Excerpt of the full text of an interview conducted by the London newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi with Fatah Deputy Chairman and Fatah Central Committee member Mahmoud Al-Aloul

Headline: “Fatah Movement Deputy Chairman Mahmoud Al-Aloul: We will not confront the Arab countries that are going in the direction of normalization [with Israel], we will leave that to their peoples”

Q: ‘Had you known in advance, would you have recommended to him [Abbas] to use this expression [“may your house be destroyed”]?’

[Al-Aloul:] ‘Maybe I would have recommended to him to use other stronger expressions. I don’t know why the expression is being focused upon. It expresses the feelings and level of disappointment, and this is most clear in this context. Recently we were forced to review all of our relations with the American administrations in recent years, and not just the Trump administration. We assessed that nothing good will come from them for the Palestinian people and the nation, and this is completely clear.’

Q: ‘Is that your assessment or the assessment of the Palestinian leadership?’

[Al-Aloul:] ‘It is the assessment of the entire Palestinian leadership. If we review the relations with all of the American administrations, we see that they have not given the Palestinians anything of substance but rather worked in order to pull the rug out from under their feet by exerting pressures on them, and that with all their might they support [the Palestinians’] enemy that is occupying their lands.’