida columnist Muwaffaq Matar wrote that May 14, 2018 will go down in history as the day on which the American occupation of Palestine, and that the U.S. has opened "a military base in occupied Jerusalem." (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, PA, May 15, 2018).
[3] The Ugly American (1958), which depicts the failures of the U.S. diplomatic corps in Southeast Asia, is by William Lederer and Eugene Burdick.
[4] Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (PA), May 15, 2018.
[5] Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (PA), May 15, 2018.
