US Funds Finance Palestinian
Glorification of Terrorists
Palestinian Arabs in the town of Jenin have named a school and main street in honor of the Anti-American, mass-murderer and Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein. The street in question was newly paved 18 months ago with money provided by USAID. The Palestinian Authority (PA) has a long record of naming schools, streets, sports teams and even a major border crossing after Palestinian suicide bombers and other terrorists with Israeli blood on their hands. The PA has often built new infrastructures with American aid money and named them after dead terrorists (Palestinian Media Watch, January 22). Some examples:
- A city block in the center of Jenin was named after the first Iraqi suicide terrorist who murdered four Americans in Fallujah. An anti-American rally was also held at the time, speakers blessed the “resistance of the residents of Fallujah” and the mayor of Jenin personally attended. The new block was built with U.S. funds donated for road works to the Jenin municipality (PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 4, 2004, translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch).
- A major sports center, constructed with U.S. funds, was named in honor of Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad) the second-in-command of Yasser Arafat’s PLO and head of the Black September PLO terrorist sub-group, which was behind the murders of Israelis athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972 and the murder of two American diplomats in Sudan (PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 30, 2004, translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch).
- USAID funds assisted the renovations of the Dalal Mughrabi School, named in honor of the female Palestinian terrorist leader whose group murdered the American photographer Gail Rubin and 36 Israelis in 1978 (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, December 14, 2004, translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch).
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “It is no surprise that Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority (PA), often described by governments and media as ‘moderates,’ have glorified the former Iraqi dictator. It was after all the same PLO and Fatah, from which the PA sprung, that in 1990 endorsed Saddam’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Abbas and his PA refuse to fulfill their obligations under signed agreements and the 2003 Roadmap peace plan to dismantle terrorist groups and end the incitement to hatred and murder within the PA-controlled media, mosques, schools and youth camps that feed it. It is therefore not surprising that they produce nothing but words and deeds honoring Saddam, who gave lavish rewards to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. Saddam’s execution last month was the occasion for memorials, demonstrations and eulogies within the PA . Mahmoud Abbas himself publicly praised the executed Iraqi dictator in a statement read on PA television and radio, saying, ‘Saddam Hussein has entered history as a symbol of …Pan-Arab nationalism.’
“Tragically, the examples cited above are only a few of many of Mahmoud Abbas and the PA glorifying suicide bombers and idealizing terrorism. The bigger shock is that they are doing so with the aid of U.S. funds provided courtesy of the American taxpayer. It is simply indefensible that the U.S. is funding expressions of murderous Palestinian Arab hatred and extremism.”