Top Fatah Official: PA Security Forces Should Train Terrorists, Not Arrest Them!

In an open expression of support for Palestinian terrorists, a senior Palestinian Authority (PA) official urged the PA Security Forces to end collaboration with Israel in the West Bank, and stop arresting “the young resistance fighters” — his term for terrorists.

But Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi didn’t stop there.

He also advocated for “training” the young terrorists — “people full of patriotic enthusiasm to fight” — because they “lack training and experience”:

Tirawi said of the pursuit and arrest of the resistance fighters by the Security Forces that these arrests are a mistake, and added … “Instead, we must contain this situation, contain these young people and train them.”

Tirawi added: ‘We have young people full of patriotic enthusiasm to fight [Israel], but they lack training and experience, and therefore they must receive training.” [emphasis added]

[Wattan, independent Palestinian news agency, Sept. 19, 2024]

Tirawi also called for “cleaning our house of collaborators,” but didn’t specify whether that meant just arresting them or worse: “If we want to approach resistance (i.e., terror) the right way, we must clean our house of collaborators [with Israel], as we have collaborators everywhere. We must first clean our house and then resist the occupation.”

Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has already exposed that the PA Security Forces — which are made up of Fatah members — are heavily involved in terrorism (see our report, Terrorists in Uniform.)

While involved in terror themselves, the PA Security Forces have also been notifying Israel of Hamas terror cells. It could be that Tirawi is now objecting to even notifying Israel or arresting Hamas members, which is a major change in attitude and policy.

PMW has exposed the PA and Fatah’s support, promotion, and glorification of terror against Israel for almost three decades.

Tirawi in particular has been a leading voice for terrorism, and early in the current war in the Gaza Strip, he emphasized that Fatah is actively participating in fighting Israel:

Tawfiq Tirawi: “Who said that Fatah is not participating in the fighting [i.e., in Gaza war against Israel]? Who gave you this information and misled you that we are not participating? …

All the Palestinian organizations in the West Bank are fighting and coordinating among themselves on the ground … How many Martyrs are from Fatah? … Fatah has never relinquished the rifle, and it has never relinquished the struggle.” [emphasis added]

[Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi, Facebook page, Nov. 18, 2023]

Even prior to the war, Tirawi claimed in 2021 that it was Hamas that was preventing Fatah from participating in more terrorism against Israel:

Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi: “We [in Fatah] are protecting the weapons of the resistance more than others are protecting the weapons of the resistance … Who said we [Fatah] are against resistance? We are in favor of resistance in all its forms…

There is popular resistance in the West Bank. There is armed resistance sometimes in the Gaza Strip. In a struggle, popular resistance and armed resistance need to be integrated …

Why is Fatah banned as an organization in the Gaza Strip? Why are you [Hamas] preventing Fatah from being armed in the Gaza Strip? Why are you preventing Fatah from participating in the battles that have taken place in the Gaza Strip …

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in the Gaza Strip are small groups … They are under Hamas control, and sometimes Hamas gives them normal freedom of movement, but it doesn’t give them the freedom to fight against Israel, and doesn’t give them the right to fire rockets at Israel as Hamas does in wartime.

In wartime, all the options are open. Why is it [Hamas] preventing them [Fatah] from taking part in many causes?” [emphasis added]

[Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi, Facebook page, Dec. 9, 2021]

PA leaders such as Tirawi expose the misguided nature of international proposals to have Fatah — which the world frames as a “moderate alternative” to Hamas — take political and military control of Gaza following the war.

The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.

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