ZOA urges Clinton to correct this falsehood
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has condemned Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for whitewashing Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) by falsely stating that the recent Palestinian ceremony honoring terrorist Dalal Mughrabi was organized only by Hamas, not Fatah or the PA. Mughrabi commanded the terrorists who perpetrated the 1978 coastal road bus hijacking, in which 37 Israelis, including 12 children, were slaughtered.
In her speech to the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Clinton said, “When a Hamas-controlled municipality glorifies violence and renames a square after a terrorist who murdered innocent Israelis, it insults the families on both sides who have lost loves ones over the years in this conflict.”
Secretary Clinton compounded this misrepresentation by actually praising the PA leadership of Mahmoud Abbas and prime minister Salam Fayyad, saying “we commend the government of President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad for the reforms they’ve undertaken to strengthen law and order, and the progress that they’ve made in improving the quality of life in the West Bank.” She also avoided identifying the PA for its role in fomenting recent violence in Jerusalem, referring only to the acts of unidentified “instigators,” and also speaking of Palestinian incitement as though the PA had no part in it (‘Remarks at the 2010 AIPAC Policy Conference,’ March 22, 2010).
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “It is deeply troubling and indicative of the bias of the Obama Administration that it took more than a week after Mahmoud Abbas’ PA honored Dalal Mughrabi as a hero and role model for Secretary Clinton to provide the Administration’s first criticism of the obscene glorification of a terrorist by the PA – and that when she finally did so, it was only to whitewash and protect Abbas, Fayyad and the PA by incorrectly suggesting that it was Hamas, not the PA, that had honored the terrorist Mughrabi.
“One cannot credibly condemn an act of terror glorification if, at the same time, one whitewashes and ‘commends’ the PA leadership that approved the celebration and which has honored the same terrorist on previous occasions.
“Abbas and the Fatah-controlled PA have honored Mughrabi numerous times, not only now. In fact, only a few months ago, the PA held celebrations for her 50th birthday. Mughrabi was also part of the Fatah-dominated PLO, which orchestrated the coastal road massacre that she led. The fact that a Hamas municipality had a part in holding the event does not alter any of this.
“Secretary Clinton’s attempted whitewashing of Abbas’ Fatah-controlled PA is obviously politically driven revisionism and a scandal. Because the Obama Administration insists on treating Abbas’ PA as a genuine peace partner when it is not and has in fact done nothing for peace talks, including concessions sought by the Obama Administration itself, Secretary Clinton deals with this inconvenient truth by pretending that someone other Abbas and the PA are honoring terrorists.
“As the ZOA has demonstrated numerous times, the truth remains that Fatah to this day neither accepts Israel as a Jewish state nor has put an end to incitement to hatred and murder against it, including by glorifying terrorists, within the PA and its media, mosques, schools and youth camps.
“We strongly urge Secretary Clinton to publicly retract and correct this egregious error.”