NEW YORK- The Palestinian Authority is continuing to honor Palestinian Arab murderers of Americans by naming schools, streets, and public squares after them. The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is urging the Bush administration to immediately halt America’s $100-million in annual aid to the Palestinian Arabs until all names of killers of Americans are removed from those sites.
* School Named After Killer of American: In August 2002, Palestinian Media Watch reported that a school in the PA-controlled town of Al-Shuyukh, near Hebron, had been renamed “Dalal Mugrahbi” school, in honor of a woman terrorist involved in the 1978 Tel Aviv Highway massacre of 37 people. One of Mugrahbi’s victims was Gail Rubin, niece of U.S. Senator Abraham Ribicoff (D-CT). The school receives U.S. funding through the organization ANERA. Peter Gubser, an ANERA official, announced on August 11, 2002, that the school’s directors had agreed to immediately change the name of the school.
However, on August 16, 2002, the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida again referred to it as “the Dalal Mugrahbi school in Al-Shuyukh.”
In addition, there is a Dalal Mugrahbi Girls High School (PA Television, March 31, 2000); a Dalal Mugrahbi Summer Camp in Rafiah (PA Television, August 9, 2001); a Dalal Mugrahbi Kindergarten in Dura (Al Ayyam, May 30, 2001); and a Dalal Mugrahbi Course in the Fatah Women’s Young Staff Prepatory Course (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, January 25, 2002).
* Public Square Named After Killer of Americans: In February 1996, the PA named a public square in Jericho after Yiyhe Ayyash. He masterminded numerous terrorist attacks, including the August 21, 1995 bus bombing in Jerusalem in which Connecticut schoolteacher Joan Davenny was murdered. (Peace Watch Annual Report 1996; New York Daily News, April 22, 1998)
* Streets Named After Killers of Americans:
In December 1996, the PA named a street in the town of Beit Lahyia after Ayyash. (Jerusalem Post, December 17, 1996)
A street in PA-controlled Al-Bireh is named after Abu Iyad (Salah Khalaf), a PLO leader involved in planning many attacks, including the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, in which 12 people —one of them a U.S. citizen, David Berger of Cleveland— were murdered. A photo of the “Abu Iyad Street” sign appeared in the pro-PLO newspaper Jerusalem Times on September 25, 1998.
In a telegram to President Bush, ZOA National President Morton A. Klein, ZOA chairman of the board Dr. Alan Mazurek, and chairman of the ZOA National Executive Committee Dr. Michael Goldblatt wrote: “Those who glorify the murderers of American citizens do not deserve to receive a single penny in American taxpayers’ money. We urge you to halt all aid to the Palestinian Arabs until they remove the names of killers of Americans from their schools, streets, and public squares.”
The ZOA notes that for many years, Egypt has been refusing to renew diplomatic relations with Iran because Iran named a street after the assassin of Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat.