Abbas’ Fatah Party Posts Cartoon Stabbing ‘Settlements’ to Thank UN For Vote

TEL AVIV – Following the passage of an anti-Israel resolution at the United Nations, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party posted a cartoon on its official Facebook page on Saturday, featuring a large knife stabbing “settlements” and the words “Thank You” to the countries that voted for the resolution.

According to the watchdog group Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), the cartoon was updated from one posted the previous day featuring a map of “Palestine” – which includes all Israeli territory – in the shape of a dagger in a vice grip, apparently in reference to the recent wave of violence against Israelis known in Palestinian society as the “Knife Intifada.”

The stabber is attacking the Arabic word for “settlement.” The text above the graphic reads: “#Palestine will defeat the settlement.” The words “the settlement” rather than “settlements” reflects the notion routinely promoted by Fatah that the entire State of Israel is a settlement that needs to be defeated.

Resolution 2334 – which passed 14-0 with one abstention from the U.S. – declares all settlements illegal under international law and demands that Israel immediately cease construction in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank, and refers to those territories, which include the Western Wall and Temple Mount plaza, as occupied Palestinian lands.

After it was passed on Friday night, Fatah updated the cartoon with the names of the 14 countries that voted for the resolution: Great Britain, France, Spain, Russia, Angola, Ukraine, Japan, Egypt, Malaysia, Venezuela, New Zealand, Senegal, Uruguay, France, and China.

The revised image includes a pool of blood under the stabbed “settlement.”

PMW asks: “Is Fatah thanking the 14 countries for their UN vote because they interpret the UN as granting Fatah permission to kill Israelis? Or is Fatah thanking them because now that the UN declared settlements ‘illegal’ it sees itself as free to kill more Israelis?”

Fatah’s original Facebook post was presented before the Knesset’s Ministerial Committee on Legislation, the Algemeiner reported. The so-called “Facebook Law” allows the state to force social media providers to remove content deemed incitement.