More PA youth camps named after terrorist Mughrabi
The Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA), presided over by Fatah co-founder Mahmoud Abbas, recently publicly celebrated the 1978 coastal road massacre carried out by Fatah terrorists led by Dalal Mughrabi, in which 37 Israelis, including a dozen children, were murdered. The Pa has also named two youth summer camps in her honor. The coastal road massacre was the single most deadly Palestinian terrorist attack perpetrated against Israelis.
At a public event under Abbas’ auspices, a song was sung celebrating the terrorist outrage conducted by Mughrabi, who has been honored and glorified by the PA on several occasions in recent months and years. The song chosen to be performed at the Fatah event glorified the terrorists led by Mughrabi as “birds of prey” and “heroic,” and noted stages of the attack, which started when terrorists landed on the northern Israeli coast by sea from Lebanon. The event was attended by leading PA/Fatah figures, including Mousa Abu Zaid, Member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council and the PA’s Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports; Hafez Barghouti, Editor in Chief of official PA organ, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida and Member of the Revolutionary Council of Fatah; Layla Ghanam, Governor of Ramallah and Al-Bireh district; Mahmoud Al-Aloul, Member of the Central Committee of Fatah; and Jamal Muhaisen, Member of the Central Committee of Fatah.
The song sung at the public event honoring Mughrabi and the coastal road massacre are as follows:
“No one outshines the Fatah member
He mounts his machine gun on the tripod
His eyes are to Al-Aqsa [Mosque] – the Fatah member…
They got off the boats near the shore
[to hijack an Israeli bus in 1978]
[Squad leader] Dalal [Mughrabi] fights and battles the soldiers
[37 Israeli civilians were killed]
Be safe, you defiant, oh Fatah member!
…
They went [ashore] as birds of prey,
the heroic Al-Saika (PLO unit)
The men of Yasser [Arafat], Al-’Asifa (PLO unit)
The enemy’s army fled trembling.
Let’s hail Fatah!” [PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 4, 2010].
Additionally, the PA has named two summer camps for Palestinian youth in honor of Mughrabi, including a summer camp for girls in Bethlehem. At the closing ceremonies of this camp, the children were shown “a play named ‘Dalal the Legend,’ which was well-liked by the audience and received applause.” Also, the Secretary of Fatah in Bethlehem, Yousuf Al-Aref, explained that “naming such summer camps after the Shahida (Martyr) Dalal Mughrabi strengthens the sense of belonging and citizenship among Palestinian girls.” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 5, 2010, translations courtesy of Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, ‘Fatah: Terrorists who killed 37 were “heroic,” “birds of prey,” August 11, 2010).
ZOA National Chairman of the Board Dr. Michael Goldblatt said, “It is clear that there has been no change in the conduct of Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah and the PA they control. Recent months have seen an astonishing amount of unreconstructed extremism, glorification of terrorism and non-acceptance of Israel by Mahmoud Abbas and the PA.
“Abbas has honored Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, a Hizballah cleric named on the U.S. list of wanted terrorists and held responsible by the U.S. government for the 1983 suicide bombing that destroyed the barracks of U.S. Marines during a peace-keeping mission in Lebanon in which 242 U.S. servicemen were killed. Abbas has told Arab journalists that “If [Arab states] want war, and if all of you will fight Israel, we are in favor.” He has praised Muhammad Daoud Oudeh (Abu Daoud), the mastermind of the 1972 Munich Olympics seizure and subsequent murder of Israeli athletes as “a wonderful brother, companion” and phoned Abu Daoud’s family to express his condolences on his recent death. A few weeks before that, senior veteran Fatah official Nabil Shaath said that Hamas, the genocide-seeking terrorist group that has controlled Gaza since violently seizing the territory in 2007, need not recognize Israel, nor stop murdering Jews in Israel, nor meet any other demands laid down by the Quartet (the U.S., European Union, Russia and the United Nations).
“As with these other Abbas/PA words and deeds, this honoring of terrorists is open and public. This is highly significant. Abbas and the PA know that these statements and deeds are picked up, reported, translated and become more widely known. But they don’t care. They know from experience that no-one will hold him to account, that no one will take note and alter their policy towards the PA and penalize it. They know that they pay no price. This underscores the complete fraudulence of the PA and the so-called peace process President Obama is keen to revive.
“The ZOA renews its call for both Israel and the U.S. to cut ties with Abbas and the PA and cease all diplomatic and financial support to it until and unless Abbas publicly recants these statements, arrests terrorists and end the incitement to hatred and murder within the PA-controlled, media, mosques, schools and youth camps that feeds terrorism.”