The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has pointed again to another two-week period in which glorification of terrorist murder, incitement to hatred and violence and Muslim supremacism have been prominent within Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA), which is funded by, among others, the U.S. taxpayer.
On May 31, the 91 Palestinian terrorists, including many suicide bombers whose corpses were handed over by Israel to the PA as a goodwill gesture, were given a military funeral for heroes by the PA, with the participation of Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and other PA dignitaries. All the returned terrorists, including many suicide bombers who murdered civilians, were presented as heroic and categorized as Shahids (Martyrs).
The Secretary General of Mahmoud Abbas’ office, Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim, declared, “Our Martyrs are now among us after being in our hearts, in our minds, and in our veins. We did not forget them for a moment, we will never forget them, and we will always remain faithful to their vow… Oh brothers [Martyrs], your souls now hover above us and say to us: ‘Follow in our path, stick to the obligation that is incumbent upon us and we are sure that you will be fulfilling this obligation and following this path.’ May Allah have mercy on you. We ask Allah to gather you in the uppermost heaven, along with the prophets, the righteous, and the Martyrs.”
The Mufti of the PA, Muhammad Hussein, said, “Our people, headed by the Palestinian leadership, welcome these Martyrs with great honor… As we accompany these Martyrs to Heaven, we should be happy: By Allah’s will, we still have elite groups of Martyrs like these among us … Honored brothers, this is a great event: The souls of the noble Martyrs envelop us, and their souls tell us to follow in their path” (PA TV, May 31, 2012, translations in ‘PA honors suicide bombers who murdered civilians,’ Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) bulletin, June 4, 2012).
On May 15, the official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, published an opinion piece on Israel’s 64th anniversary which said inter alia: “The [Palestinian] fathers will die and the sons will forget their right to this land (i.e., within state of Israel) – that is the theory that the occupation (i.e., Israel) upheld and spoke about for decades, and which, with time, it gambled with as a framework for its attempts to plant foreign settlers on Palestinian land, and to cause its historical and national identity to disappear. It spoke about this until it established its fascist state upon the ruins of the Palestinian people, which has suffered the greatest and ugliest ethnic cleansing known to modern history … we return to you, oh Haifa, Acre, and Jaffa, all of historical Palestine, so that life will return within us, and life will return within you, and all the temporary ones [Israelis] will go away. May their theory collapse, may their independence collapse, and may Palestine come back to life” (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 15, 2012, ‘PA daily op-ed expresses hope for Israel’s destruction,’ PMW bulletin, May 24, 2012).
Also, on May 11, PA TV featured a children’s program teaching Palestinian school children that Christians and Jews are inferior to Muslims. A young Palestinian girl was asked to recite a poem which, according to the host of the show, teaches children “responsibility and belonging” and which includes insults to Christians and Jews (“They are remnants of the [Christian] crusaders and Khaibar [Jews],” and are “inferior and smaller, more cowardly and despised”), referred to as “the enemy” and the “enemies of destiny,” while violence against them was glorified (“Where is my weapon? I found it – a stone. I took it and threw it at the enemies of destiny”) (PA TV (Fatah), May 11, 2012, translation in ‘PA TV teaches kids: Christians and Jews are inferior to Muslims,’ PMW bulletin, May 23, 2012).