The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has pointed again to another two-week period in which glorification of terrorists and incitement to hatred and violence have been prominent within Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA), which is funded by, among others, the U.S. taxpayer.

• On July 29, the municipality of Ramallah, the PA’s seat of government, voted to build a mausoleum in honor of PLO terrorists responsible for the deaths of eight Israeli civilians taken hostage in the March 1975 on the Tel Aviv beach at the city’s Hotel Savoy. In the operation to free hostage, three Israeli soldiers were also killed. The bodies of the dead terrorists had until recently been buried in a cemetery in Israel designated for terrorists. Two months ago, Israel transferred 91 bodies to the PA as a goodwill gesture, including the bodies of the terrorists from the Savoy Hotel attack. According to the PA daily newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, the Ramallah municipality voted this week to honor the terrorists by building a mausoleum for their remains. In 2007 the PA built a mausoleum in Ramallah over arch-terrorists Yasser Arafat’s grave (‘Ramallah municipality to build mausoleum for terrorist murderers,’ Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) bulletin, August 10, 2012).

• On July 31, PA TV decided to honor Muayyad Hijja, one of four terrorists  and the only survivor of a terrorist attack upon Israel in the southern resort city of Eilat in May 1992 in which one Israeli was murdered. PA TV decided to honor Hijja, who received two life sentences, by visit g him in his home and interviewing his relatives. During the broadcast, Hijja was described repeatedly as a “hero,” “heroic” and “one of the homeland’s beacons because of his valor and sacrifice … We are proud of him. He has always made us proud” (PA TV, July 31, 2012, translation in ‘Terrorist murderer called “heroic fighter, “beacon,” “all honor, all power, all vigor” in two broadcasts on PA TV,’ PMW bulletin, August 26, 2012).

• On August 3, PA TV News warned that Israel is destroying Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque using chemical weapons to weaken and eventually destroy its foundations. The PA News host said, “Experts on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem issues warned that there are traces of chemicals under Al-Aqsa, which the occupation authorities are using in intensified excavations around the foundations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to dissolve them.” A narrator then claimed, “Israel’s policies and schemes have never stopped and will never stop in Al-Aqsa’s courtyards and surroundings in order to harm [the Mosque’s] Arabness and holiness. What is new this time is the discovery of traces of dangerous chemicals in the Al-Aqsa foundations and [the discovery of] other solvents used to cause the foundations to crumble and collapse in accordance with [Israel’s] step-by-step plans” (PA TV, August 3, 2012, translation in ‘PA libel: Israel is using chemicals to ruin Al-Aqsa Mosque’s foundations,’ PMW bulletin, August 7, 2012). The official PA daily also wrote of this false claim, “The expert on Al-Aqsa mosque structure and Jerusalem Affairs, Engineer Jammal Amr, has warned that traces of dangerous chemicals have been found in the foundations of the Al-Aqsa mosque. He also emphasized that Israeli occupation forces use substances that induce dissolving in their excavations under Al-Aqsa, in order to fracture the [mosque’s] foundations and bring about its collapse… There are [Israeli] specialists spreading the chemicals at night, and removing the traces during the day. In addition, he emphasized that this [Israeli] attack on the Al-Aqsa mosque is the most audacious of the last three years, and that ever since Jerusalem was declared a capital of Arab culture in 2009, the occupation authorities have embarked on a dramatic offensive to Judaize the city and utterly erase its original [Arab] landmarks. Ammar emphasized that the recurring incursions by settlers (i.e., Jews visiting the Temple Mount) are carried out under the auspices of the occupation government and with its blessing, and that the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa mosque is grievously defiled by functionaries implementing the schemes of the occupation” (PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, August 3, 2012, translation in ‘PA libel: Israel is using chemicals to ruin Al-Aqsa Mosque’s foundations,’ PMW bulletin, August 7, 2012).