New Prime Minister Continues
Old Policy of Glorifying Killers

NEW YORK- The Palestinian Authority has named an official PA summer camp after the founder of Fatah’s terrorist Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade which is on the U.S. list of terrorist groups— in blatant violation of the Bush Road Map’s prohibition against incitement.

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is urging the Bush administration to suspend its invitation to PA prime minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) to visit the White House until he changes the names of summer camps, schools, streets, and public squares named after terrorists.

Palestinian Media Watch revealed that the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reported on July 13, 2003:

“The Palestinian Union for Culture, Sciences and Development continues with the activities of the fifth round of the summer camps (which) bears the title: “The Shahid Al-Amarin.” This with the cooperation of the children’s organization, “Da’una Nafrach” “Let us rejoice.”… [150 boys and girls aged 12 and 13 are taking part in this camp.] Yesterday the camp’s participants went to the home of the shahid [martyr] Jihad Al-Amarin, where (they were greeted by) the shahid’s wife, children and family. During the visit there were speeches praising the virtues of the shahid Jihad Al-Amarin, who was assassinated a year ago by the forces of the occupation. [Al-Amarin was the founder of Fatah’s Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade, which has murdered hundreds of Israelis and Americans.]

The shahid’s wife expressed her joy at our people’s loyalty to her husband, stating that the shahid Jihad followed a national mission. During the visit the shahid’s wife was presented with the camp’s shield.”

It was the latest in a long series of actions by the PA to publicly glorify terrorists, including many who have murdered Americans. For examples, see below.

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “If Abu Mazen was serious about peace, he would be arresting terrorists, not naming summer camps after them.”

* PA Names Square After Iraqi Killer of Americans:
The Israeli daily Ha’aretz (March 30, 2003), quoting Australian Television, reported that the PA has renamed the main square in the city of Jenin in honor of the Iraqi bomber, who murdered four American soldiers in a suicide carbomb attack on March 27, 2003.

* Student Group At PA University Named After Suicide Bomber:
At the PA’s Al Quds Open University in Tubass, a student organization is called “the Shahida Wafa Idris Cell,” after Wafa Idris, the first woman suicide bomber, whose attack in Jerusalem on Jan. 27, 2002, murdered one person and wounded over 150. (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 11, 2002)

* PA Names Summer Camp After Suicide Bomber:
The PA has named a summer camp “the Shahid-Seeker Ayyat al-Akhras Camp,” after Ayyat al-Akhras, a suicide bomber whose attack in a Jerusalem supermarket on March 29, 2002, murdered two Israelis. (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug.4, 2002)

* PA Glorifies Murderer of U.S. Senator’s Niece:
On March 11, 1978, Palestinian Arab terrorists led by Dalal Mughrabi massacred 37 people in an attack along the Tel Aviv coastal highway. One of the victims was Gail Rubin of New York, a renowned nature photographer who was the niece of U.S. Senator Abraham Ribicoff (D-CT). (The terrorists came across Ms. Rubin photographing nature scenes along the beach; they shot her dead, then hijacked a passing bus and killed most of the passengers.)

On March 11, 2003, the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah published an article commemorating the 25th anniversary of the massacre. It stated: “On the morning of March 11, 1978, a woman Palestinian fighter, Dalal Mughrabi, created a legend that would be taught for many years, when she and her Fedayeen unit infiltrated the Palestinian coastal plain near Tel Aviv… Twenty-five years after this heroine’s death as a Shahida [Dying for Allah], many Palestinian women are following in her footsteps every day. Examples include Wafa Idris, [First woman suicide bomber] and Ayyat al-Akhras, [second woman suicide bomber] who performed acts of Shahada- Seeking during the blessed al-Aksa Intifada to protect the homeland. The Shahida Dalal Mughrabi shall remain one of the symbols of the Palestinian national struggle.” (Translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch.)

* In August 2002, a school in the PA-controlled town of Al-Shuyukh, near Hebron, was renamed “the Dalal Mugrahbi School.” The school receives U.S. funding through the ANERA organization, whose spokesman, Peter Gubser, claimed on August 11, 2002 that the school’s directors had agreed to revert to the school’s original name; yet on August 16, 2002, the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah again referred to it as “the Dalal Mugrahbi School in Al-Shuyukh.” (Palestinian Media Watch)

* There is a Dalal Mughrabi 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 Preparatory Course (Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, Jan. 25, 2002)

* On March 9, 2000, the PA affiliated newspaper Al Ayyam called the Tel Aviv coastal massacre “one of the greatest successes of the struggle.”

* On August 30, 2000, an official PA Television broadcast asserted: “Dalal is a symbol for the Palestinian nation.”

* PA Names Soccer Tournament After Killer of American: The official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah reported on January 21, 2003 that the PA-sponsored soccer tournament in the PA-ruled city of Tulkarm was named “the Tulkarm Shahids [Martyrs] Memorial soccer championship tournament of the Shahid Abd Al-Baset Odeh.” Odeh was the suicide bomber who attacked a Netanya hotel on Passover last year, massacring 30 people, including a 90 year-old U.S. citizen, Mrs. Hannah Rogen. (Translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch.)

* Public Square Named After Murderer of Americans: In February 1996, the PA named a public square in Jericho after Yiyhe Ayyash. The U.S. State Department has named him as a prime suspect in the August 21, 1995 Jerusalem bus bombing in which Connecticut schoolteacher Joan Davenny was murdered. (Peace Watch Annual Report 1996; N.Y. Daily News, April 22, 1998)

* Streets Named After Murderers of Americans: In December 1996, the PA named a street in the town of Beit Lahiya after Yiyhe Ayyash. (Jerusalem Post, Dec. 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 were murdered, including a U.S. citizen, David Berger of Cleveland, Ohio. A photo of the “Abu Iyad Street” sign appeared in the pro-PLO newspaper Jerusalem Times on September 25, 1998.