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The great Palestinian dream: ‘To liberate Palestine from the river to the sea’

Palestinian children are still being taught that “Palestine” includes all of Israel. Decades after the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority and Fatah still don’t recognize Israel’s existence.

Official P.A. radio station "The Voice of Palestine," Sept. 13, 2018. Credit: PMW.
Official P.A. radio station “The Voice of Palestine,” Sept. 13, 2018. Credit: PMW.

Palestinian children are still being taught that “Palestine” includes all of Israel. Decades after the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority and Fatah still don’t recognize Israel’s existence.

The photo above is a prime example of this. The Palestinian Authority Presidential Guards posted this image of a young boy making the “V” symbol for “victory” while holding a Palestinian flag. Behind him is the P.A. map clearly named “Palestine” that includes all of Israel and the P.A. areas. The names of the following Israeli cities and regions are written in the colors of the Palestinian flag on and around the map: “Haifa,” “Jerusalem,” “Safed,” “Nazareth,” “Jaffa,” “Tal Al-Rabia (i.e., Tel Aviv, see note below),” “Tiberias,” “Beersheva,” “Ramle,” “Ashkelon,” “the Negev,” “Lod,” “Acre” and “Beit She’an.” “Gaza” is also marked. The text on the image, states that Palestinians will “return”: Posted text: “#Good_morning #The_Palestinian_Presidential_Guards” Text on image: “Palestine We will surely return” [Official Facebook page of the P.A. Presidential Guards, Nov. 25, 2018] Another Palestinian way of saying that all of the State of Israel is “Palestine” is to describe it as stretching “from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.” This is one of the PA’s popular slogans. Recently it was repeated by a university lecturer who described the “great Palestinian dream”:

Rector of Al-Istiqlal University in Jericho (The Palestinian Academy for Security Sciences) Saleh Abu Osba: “I always say that life without dreams is empty. As I see it, we the Palestinians have a great dream before us: To liberate Palestine from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea. This dream will remain before us and requires of us willpower. Our people’s willpower is strong. The proof of this is the thousands of prisoners and the thousands of martyrs who have fallen to realize the dream of liberating Palestine.” [Official P.A. radio station The Voice of Palestine, Sept. 13, 2018] Palestinian Media Watch has documented endless examples of P.A. and Fatah denying Israel’s existence or right to exist in any borders. Recently, this was taught to children on official P.A. TV. A girl recited a poem stating that “a Zionist stole the land of Palestine.” Upon hearing this and the rest of the poem, which encouraged Palestinians to “rebel” and “shoot” to be “victorious,” the P.A. TV children’s host responded: “We are returning. Soon, Allah willing, we will return to our land ... ” [Official P.A. TV, The Best Home, Nov. 1, 2018]

A clip from an upcoming documentary on the late U.S. senator shows him praising the two leaders in the context of confronting Iran.
The Israel leader is also scheduled to participate in a memorial service for Sen. Lindsey Graham.
The American ambassador stressed the difficulties in striking a resolution with Tehran via diplomatic means.
The Israeli president spoke with Bahrain’s monarch about their shared goal of “standing up to terror and hate in our region.”
The next phase of Mideast security will be determined not only by Iran’s decline, but by whether the U.S. strengthens an Israel-led Abraham Security Alliance, or elevates Turkey as its preferred regional partner.