The commanders of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah’s military wing, have been mulling the possibility of turning their guns against Israel and the Palestinian Authority’s “despots,” a top Brigade militant told Breitbart Jerusalem.
The militant said that since the end of the second intifada, and the amnesty agreement that was reached with Israel shortly after Hamas’ takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, “the occupation only deepened, and corruption in the PA only widened. The people are desperate for a game change that would turn the tables and bring the Palestinian question back to the top of the agenda.”
In the wake of the Arab Spring, he said, the community of nations lost interest in the Palestinians, “thereby allowing Israel to continue its mistreatment of the Palestinians, and allowing the corrupt PA leadership to gain wealth and property at the expense of the Palestinian people.”
The Ramallah-based militant, who spewed anti-Israel propaganda, denied the new development of debating a resumption of attacks had to do with infighting in the PA leadership. “It has nothing to do with power politics,” he said. “We’re neither Dahlan’s nor Abbas’ people. We are the ones who sacrificed our lives and friends during the intifada and find ourselves in a reality with no future, both personally and nationally. The claims that Dahlan is funding us are lies. We see him as equally to blame for the situation we’re in as Abbas.”
He was referring to Palestinian strongman Mahmoud Dahlan, a rival to PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
The militant said that former activists from the central and northern West Bank, especially in the refugee camps, have met over the past few weeks and discussed reviving the militia.
“We published one tract, which means that we identify unrest among the rank and file,” he said. “They are the same people who in the aftermath of the intifada sought calm and stability, and understand that what we need today is action that would jolt the order of things, and perhaps more determined action on our part would instill this consciousness in the minds of the Palestinians.”
The militant refused to specify whether that “determined action” would include terrorist attacks or something else.
“There will be action against Israel and the corrupt PA leaders,” he said. “We have yet to decide what it will look like, because all the people involved have paid a heavy price and aren’t keen to go back to the armed struggle.”
One option, he said, is “popular action, such as strikes, sit-ins and demonstrations at checkpoints. Over the past few months, the collaboration of the PA’s security services with the occupation army have put an end to the struggle that started with stabbings and demonstrations last October. We will make sure that if we decide to rekindle this kind of struggle, no cooperation will suppress it.”
He said that Hamas is constantly laboring to carry out attacks in the West Bank, and then welcomes them and takes responsibility for them.
“That’s also an option – to confront the enemy without doing it officially as the Al Aqsa Brigades,” he said. “Finally, we can relaunch our organizational infrastructure and declare war on Israel. But in such case, we won’t allow the corrupted PA leaders to continue to get rich on our backs.”