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In a May 10, 2023 Nakba Day event in Baitun Noor Centre in Lenasia, South Africa, Palestinian activist Abeer Ahmed Zayyad said to an audience member who referred to the Palestinian Authority as "hypocrites" and collaborators with Israel that calling members of the Palestinian Authority "traitors" or "collaborators" is offensive because many of fighters from the PA and its police forces have been killed in recent months in altercations with Israel. Zayyad elaborated that many of the people killed for launching rockets at Israel were members of the PA, of Fatah, and of the PFLP. She also said that most of the fighters in Nablus and Jenin are members of Fatah. Abeer Ahmed Zayyad is a resident of Jerusalem and is an archeologist and tour guide. She serves as the head of the Islamic Heritage Department at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Footage of the event was posted to the Salaamedia YouTube account.
Man: "What is the current status of the relationship between what is happening at Al-Aqsa and Gaza and for example, the type of collaboration we are seeing by the hypocrites from the Palestinian Authority? Thank you."
Abeer Ahmed Zayyad: "First of all, I think you have a big misunderstanding about the real situation in Palestine. So you can't say that one is a traitor or a hypocrite, it's not like that. There is a lot of things that you, as a foreigner, don't know about our daily lives. A lot of our fighters from Gaza or from the West Bank, who have been killed in the last few months, for example, if you go to all of them, you will find a big number of them are police officers or members of the Palestinian Authority. So it is not justice to say that about all the people who are from the Palestinian Authority. So this thing is so offensive, especially for people who lost their lives and families... who lost their lives defending the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Palestine.
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"For example, today the people who were sending rockets from Gaza, and they were bombed because they were sending rockets, and who were killed, were from the PFLP, so they are not from Hamas, and the PFLP is part of the Palestinian Authority. Also Fatah participated in sending rockets today on the Israelis. Also what is happening in Nablus and Jenin, most of the fighters there are from Fatah. So you can't put it this way. It's so humiliating for the people who lost their lives.
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"We, in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, none of us look at this. None of us ask you if you are Fatah, Hamas, or PFLP, all of us fight together against the occupation."
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