Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) continues to inculcate violence and glorify terrorists who practice it, the latest case being a Fatah-sponsored football tournament named after veteran Fatah terrorist leader Khalil al-Wazir, known by his nom de guerre Abu Jihad. Abu Jihad was for decades a senior figure in the PLO’s campaign of terrorism who planned several major Palestinian terrorist attacks.
Abu Jihad is believed to have planned the 1975 attack on Tel Aviv’s Savoy Hotel, in which Fatah terrorists murdered eight hostages. He also planned the Coastal Road massacre, in which 37 Israelis, including 12 children were murdered by a squad of terrorists led by Dalal Mughrabi, who Abbas’ PA has honored on more than one occasion, most recently in April when the PA named a Ramallah town square after her.
A Fatah representative spoke at the “Shahid (Martyr) Abu Jihad tournament held in Abu Dis, near Jerusalem, reminding the children “that we shall follow the same path of Abu Jihad and Yasser Arafat.”
Other recent cases of PA glorification of terrorists include lottery for another football tournament in Bethlehem named after the terrorist Abdallah Daoud, who was responsible for many terror attacks and was one of the terrorists who stormed the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 2002, using the monks and the religious site as shields; and another football tournament in Gaza which included a team named after the terrorist Majed Abu Sharar, a senior Fatah and PLO terror leader in the 1970s (Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, ‘PA kids told to “follow same path” as terrorist,’ Palestinian Media Watch bulletin, May 17, 2010).
Also in the past week, PA TV broadcast a children’s program Katakit (‘Chicks’) in which the children in the studio told of their visits to places in Israel – Jaffa, Haifa and the Sea of Galilee. However, following the common PA teaching, Israel’s existence was not mentioned and the PA TV host included those places as all being part of the “state, Palestine.” In the PA TV studio, a large map of ‘Palestine’ was displayed that includes all of Israel with the words in English, “Explore Your Country,” and in Arabic: “My country is so beautiful”:
Host: “Do you enjoy going on trips? So show me where you’ve been on the map of Palestine.”
Children approach the map in the studio on which all of Israel is “Palestine.”
Girl points to places on map: “We went to the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret, lake in Israel) and to the Dead Sea.”
Boy points on map: “Jaffa, Haifa.” (Israeli cities)
Girl: “And Jericho.”
Boy: “And Jenin and Nablus.”
Host: “So you’ve visited many different places in Palestine, and that’s very good. It’s very good that we’re always visiting new places in our state, Palestine.”
(PA TV (Fatah), May 16, 2010, translation courtesy of Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, ‘PA TV again to children: All Israel is “Palestine,”’ Palestinian Media Watch bulletin, May 18, 2010).
These events occurred only days after the Obama Administration said that “We … strongly condemn the glorification of terrorists honoring terrorists who have murdered innocent civilians either by official statements or by the dedication of public places hurts peace efforts and must end. We will continue to hold Palestinian leaders accountable for incitement” (Assistant Secretary of State Phillip Crowley, State Department Daily Press Briefing, April 8, 2010).
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “In the past year, we have seen the Obama Administration avoid the issue of Palestinian incitement. We have seen it fail to make Palestinian incitement an issue upon which hinges further U.S. aid to the PA. We have the Administration ignore the glorification of terrorism and rejection of Israel as a Jewish state at the 2009 Fatah conference and later, when asked by Senator Arlen Specter to make U.S. aid conditional on Palestinians ending incitement, we watched the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton whitewash Fatah and claim falsely that it accepts Israel and opposes violence.
“We have seen the Obama Administration ignore the murder of an Israeli by Fatah terrorists last December and we have seen it ignore the condolence messages from Mahmoud Abbas and condolences calls on the families of the dead terrorists by Salam Fayyad. We have seen the Administration ignore the glorification of Dalal Mughrabi by the PA and later Secretary Clinton’s efforts to whitewash the PA by falsely claiming that only Hamas arranged a ceremony to honor Mughrabi.
“The Obama Administration must cease to protect Abbas, Fayyad and the PA from exposure as purveyors of hate and inciters of violence, publicly condemn the PA for its incitement and make further U.S. aid to the PA conditional on incitement being ended. The PA has called on its youth to emulate terrorists, named football games after terrorists, displays Israel as ‘Palestine’ in maps –all this since President Obama himself told Abbas last week that he intended to ‘hold both sides accountable for actions that undermine trust during the talks.’
“Nothing could be more provocative than these PA acts that have occurred since President Obama “spoke those words – here is his chance to speak out. It is past time for the Obama Administration to honor its commitment to hold Palestinian leaders accountable for incitement to violence and hatred.”