Palestinian Authority (PA) And Fatah Harshly Criticize Iran: It Is Undermining The PA And The Jordanian Regime Using Its Proxies – Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad And Muslim Brotherhood

The Palestinian Authority (PA) and its ruling party, Fatah, have recently been voicing harsh criticism against Iran, claiming that it is arming Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in the West Bank and fostering their terror activity of against the PA with the aim of instigating a military coup and overthrowing the PA authorities.[1] These accusations escalated due to Iran's intensive arming of Palestinian terror organizations in the West Bank, and following armed clashes that took place between the PA's security apparatuses and the Iran-backed Hamas and PIJ organizations.

Palestinian spokesmen also drew a connection between this Iranian agitation against the rule of PA President Mahmoud Abbas and recent attempts by Iran and Palestinian factions to destabilize the Kingdom of Jordan and overthrow its regime by directly calling on Jordanians to stage protests and engage in armed struggle against Israel.[2]

The PA's and Fatah's criticism against Iran continued to be heard after the latter's April 14, 2024 rocket and drone attack on Israel. The PA's Al-Hayat Al-Jadida daily devoted its editorial to ridiculing Iran for its incompetence and its failure to inflict serious damage on Israel, and one of the daily's columnists wrote that Iran is an enemy of the Arabs and has formed an alliance against them with the U.S. and Israel.  

This report reviews the pointed criticism recently voiced against Iran by the PA and Fatah.

Fatah Officials: Iran Is Using Palestinian Organizations To Fight The PA And Its Apparatuses

The PA's and Fatah's criticism against Iran was expressed in statements they issued in early April 2024, which accused this country of acting against the PA and its security apparatuses by funding and arming terror organizations in the West Bank. These statements came amid the ongoing smuggling of Iranian weapons to these West Bank militias,[3] and while intense tension prevails between the PA's security apparatuses and the terror militias in the West Bank,  tension that peaked after an operative of the PIJ's Tulkarm Brigade was shot dead by PA security officers.[4] 

Fatah Spokesman Jamal Nazzal said in this context to the Al-Arabiya channel on April 3: "In keeping with what Iran is doing in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, or in any other Arab country – where it is trying to nest and create a security presence, which will gnaw at the body of the state like a mite until the state collapses – Iran is trying to hire groups that will act at its service in Palestine too… The day before yesterday, a group that is loyal to Iran in Tulkarm hijacked a civilian vehicle that belongs to the Palestinian Land Authority – to the State of Palestine. A group of armed men took over the vehicle and drove it around. This has become a security den loyal to Iran, which endangers the Palestinian people. The Iranian fingerprints on Palestinian reality are destructive. Iran is using the rationale of a cuckoo bird that lays an egg in another bird's nest, and when its chick hatches from the egg, it drives out all the other chicks, kills them, and then lives at the expense of its parents – disgustingly exploiting the resources of the Palestinians and their situation, which cannot tolerate this exploitative and rejected rationale…"

Below is a clip of his statements:

In an April 2, 2024 statement, Fatah stressed its rejection of "all external intervention, especially Iran intervention," in the Palestinians' internal affairs, and pledged to prevent anyone from using the spilled blood of the Palestinians in Gaza in the service of "dubious enterprises that have nothing to do with our Palestinian people and our national cause." The statement emphasized that Fatah would "cut off [any] hand attempting to harm our [domestic] front, our security agencies or [any] of our national institutions," hinting at Hamas' and the PIJ's Iran-backed activity against the PA. [5]

Fatah official Mounir Al-Jaroub clarified that this statement had been issued "after it became apparent to the Palestinian security agencies that [certain regional] elements are supporting these [Palestinian] elements with money and weapons, and that this funding is related to foreign aid [that these elements] are receiving from a foreign element like Iran." He then stated explicitly that "Iran is funding these factions" (i.e. Hamas and PIJ), and added: "The statements made by the spokesman of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps [IRGC], that the Al-Aqsa Flood war is revenge for the assassination of [IRGC Qods Force commander] Qassem Soleimani,[6] were not a mistaken report by media outlets, but rather the truth. Yesterday, it was reported [in Iran] that Operation Al-Aqsa Flood [Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack] had been planned by Mohammed Reza Zahedi[7]… Iran is behind all these tragedies [suffered by] the Palestinian people." Al-Jaroub emphasized: "[The Iranians] are now talking day and night about a future battle that will be revenge for what happened in the Iranian consulate in Damascus [i.e. the airstrike attributed to Israel in which Zahedi and several of his comrades were killed]. Do they want to fight [against Israel] with the blood of the Palestinians?... What the Iranians are saying proves that they are behind the damage done to the Palestinian front, and now also to the Arab fronts."[8]

Fatah And PA Leadership: We Support Jordan In The Face Of External Attempts To Intervene In Its Affairs

Fatah and PA officials also accuse Iran of attempting to undermine the Jordanian monarchy by encouraging elements such as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) to intensify the protests against the Jordanian regime's policy on war in Gaza, with the ultimate goal of toppling this regime. PA President and Fatah chairman Mahmoud Abbas, like the leaders of many Arab states, has condemned "any foreign intervention in Jordan's domestic affairs," without explicitly naming these  foreign elements. In an April 2, 2024 phone call with Jordan's King Abdullah II, Abbas expressed "the support of the Palestinian leadership and people for the Kingdom of Jordan, and their opposition to all the attempts to harm its security and stability or to exploit the suffering of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip to harm the Jordanian front, [as well as their opposition] to any foreign intervention in Jordan's domestic affairs."[9] In addition, in a same-day statement published by the PA's Wafa news agency, Abbas said that "Palestine and the Palestinian people stand with their sister [country] Jordan, under the leadership of His Majesty King Abdullah II," and that harming Jordan's security and stability would lead to regional chaos."[10]

While Abbas has avoided pointing to Iran as the element attempting to undermine the Jordanian regime, Fatah Revolutionary Council member Mohammad Al-Hourani explicitly mentioned Iran in an April 3, 2024 interview with Al-Arabiya: "…We have heard calls coming from Iraq to form a 12,000-man armed militia in Jordan. What is the purpose of this? In addition, there are attempts in Lebanon, even among the Sunnis, to mobilize and arm the Army of Islam [organization]. This is all part of the Iranian project. There is a saying: if you have cooks, you do not burn your own fingers. The Iranians do not mind if Arab land is scorched because of this bravado and the slogans that exploit the pure name of Palestine.… If we consider establishing militias that are parallel [to the military], and pushing the this-or-that country to the brink of civil war – this is closer to suicide. This is the essence of Iran’s policy, which wants to send the Arabs to fight, on Arab land so that it could bolster its influence, and strengthen its position in its negotiations with America."

Below is a clip of his statements:

Editorial In PA Daily: Iran Is Attempting To Destroy The Arab States By Sparking A Second Arab Spring In Jordan And The PA

Harsh claims against Iran were also expressed in editorials in the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, which accused this country of using Hamas and the PIJ to spark protests and sow chaos across the Arab world in order to topple Arab regimes, including the PA and the regimes of Jordan and Egypt, in a fashion similar to the Arab Spring protests.[11] The daily's April 7, 2024 editorial stated that Hamas and the PIJ are attempting to sow chaos in Jordan, with Iran's encouragement, following their military and political failures in the Gaza Strip. The article said:

"After it became very clear that the Al-Aqsa Flood would not achieve any of its goals – even though the Tehran axis used its apparatuses, Hamas and the [Palestinian Islamic] Jihad, to urge the Jordanian and Egyptian public to stage futile protests in order to sow chaos and nihilist destruction, while trying to lend these protests an ostensibly revolutionary guise – this axis renamed the October 7, 2023 operation. So today it is no longer known in the streets of Cairo and Amman as [Operation] Al-Aqsa Flood but rather as 'the flood of the free people'…  Apparently, the Tehran axis did not choose this name randomly, but very deliberately. Ultimately, the goal is apparently to revive the deception of the Arab Spring, so that it would resurge and perhaps achieve its goal, namely complete destruction and chaos in the Arab street!!!...

"There is no freedom and no free peoples when chaos prevails and domestic [Palestinian] and national [Arab] security are undermined. This chaos and undermining of security will not stop Israel's aggressive war, and we believe that those behind the protests, especially MB elements, understand this, and that their goal is to cover up their failure to deter Israel from [continuing] the war and their even greater and more shameful failure to secure possible escape routes for the people of the [Gaza] Strip… In order to hide their failure, they distract [people] by sparking the flames of chaos and [engaging in] nihilistic games  in order to support of what is left of Hamas and its partner, the [Palestinian Islamic] Jihad, seeking only a political way to ensure the survival [of these organization] and trying to meet Iran's desire for greater influence in the Arab world…"[12]

The daily's April 3, 2024 editorial likewise accused Hamas of trying to foment chaos in Jordan in order to hide its failure in the war against Israel and its lack of concern for the civilians in Gaza. It said: "…In the slogans of the Tehran axis, Al-Aqsa Flood has become a flood [of vengeance for the spilled] blood of [Iranian general] Qassem Soleimani. After this terrible tragedy [in Gaza], which has not yet ended, Hamas issued a statement in which it apologized (!!!) to the residents of the wounded [Gaza] Strip for 'its tardiness in addressing every problem and for any negative conduct, deliberate or not, that has made things burdensome for our people.'[13] In Hamas' eyes, the terrible tragedy is just a 'burden' that Hamas apologizes for causing through its deliberate or undeliberate actions!!!! This is not an apology in any sense of the word, but rather an impressive show of stupid cynicism and arrogant denial, for [Hamas] is not apologizing but only seeks to continue governing the people of Gaza…

"What is even more dangerous than this false apology are the false anguished calls, like the call made by [Hamas leader abroad] Khaled Mash'al,[14] which aim to urgently revive the foolish [Arab] Spring in the streets of the Arab [countries of] Egypt and Jordan. [Hamas believes] that the chaos it hopes to spark in these streets will hide its crisis and perhaps even save it from this crisis, if the chaos spreads and draws people's attention away from its crime and its inability to achieve any of the liberation goals of the [Al-Aqsa] Flood [war]…

"As part of this and for the sake of this goal, Hamas repeatedly plays its broken record against the PA and its security apparatuses, in order to spread chaos and fan the flames of the internal schism and thereby dissolve the national effort that seeks to end Israel's military aggression and bring humanitarian aid to our brothers in the wounded [Gaza] Strip. Hamas continues to slander this effort with its fabrications and lies. It even killed two Palestinian General Intelligence officers who were securing the humanitarian aid [convoys] and the efforts to efficiently distribute the aid to the people of the Strip[15]…"[16] 

Columnist In PA Daily: Hamas And The PIJ Are Headquartered In Iran; They Seek To Instigate Coups In Jordan And PA

Al-Hayat Al-Jadida columnist Muwaffaq Matar devoted two columns to lambasting on Iran. In the first, from April 2, he accused Iran of seeking to instigate a coup in Jordan by means of the Jordanian MB, and a coup against the PA by means of Hamas and the PIJ that will destroy the Palestinian national enterprise. He wrote: "The plan of the Iranian leaders and the shame of the mechanisms that do their bidding have been exposed, after the MB and its armed branch in Palestine, called Hamas, as well as the PIJ, openly declared that their operational headquarters are located in Tehran. The ultimate goal of the so-called [Iranian] Qods Force is to take over the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom [of Jordan], enable [free] passage [of Iran-backed militants] into the East Bank of the Jordan river, and murder the Palestinian national enterprise by fomenting security chaos. In the West Bank, [this chaos has already] begun to spread like a virus under various ostensibly respectable names, but [behind these names] are groups… that seek to undermine the Palestinian security apparatuses and the [Palestinian] internal stability…

