Sunday, March 23, 2014

Fatah spokesman: Israeli flag's two stripes show Israel's goal to rule "from the Euphrates to the Nile"

"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] 

Palestinian Authority TV Libel: Israel plans rule of Euphrates to Nile A video that aired on both PA TV and Al-Filistiniya (Fatah) from 2001 - 2009 depicts a staged classroom of Israeli children wearing skullcaps in front of the Israeli flag, repeating after a teacher: "The Land of Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates." The video clip is shown as if it were an actual classroom in an Israeli school. The child actors speak Hebrew.

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.

No comments: