The PLO's Negotiations Affairs Department recently issued a pamphlet supporting the right to "popular resistance." In that pamphlet, Saeb Erekat writes a short essay that begins this way:A few days after Israel occupied my hometown of Jericho in 1967, I was arrested by Israeli soldiers while writing graffiti:“down with the occupation, free Palestine.” This act of peaceful resistance sent a 13-years old boy to prison. From the very beginning of Israel’s occupation, a zero tolerance policy was adopted by the new conquerors and the love that an armless teenager had for his country had no place under Israel’s military control. Our message was too much for the occupying army to handle or fathom.Was Erekat arrested a few days after the Six Day War for writing graffiti saying "Down with the occupation, Free Palestine"?
The story falls apart in pieces.
First of all, he wasn't 13 in the days after the Six Day War - he was 12.
According to an online biography:
Israeli occupation began when he was twelve; first jailed at thirteen; usual childhood offences, stone-throwing, cutting wires, fighting with soldiers, PLO graffiti etc.So he was doing a bit more than just writing graffiti, it seems.
In fact, he admitted it himself in this interview from 2000:
I was 12 years old when Israeli troops occupied my town, my country. I went to jail for my first time when I was 13 years old. I had no choice but to post flyers and throw stones to stand up for our freedoms and rights that were taken away.But it is not like this is the first time we have caught Saeb Erekat lying.
And not the last, as his next paragraph indicates:
Since 1967, around 900,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned and confined including a large number of children.We've disproved this statistic back when it was "only" 750,000.
It is astounding, and very revealing, that Western media has no time for the slightest bit of critical thinking when it comes to the lies spouted daily by the leaders of the Palestinian Authority.