"These groups were formed by external elements and are controlled from afar… [Their members] fire ten percent of their bullets at vehicles of the occupation army… and the other 90 percent at the headquarters of the Palestinian security apparatuses. Those who fund them and help them logistically are various elements whose common denominator is a profound hatred for the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people – the PLO – and a desire to overthrow the PA. But these elements cannot achieve their goals without controlling the East Bank of the Jordan river, namely the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and in the absence of armed organizations in Jordan that can be tasked with attacking the foundations of the kingdom's stability and security, their alternative is [to use] the MB… 

"The clear long-term goal is to lay the groundwork for turning the sister [country of] Jordan into an 'alternative homeland' [for the Palestinians], and then start the countdown to implementing the plan of forced emigration from the West Bank [to Jordan], including from Jerusalem, in order to facilitate the Judaization [of the city]. I believe that the leadership of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which has wisely managed to defend the people of Jordan from the MB plot that is part of the 'constructive chaos' plot known as the Arab Spring, may become a direct target due to its objection to this forced emigration, and due to its positions that are aligned with those of the Palestinian leadership…"[17] 

In his April 4 column, Matar urged the Palestinians in the West Bank to rally behind the PA leadership and its security apparatuses in order to thwart this Iranian plot and prevent a "second Nakba." He wrote: "Let me first of all address the leadership of the [Palestinian] security establishment and its heroic fighters who are committed to morality and to the law, and say: Strike at these armed gangs [Hamas and the PIJ] that are operated by Tehran and by forces that call themselves 'the resistance'… 

"To the masses, I say that the 'second Nakba,' whose deadly climax we are [now] witnessing in the Gaza Strip, will continue until it spreads to all the cities and villages of the West Bank, without exception. That will be its second phase. In the third and final phase, it will reach our people in the cities of the Galilee, the Negev and the coast of historical and natural Palestine [i.e., the Israeli Arabs]. This [is what will happen] if we do not stand up together right now and help the [PA's] security apparatuses, in order to prevent the fireball from expanding and support the political leadership that is acting to extinguish the flames in the Gaza Strip…   

"We have already witnessed [a state of] chaos in which masked gunmen controlled the streets using armed terror. They killed their victims and dragged [their bodies through the streets]. They set themselves up as the judiciary, condemned people to death by gunfire and executed them in the squares. They took over public and private property, damaged government facilities, fired on and bombed the security headquarters, and assassinated officials and prominent [PA] military commanders – until the day came in 2007 when Hamas mounted an assault on the Palestinian national plan, the law and the PA regime with its deadly coup [in Gaza] that was supported by the mechanisms of the Zionist occupation…"[18]

Columnist In PA Daily: Jordan's Collapse Will Benefit Iran And Israel, While The Palestinians Lose

Al-Hayat Al-Jadida columnist Bassem Barhoum argued that no Palestinian element would conceive of harming Jordan's stability and security unless it was serving an Iranian agenda. He wrote: "Jordan's security and stability are a Palestinian national interest, for many reasons. First, Jordan is Palestine's strategic depth, and the two peoples, the Palestinians and the Jordanians, are a single people. Whatever harms the interests of the Jordanian people actually harms the interest of the Palestinian people. Jordan's security and development are a Palestinian goal as much as they are a Jordanian goal. Therefore, it would be reprehensible and odd if any reasonable Palestinian sought to destabilize Jordan, unless he was a nihilist or connected to a destructive [Iranian] agenda whose results we have already seen in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen. [This agenda] led to the collapse of the nation state in all those countries, and the main ones who benefited from this disintegration were Israel and regional forces [i.e., Iran] that are consolidating their plan at the expense of the interests, the territory and the resources of the Arab homeland.

