"The Palestinian people
are not merely defending itself,
but the entire Arab nation [from Israel]"
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
One
of the ways the PA promotes hatred of Israel is through fictitious
libels that portray Israel and Jews as scheming against Palestinians,
Arabs and Muslims. Palestinian Media Watch has
documented that since the days of Arafat, the PA has repeatedly
promoted the libel that Israel is actively planning to conquer large
portions of Arab lands to expand Israel's jurisdiction from "the Nile to
the Euphrates."
Fatah's
official spokesman Ahmad Assaf repeated this libel twice in the same
week in Egypt. He asserted the PA's claim that the two blue stripes on
the Israeli flag represent the two rivers, the Nile and the Euphrates,
and that the six pointed Star of David in the middle represents Israel's
desire for sovereignty over the full area between the two rivers.
Accordingly, Assaf stated, Israel poses a real threat to the entire Arab
nation and the PA is the whole nation's front line of defense:
"Did
you know that Israel still today has no borders? It has no borders.
Even the two stripes on its flag [represent Israeli rule] from the Nile
to the Euphrates... The Palestine battle for the Arab region and the
Arab nations is not a pan-Arab battle but a national battle [of each
Arab country]. Because the Palestinian nation is the first line of
defense against Israel's plans and aspirations."
[Official PA TV, March 19, 2014]
At a interview on Egyptian TV, Assaf said that "the Israeli flag still speaks of [borders] from the Euphrates to the Nile":
"The
Israeli flag still tells [of rule] from the Euphrates to the Nile. Look
at the Israeli flag... They still believe in the Greater Israel. As the
first line of defense, the Palestinian nation is not merely defending
itself, but the entire Arab nation. For this reason, the Arab nation's
defense or standing (with the PA) is certainly a pan-Arab duty, but at
the same time, it is the national duty of each Arab country, because
Israel's aspirations go beyond [its] borders."
[Sada Al-Balad TV (Egypt), posted on YouTube on March 19, 2014]
It
should be noted that the two blue stripes on the Israeli flag are based
on the stripes of the Jewish prayer shawl, the Tallit.
The
following are five examples of this libel promoted by the PA since
1997, that Israel is scheming to rule from the Nile to the Euphrates:
Azzam
Al-Ahmad, a member of Fatah's Central Committee, spoke on a PA TV Live
broadcast from a Jordanian celebration of Fatah Day.
Azzam Al-Ahmad:
"Our campaign against the Zionists was not a Palestinian-Israeli
campaign, but rather an Arab campaign against the forces of old-style
colonialism and the Zionist dream, [a campaign] that aimed to defend the
entire Arab region. We, as Palestinians, remain the spearhead, and we
were never anything else... We defended Lebanon, we defended Medina. Do
we not know that they (i.e., the Jews) dream of a state reaching from
the Nile to the Euphrates? ...We say to our brothers who do not grasp
the reality of the situation (lit. 'who have been struck by color
blindness'): 'We are involved in a campaign of the entire Arab nation.
We aren't in a campaign that is Palestine's alone. This puts us all in
the same trench.'"
[Official PA TV Live, Jan. 4, 2013]
Nabhan Khriasha, political analyst:
"There are
[Israelis] who profess that Israel's borders are from the Nile to the
Euphrates. Look at the Israeli flag: Two blue stripes and a Star of
David in the center. The two blue stripes represent the Euphrates and
the Nile. Why doesn't anyone demand that Israel give up its flag?"
[Official PA TV, Oct. 30, 2007]
Dr. Hana Isah, international law lecturer:
"There is no doubt
that the politicians in Israel are not interested in stability ... 'The
land of Israel from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates, from Lebanon
to the Nile.' This slogan is the basis which drives the foundation of
Israel since the foundation of the Zionist movement until today, and the
future."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 10, 2003]
"Herzl sent an
angry letter [about] the mandatory borders of Palestine so that they
would include the Litani River, that is 'from the water to the water' -
[a slogan] expressed by the poster over the Israeli Parliament (Knesset)
'from the Euphrates to the Nile.'"
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 21, 1997]
Click to view more examples of the Nile to the Euphrates libel on the PMW website.
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