Hundreds of Palestinians marched through the streets of Ramallah to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the Fatah movement led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, with masked men wearing fake suicide vests and firing weapons in the air leading the procession.

Fatah, founded by Yasser Arafat, became the dominant party in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) after Arafat was elected its chairman in 1969, and led the armed struggle against Israel for decades. After Arafat died in 2004, Abbas, a long-time secretary-general of the PLO became the chairman of the PLO and was subsequently elected the president of the Palestinian Authority.

Most PLO leaders are now top Fatah officials in the PA and militia groups associated with Fatah, including the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade and the Tanzim were heavily involved in suicide bombing and shootings against Israelis during the second intifada in the early 2000s.

The power of the Abbas-led Fatah has been in decline since 2007, when Hamas seized control from Fatah in the Gaza Strip and had been ruling the coastal enclave ever since. Since then, the two movements are constantly at each other’s throats and although there have been attempts at reconciliation, they have all failed.

Although the Fatah-led PA collaborates with the IDF in security issues and at times have prevented violence against Israelis, it also encourages terrorism by refusing to condemn terrorist attacks, glorifying terrorism through the full military funerals it holds for terrorists, its “pay to slay” policy of rewarding the families of “martyred” terrorists’ with stipends, and inciting against Israel in its media and schools.

Fatah members wearing explosive belts walk the streets of Ramallah today to celebrate the 55th anniversary of Fatah's first attack against #Israel. #WestBank pic.twitter.com/HslcvAtuhp

— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) December 31, 2019