| PA TV song accuses Israel of fighting Palestinians in God's name
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
One principle of Palestinian Authority religious belief is that the Palestinians' fight against Israel is for Allah and for Islam. Accordingly, the PA presents the conflict with Israel as a fight on behalf of all Muslims to liberate what they claim is Islamic holy land. See examples below.
Now PA TV has broadcast a song accusing Israel of being the one fighting a religious war "in your name, oh God." The song demonizes Israel as an oppressor that "tortured" Palestinians and "usurped" Palestinian land, all in the name of religion.
 "My country - they [Israel] usurped, divided and stole... Our fields - they burned and seeded with our corpses Our villages - they uprooted and replaced with their houses In your name, oh God, they tortured me In your name, oh God, they expelled me"
PA religious belief and teaching While Israel does not portray the conflict as a religious war, the PA emphatically defines it as such. In January, Palestinian Media Watch exposed a speech by the PA Mufti in which he presented the killing of Jews by Muslims as a religious Islamic destiny.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has said that taking Jerusalem away from Israel on behalf of Islam is a fard ayn, a personal religious obligation on every Muslim.
 "I say to the leaders of our Arab nation and to its peoples: Jerusalem and its environs are a trust that Allah entrusted to us. Saving it [Jerusalem] from the settlement monster and the danger of Judaization and [land-] confiscation, is a personal [Islamic] commandment [Arabic: fard ayn] incumbent on all of us. Therefore, I call all of you to serious and urgent action to save [Jerusalem] and to make available all possibilities in order to strengthen our resolve and to maintain its historical, cultural and religious character."
[Al-Jazeera TV, March 27, 2010] Click to view
The Palestinian Authority Minister of Religion Al-Habbash has stated many times that the conflict with Israel is a Ribat, a religious conflict or war to defend or liberate land said to be Islamic. He claims that this religious war has been going on since the Balfour Declaration and that it is even written in the Quran.
 "Since that date [1917, Balfour Declaration], resolute people, fighters and Ribat (religious war) fighters have not ceased upon our blessed land... This conflict is explicit in the Quran and our obligation with regard to it is clarified by the Quran... We do not oppose peace. On the contrary, we aspire to peace, but not at the expense of our rights; not at the expense of our cause, and not at the expense of our religion." [PA TV (Fatah), May 14, 2010]
12th grade Palestinian children are taught in an official PA schoolbook that they are in an eternal religious war with Israel - "until Resurrection Day": "The Ribat for Allah is one of the actions related to Jihad... Palestine's people on their land... is one of the greatest of the Ribat, and they are worthy of a great reward from Allah... The reason for this preference is that the momentous battles in Islamic history took place on its land [ Al-Shaam - today Israel and Syria] therefore, its residents are in a constant fight with their enemies, and they are in Ribat until Resurrection Day."
[Islamic Education, grade 12, p. 86-87]
The following is the transcript of the song demonizing Israel, and saying Israel is committing crimes in a religious war:
"My country - they [Israel] usurped, divided and stole The truth - they mutilated The freedom - they suppressed Our fields - they burned and seeded with our corpses Our villages - they uprooted and replaced with their houses In your name, oh God, they tortured me In your name, oh God, they expelled me They destroyed, in your name, they ruled in your name, oh God, hear my prayer In our homes - they attacked us With destruction - they threatened us
To ruin - they pushed us." [PA TV (Fatah), Feb. 24, 2012]
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