Subscribe Today
Request a Clip
In a TV interview, Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi said, with regard to allegations of Hamas executions of Fatah members during the Gaza war: "What is the difference between beheading people and executing them by gunfire? Aren't they both killers, regardless of the execution method, which we all denounce?" The interview was broadcast on September 2, 2014 on the Palestinian Authority's Al-Awda TV channel.
Following are excerpts:
Interviewer: Hamas denies shooting [Fatah members] in the legs. Such things happened during the 2007 coup, but Hamas denied doing it back then and denies doing it now. Please tell our Palestinian viewers the details.
"Abu Jihad" Fatah member from Gaza: First of all, in the middle of the war, I was told that I was under house arrest – I was forbidden to leave home – for reasons unknown to me. I went out, but stayed close to home. I didn't go far away.
[…]
All of a sudden, a car with three armed men stopped. They got out and told us to stay where we were. They asked me my name, and I told them, and then all three of them opened fire at me.
[…]
Tawfiq Tirawi: I do not believe that we can keep quiet about what was done to our people in Gaza. National unity is not just an agreement that you sign, like [the ceasefire agreement] signed Azzam Al-Ahmad. That agreement was a mistake, a mistake, a mistake. It was dictated from above – a bullshit agreement with no details and no mechanism for implementation. They went and signed a bullshit agreement with no details. What government would we have, and who would lead it? These issues were not properly determined in the agreement, so we cannot call this national unity.
[…]
What is happening in Gaza stems from the weakness of Fatah, its leadership, and its Central Committee.
[…]
If we want to wage war, we must be united and prepared. How can we possibly be prepared, when Fatah members in [Gaza] are forbidden to bear arms and fight?
[…]
Some of the people executed [by Hamas] were officers in the security agencies. Hamas says that they were spies. Did they place them on trial? Did they interrogate them? Where are their confessions? Or maybe they brought people who had interrogated Hamas members in the past, and executed them now. What justification can there be for this? According to what law did they execute these people? What is the difference between [Hamas] and Al-Zarqawi, not to mention ISIS? I don't want to mention ISIS, which beheads people. What is the difference between beheading people and executing them by gunfire? Aren't they both killers, regardless of the execution method, which we all denounce?
Interviewer: Many methods lead to the same death.
Tawfiq Tirawi: Right, we all denounce these methods. So why must the Fatah members live this nightmare in Gaza? This nightmare must be stopped.
[…]
Latest Clips
