PA President Mahmoud Abbas gestures during a meeting in Ramallah, in the West Bank August 18, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman/Pool

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has turned to Israel and the world, asking for additional funding for its Security Forces to fight terror.

At the same time, however, both Fatah and the PA are boasting that those same PA Security Forces are playing a central role in terror. And while some terror groups are critical of the PA Security Forces, the PA and Fatah regularly publicize explicit evidence to back up their claims.

A Fatah video posted recently is one example of this phenomenon. It shows photos of 24 armed terrorists who were salaried members of the PA Security Forces. To stress that the dual roles are not conflicting, each picture includes the logos of the terror organization and the branch of the PA military. For example, in these three pictures that follow, the logo on the top right is of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah’s terror branch, and beneath it is PA General Intelligence:

Palestinian Media Watch has exposed the ongoing PA and Fatah efforts to document the PA Security Forces’ central role in terror against Israel. It is as ironic as it is tragic, that a number of Western countries gave special military training to members of the PA Security Forces in addition to significant designated funding.

The PA Security Forces are just one additional example of the PA’s abuse and misuse of Western funding to support terror, that Palestinian Media Watch has exposed.

In the video, each terrorist’s picture is accompanied by the name, rank, and branch of the PA security in which each served. These are the lyrics to the song that is played while the terrorists’ pictures are shown:

Lyrics: “Painful is the loss of the loved one, our wound is great
Our faith consoles us, when a hero dies as a Martyr
They left the world honored, and they were not lax, nor did they abandon
They sold their lives to Allah, and for His sake death is insignificant
Farewell, O glory of our nation, your weapon is before us
Your path is before our eyes, and your spirit is still within us
We will bleed like they bled
And through the blood we will support our religion
We will avenge the blood of those who were killed
And we will follow our guides”

[Fatah Movement – Nablus Branch, Telegram channel, June 2, 2023]

Itamar Marcus is the Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.