‘Moderate’ Palestinian ‘Peace Negotiator’ Outraged Over U.S. Designation of Hamas Terrorist

On Jan. 31, 2018 the United States State Department announced that top Hamas operative Ismail Haniyeh was now listed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). Less than twenty-four hours later, the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) chief “peace negotiator,” Saeb Erekat, decried the United States’ decision. Hamas is a U.S.-designated terrorist group that rules the Gaza Strip and calls for the destruction of Israel.

In a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) press statement, Erekat said that the “PLO rejects and condemns the U.S. finance department’s decision to add Islamic Hamas movement chief Ismail Haniyeh to the terrorist list.” Both the PLO and the PA, which rules the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), are dominated by the Fatah movement and led by Mahmoud Abbas. All three entities, as well as Abbas, are frequently labeled “moderate” by the press.

The State Department noted that Haniyeh “has been involved in terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens” and “Hamas has been responsible for an estimated 17 American lives killed in terrorist attacks.” Haniyeh is the head of the terror group’s so-called “political bureau.” As Matthew Levitt, a former U.S. Treasury Department terror analyst, noted in his 2006 book Hamas: Politics, Charity and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad, all factions of Hamas are closely intertwined; claims that the political branch does not coordinate with the so-called “military bureau” that carries out attacks are false.

As CAMERA has highlighted, Haniyeh has repeatedly called for a “holy war by the Palestinian people” against Israel. He has rejected claims—often pushed by the media and others—that “despair” is the motive for Palestinian anti-Jewish violence (“Hamas: ‘Despair’ Is Not the Reason for Palestinian Violence,” Jan. 26, 2016). More recently, following the United States’ Dec. 6, 2017 announcement that it would implement the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act, Haniyeh called for a third intifada (violent uprising). The second intifada (2000-05) resulted in the murder of more than 1,000 Israelis.

Erekat and the PLO’s decision to defend Haniyeh is noteworthy. Hamas and Fatah have long-been rivals and have attempted reconciliation efforts on various occasions. Recent attempts have failed—and were chronically underreported by major U.S. news outlets (see, for example “The Washington Post Notes Growing Hamas-Fatah Tensions,” CAMERA, July 18, 2017).

Erekat himself is an oft-cited source by the Western media—in spite of his well-established track record for distortions (see, for example “Saeb Erekat: Highly Visible, Highly Unreliable,” CAMERA, March 4, 2015). In fact, in a Jan. 31, 2018 column, The Washington Post’s David Ignatius uncritically repeated Erekat’s claim that, thanks to President Donald Trump, “the two-state solution is dead (“The Road to an Israeli-Palestinian Peace Deal is Vanishing).” Ignatius did not inform readers of Erekat’s defense of Fatah’s policy of paying terrorists. The same day that The Post printed Erekat’s assertion, the Palestinian official defended Haniyeh.