The Middle East Newsline has confirmed that the Al Aksa Brigades of the PLO’s Fatah movement, which remains on the list of organizations on the American Justice Department’s terror watch list, has assumed a leadership role in Ramallah, the stronghold of tbe nascent Palestinian Authority

“Elements within Fatah believe they must restore the credibility of the organization as a resistance movement,” a Palestinian source said. “They feel this would attract Iranian funding as well as cooperation with Hamas.”

On Nov. 16, a Fatah operative was arrested and charged with planning a suicide bombing against Israel in the city of Nablus. The Israeli military identified the Fatah member as Mohammed Abu Krek, 17. “Mohammed Abu Krek was a member of the military infrastructure squad of the terrorist organization in the old city of Nablus,” a military statement said. “This squad specializes in manufacturing unique explosive devices such as explosive belts…”

The Israeli military said Abu Krek was the deputy to Fatah commander Ami Loubadah, identified as an expert in the assembly of suicide explosive belts. The statement said Abu Krek produced the belt used by a Fatah operative who recently tried to bomb an Israel Army checkpoint outside of Nablus.

Fatah cells in the northern West Bank are also in contact with Hamas-sponsored counterparts in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas regime has been openly recruiting Fatah operatives to help plan attacks inside Israeli urban centers.

On Nov. 17, Israeli authorities announced that Fatah had recruited a 21-year-old Israeli Arab woman to abduct a Jew in the Tel Aviv area. Somaiya Abu Ghanem, a 21-year-old kindergarten teacher arrested on Oct. 28, was charged with contact with a foreign agent, Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, located in the Gaza Strip.

“In September of this year, she was contacted by Gaza-based Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorists, who sought her assistance in kidnapping a Jew,” an Israeli government statement said. “She expressed her willingness to do so. It further arises that she was also asked to assist in bringing a woman suicide terrorist from Gaza into Israel and to lead her to a crowded place.”

Meanwhile, initial results of Fatah’s regional elections in Ramallah show that the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, are leading over their rivals by a large gap.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com .

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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