This week, for the first time, the United Nations is referring to a Palestinian state in a UN resolution. This is another step closer to giving legitimacy to the Palestinian false claims over the land that God gave to the Jewish people. It’s also looking to give Israel’s land to a group that supports terrorism and seeks the destruction of Israel. And, no, we’re not talking about Hamas, but the Palestinian Authority.
Global recognition is one concern, but who controls a future Palestinian state is also a concern. It seems that freedom for the Palestinians doesn’t mean they have a right to democratically determine who their government is. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. And it seems that Western leaders do not want democracy for the Palestinians. Instead, they want to insert the Palestinian Authority as the government. This is problematic for a number of reasons.
First of all, the Palestinians do not support the Palestinian Authority, as it is currently dominated by the Fatah party, led by Mahmoud Abbas. Opinion polls show that if there were an election, Fatah would lose and Hamas would be the largest party in all Palestinian territories.
This isn’t new. When Gaza was given a democratic vote, the Palestinians voted in Hamas. Hamas then rounded up the opposing Fatah party members and executed them to cement their power. They then used that power to turn Gaza into a terrorist enclave, and we all know what happened after that.
In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority came out victorious in a 2005 election because Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) boycotted the elections. Abbas was elected for a four-year term, which has now lasted over 20 years. Abbas keeps telling the West, including the United Nations, that he will allow the Palestinians to vote in another election. He’s never kept his word because he knows that he will be ousted immediately.
Despite the fact that Abbas is extremely unpopular among Palestinians, Abbas is very popular on the world stage, or at least if you speak to politicians. Almost every member of the United Nations is touting him to be the first president of ‘Palestine’. It seems they don’t seem to care about democracy or the Palestinians. They just want to create a Palestinian state at any cost.
God takes the dividing up of His land very seriously. God says he will “enter into judgment” with all nations, “On behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations; And they have divided up My land.” Joel 3:2
As you can see, dividing of God’s land is serious business; God will judge the nations for it. And yet the nations seem intent on defying God and doing just that.
“After the PA reform program is faithfully carried out and Gaza redevelopment has advanced, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.
“The United States will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous coexistence,” the new clause said, according to the Jerusalem Post.
This should be concerning to any Christian watchmen. The PA is not a partner for peace, no matter what politicians say. Also, “PA reform” is not a real thing. The PA has simply rearranged the chairs, putting seasoned PA politicians into new roles instead of removing the bad apples.
This is evident by how the Palestinian leaders speak to their own people, in Arabic, away from the eyes of the world. Key figures within the Palestinian Authority are promoting that the PA has not abandoned the path of terror. This is something CUFI has been saying for years. Mahmoud Abbas was the funder/financier of the Munich Massacre. You can read more about that here.
Recently, in honour of the anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death, Fatah’s Information and Culture Commission posted a famous Arafat slogan: “Don’t call out for me, rather call out for Palestine and Jerusalem: With spirit, with blood, we will redeem you, Palestine. Millions of Martyrs are marching to Jerusalem!”
Yasser Arafat was the mastermind of the First and Second Intifadas. He’s also known as the most famous Palestinian, despite being born in Egypt. He remains the figurehead for the Palestinian cause, and both Hamas supporters and Fatah supporters (and all others in between) see him as a figurehead for their movement. Arafat, too, hoodwinked Western leaders. He would say nice things to them while spreading hatred against Israel to his own people, and thousands died because of the Intifadas.
As Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) states: “For all the diplomatic illusions of a ‘moderate’ Fatah that should replace ‘extremist’ Hamas, the truth is simple: both teach the same strategy – Martyrdom to destroy Israel and liberate Jerusalem. The Al-Aqsa Flood is Hamas’ battlefield expression of the same fundamental ideology that the PA constantly feeds its children in its classrooms, streets, and cultural events. The cult of Martyrdom and violence against Israel long predated Hamas and was spearheaded by Yasser Arafat.”
A ‘cult of martyrdom’ is exactly what it is. Palestinian children are routinely taught that “the liberation of Palestine will only be achieved through armed struggle.”
Armed struggle is terrorism and warfare against Israel. This is not a partner for peace. The recognition of a Palestinian state is not the end goal for Palestinians; it’s the starting foundation. Once they have recognition, they will use that as a platform to push their ultimate agenda: the destruction of Israel.
Palestinian leaders, whether it is Hamas, Fatah, or any other group, support the path of terrorism and the complete destruction of Israel.
But don’t take our word for it.
Yasser Arafat once said, “Peace for us means the destruction of Israel. We are preparing for an all-out war. A war which will last for generations.”
And this mentality did not die out with Arafat. Senior figures still adhere to terror today. They are proud of their terrorist past.
Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “Since when did Hamas bear arms to say that its weapons are related to the existence of the occupation (i.e., Israel)? The occupation is 77 years old (i.e., since the establishment of modern Israel), or at least since 1967, and Hamas did not bear arms until 1990. On the contrary, it opposed the PLO, which has borne arms since 1964.” [PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, YouTube channel, 26 October 2025]
It should be noted that the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) are interchangeable in most references. The PLO is an umbrella organisation that represents global Palestinians, whereas the PA oversees the Palestinians within the Palestinian territories. Mahmoud Abbas is the leader of both the PLO and the PA. Fatah is the political party that has the majority of seats in the PLO and PA, and is also headed up by Abbas.
As you can see, though, one of Abbas’s senior advisers is claiming that it is themselves, not Hamas, that have been waging terror against Israel for longer. The Palestinian Authority is proud of its terror background.
Likewise, the PA is not opposed to Hamas joining them.
Jibril Rajoub, Fatah’s Central Committee Secretary, said in September that they wanted to “integrate Hamas within the national framework.” This echoed something he said the month prior.
Jibril Rajoub: “I say to our brothers in Hamas, we in Fatah tell you: Let us reach an agreement regarding the vision that will reap the fruits of the sacrifice that the Palestinian people have made from 1948 until today. The Palestinian struggle did not start yesterday, two years ago, or 30 years ago. The Palestinian national struggle is the other side [of the coin] of the unilateral aggression that has been carried out against us for 77 years of struggle… Sooner or later the Palestinian state will be established, and we will remain here, and they [Israelis] will go to the trash can of history.” [Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, 21 August 2025]
They back up this rhetoric with their actions. The Palestinian Authority operates a ‘Pay to Slay’ system where terrorists who carry out violence against Israelis are rewarded financially. Any Palestinian who murders an Israeli will get a lifetime salary from the PA.
These payments are not just a small thing. They are central to the jihadist aims of the PA.
Mahmoud Abbas said in 2018, “Even if we have only a penny left, we will give it to the martyrs, the prisoners and their families.” Adding, “we view the prisoners and the martyrs as planets and stars in the skies of the Palestinian struggle, and they have priority in everything.”
This is something Abbas has repeated a number of times since then. The result is that some terrorists have earned hundreds of thousands of pounds whilst in prison because they were responsible for murdering Israelis.
As Christian watchmen, we must be alert to these things. There is a great deception in the world, and it is leading nations astray.
The world is deceived in two ways when it comes to the Palestinians. First, the world wrongly thinks that Israel should give up its sovereign territory to accommodate the Palestinians, who have no historic claim to the land. Second, the world wrongly thinks that the Palestinian Authority, a terror-supporting organisation dedicated to the destruction of Israel, is a good partner for peace.
“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their own craftiness,'” (1 Corinthians 3:19).
