Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who — according to Mideast analyst Jonathan D. Halevi — approved a double-pronged anti-Israel strategy during a meeting of the Fatah Central Committee. Photo: Wikipedia.

A double-pronged strategy approved by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party this week combines terrorism in Israel with lawfare in the international arena, an Israeli analyst said on Tuesday.

In an article for Israel-based think tank Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, political and military expert Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi spelled out the significance of decisions reached during a meeting of the Fatah Central Committee in Ramallah on Sunday.

Basing his account of the meeting’s details on reports in the Palestinian media, Halevi highlighted four key outcomes, in an attempt to explain the current security situation in Israel and provide context for future moves taken by the PA.

The first, said Halevi, was “total support for the knife terror and the Al-Quds [Arabic for Jerusalem] intifada.” The second: “Preparing to end the security cooperation with Israel.” The third was “continuing the lawfare against Israel in the international arena.” And the fourth – “claiming Palestinian ownership of the Western Wall.”

According to excerpts from the PA press that Halevi quotes:

The [Central] Committee discussed…the increase in severe attacks against members of our Palestinian people in the occupied state of Palestine (the West Bank, Al-Quds, and the Gaza Strip), including the field executions… The meeting began with readings of Surat Al-Fatihah in remembrance of the souls of the heroic martyrs, and it [the Central Committee] conveyed its condolences and appreciation to the families of the martyrs with hopes for the speedy recovery of the wounded, emphasizing its determination to continue to act in every way to have the prisoners freed and the bodies of the heroic martyrs returned.

[The Central Committee] emphasized its full support for a redefinition of the relations with the Israeli occupation authorities in all areas, particularly with regard to the security, diplomatic, and economic relations, including raising proposals at the [United Nations] Security Council for a resolution on full [UN] membership for the state of Palestine.

[The Central Committee] emphasized its full support for a redefinition of the relations with the Israeli occupation authorities in all areas, particularly with regard to the security, diplomatic, and economic relations, including raising proposals at the [United Nations] Security Council for a resolution on full [UN] membership for the state of Palestine.

The Central Committee praised the efforts of the national committee dealing with the issue of the International Criminal Court, and noted the need to take whatever measures are required and possible to expedite the launching of the legal investigation of the war crimes committed by the occupation authority [Israel]. Likewise, the Central Committee called to apply the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention to the lands of the state of Palestine (the West Bank and the Gaza Strip), particularly with regard to the protection of citizens in wartime.

The Central Committee praised the efforts of the national committee dealing with the issue of the International Criminal Court, and noted the need to take whatever measures are required and possible to expedite the launching of the legal investigation of the war crimes committed by the occupation authority [Israel]. Likewise, the Central Committee called to apply the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention to the lands of the state of Palestine (the West Bank and the Gaza Strip), particularly with regard to the protection of citizens in wartime.

The Central Committee condemned the decision of the occupation municipality to establish new facts in the Al-Buraq [Western Wall] area, and views this as a continuation of the change of the existing situation in the city of Al-Quds and particularly in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and its surroundings.

Halevi goes on to interpret these conclusions from the meeting.

“The Central Committee did not condemn the acts of violence and terror being perpetrated by Palestinians” as part of the current stabbing intifada. “On the contrary, it characterized the foiling of terror attacks as ‘executions,’ chose to call the perpetrators ‘heroes,’ and promised to assist their families.”

It also “fully endorsed Abbas’ threat voiced during his address to the United Nations that the Palestinians will stop honoring the agreements with Israel insofar as, in their view, Israel is not committed to implementing them… and the Palestinian leadership seeks to compel a full Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders, including a withdrawal from east Jerusalem, without the need for any political quid pro quo on the Palestinians’ part.”

The Palestinian leadership, he said, “hewed to the line of all-out confrontation with Israel… including in the legal arena, [regarding] the legal route as a force multiplier that can nullify Israel’s right to self-defense and afford legal and international legitimization for ending the ‘reality of occupation’ and for the ‘right’ of the Palestinian refugees and generations of their descendants to implement the ‘return’ to their homes and property within the sovereign state of Israel.”

Finally, Halevi wrote, the wording of the last excerpt “indicates that the Palestinian leadership, with Abbas at the helm, denies the Jewish right to the area of the Western Wall and regards it as a sacred Islamic site that is an inseparable part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”