"If certain elements [i.e., Hamas and the PIJ] are feeling pressured, politically and militarily, that does not mean they must 'flee forward'[19] and call to spread internal strife in Jordan. This chaos my cause Jordan to disintegrate or even be partitioned by enabling Israel to occupy parts of it under the pretext of defending its security. Nobody can predict where the chaos starting in one place [i.e., in Jordan] will take us and what its consequences will be… A state of chaos in Jordan may provide an opening for the plan of the alternative [Palestinian] homeland, God forbid. Do Hamas, the MB, and the two branches of the political Islam [movement], the Sunni and the Shi'ite ones, want this to happen?…"[20]  

Articles In PA Daily Following Iran's Attack On Israel: Iran Is The Arabs' Enemy; Palestine Is Just A Slogan For It; Iran Does Not Benefit Our Cause

The PA's and Fatah's criticism against Iran continued following this country's April 14, 2024 rocket and drone attack on Israel. On the day after the attack, Fatah official Mounir Al-Jaroub told Al-Arabiya TV that Iran was only using the Palestinian issue to advance its own geopolitical interests: "These attacks have no impact whatsoever, either positive or negative, on the Palestinian issue… Iran's action was just a reaction to what had been done to it [i.e., the attack on its consulate in Damascus]… It had to do with Iran's regional standing and with proving that Iran has a stake in the Palestinian issue… It is trying to manipulate [this issue] in order to maximize its gains…"[21] 

Articles in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida likewise said that the Iranian attack had done nothing to help the war effort in Gaza but had only served the Iranian interest of destabilizing the region and the Arab regimes. The daily's April 15 editorial mocked the Iranian attack for causing no damage despite its large scale, and came out against the hypocrisy of the Iran-backed Palestinian factions that accuse the PA of not taking part in the current war with Israel. The editorial said: "We do not know exactly how many rockets and drones Iran fired at Israel, but we do know for a fact that most of them fell on the way and that not a single Israeli was killed!!! One rocket, whose picture was published by the Iranian IRGC, was called 'Gaza' (!!), based on the assumption that Tehran was helping the [Al-Aqsa] Flood [war]. This rocket did not hit any target that we know of. The bottom line is that this was the reaction of [Iran] – a state that has a nuclear program, advanced weapons, a drone industry, a strong army and the IRGC – to Israel's killing of many of its officials!!! All that is left to say is that this was the entire scope of the revolutionary action taken by the Nuclear Program State [i.e., Iran]. Do Tehran's supporters in the Palestinian arena [i.e., Hamas and the PIJ] realize this, the ones who incite against the PA because it is not using its guns on the [Al-Aqsa] Flood battlefield, although they know very well that the PA has only guns, and not any nuclear program, drones, cruise missiles or surface-to-surface missiles…[?]"[22] 

In his column on the following day, Muwaffaq Matar urged Hamas and the PIJ to realize that they are serving a foreign Iranian agenda, rather than the Palestinian interest: "…When the sun came up on Sunday, April 14, it revealed the truth, namely the dissolution of the so-called 'unity of the fronts' and 'resistance axis.' The Iranian attack – whose timing was known [in advance] – was intense but brief. U.S. President Biden told [Israel] that, according to precise intelligence, it would be a 'limited reaction'… This means that all those who removed the national affiliation and the supreme national interests from their doctrine, culture, ways and operation plans, and took up arms to implement a foreign agenda that does not benefit or serve the Palestinian people, must internalize the message very well…"[23]

Columnist Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul likewise published a very harsh article against Iran on April 17, several days after the Iranian attack that was thwarted by Israel and the U.S. He wrote that there is an unspoken alliance between the U.S., Israel and Iran, whose joint enemy is "the peoples and the national liberation movements of the Arab nation," and whose goal is "to  rob the Arabs of their resources and crush their unity under various slogans." Noting that "Iran is just as dangerous to the Arabs as the MB," he stated that this country "funds many armed factions" in the Arab world and "has a historic score to settle with the Arabs, whom it wants to crush and subject to its influence, [and] it has managed to do this in many arenas. [In fact], Iran was the first to occupy an entire Arab country when it occupied Ahwaz in 1925."

He went on to say: "Do the Arabs want these hostile relations with Iran[?] Not at all. On the contrary, they want to maintain good and natural neighborly relations with Iran, regardless of the character and background of the Iranian regime. But the Arab's wishes are one thing and the ambitions of the Persian state are another… The Palestinian people wish to forge good relations with all of the world's countries, not only the Islamic ones. But the Palestinian wishes are one thing and Iran's considerations are another…"[24]