by David Bedein
Jerusalem - The promise made to the Americans was not kept. The Palestinian Authority (P.A.) named a square in Ramallah after terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, who led a Palestinian Liberation Organization terror attack on the coastal road of Israek, where 38 people were murdered, including Gale Rubin, the niece of Senator Abraham Ribicoff, the late Senator from Connecticut.
Because of the visit of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, the P.A. canceled the official ceremony scheduled to take place in Ramallah, during which it was to name one of the main squares in the city after the terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, who, in 1978, committed the attack on the coastal road bus.
Despite their promises, the Palestinians held a commemoration ceremony to mark 32 years of the terror attack. “We are committed to the path of shahid Dalal Mughrabi,” the participants declared at the ceremony, which was also attended by top Fatah members and P.A. officials. A monument was even placed in the square center in memory of Mughrabi. Participants held up pictures of the terrorist.
Last week, Adnan Dumairi, a senior Palestinian Authority security official, announced that the official ceremony to name the square after Mughrabi had been delayed only for “technical reasons.”
Among those attending the ceremony were Palestinian MP Fatah member Jamal Hawil, and Tawfik Tirawi, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee and former director of Palestinian intelligence.
To make clear its intention to memorialize Mughrabi, the Palestinian Authority this week launched a seminar named after Mughrabi.
The four-day seminar, called “Martyr Dalal Mughrabi Camp,” was being held in Jericho under the auspices of the P.A.’s Military Science Academy, where the American army trains Palestinian security services. About 120 Palestinian university students from the West Bank participated in the conference.
See this report at Israel Behind the News
Showing posts with label Dalal Mughrabi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dalal Mughrabi. Show all posts
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Special Report: THE INCITEMENT REPORT, Volume 1, Issue 1: Incitement by the Palestinian Authority
THE INCITEMENT REPORT
VOL. I, ISSUE I
Incitement by the Palestinian Authority
November 2009 - January 2010
PUBLISHED BY:
THE CENTER FOR NEAR EAST POLICY RESEARCH
BEIT AGRON INTERNATIONAL PRESS CENTER
37 HILLEL STREET
JERUSALEM 94581 ISRAEL
TEL. 02 6236368
CtrForNearEastPolicyResearch@gmail.com
www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com
_____________________________________________
q Al-Ayyam (PA), November 12, 2009, reported:#
“Mahmoud Abbas…spoke in favor of armed resistance at a rally marking the fifth anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death: ‘We will continue [Arafat's] long and exhausting struggle [that was] fraught with blood, sweat, and tears. The road [we are traveling] today is anchored in a noble heritage of struggle that we built with brave hands, an enlightened mind, and a national thinking [rooted in] long experience. We combined armed struggle with political activity. Our guns were not the guns of highway robbers. They were political guns [promoting] a noble goal.’
q According to El-Shourouq (Tunisia), November 15, 2009:#
Fatah Central Committee member Nabil Sha'ath said in an interview: "Today we have the right to return to the armed struggle in order to restore our rights. For 18 years we tried to negotiate, but Israel has continued its aggression, destruction, massacres and [construction of] settlements. Today we have the right to turn back to the alternative [routes]... If negotiations fail, we will turn to armed struggle. This is our right, as I have said... International law stipulates that, when an occupying [force] takes one's land and harms one's honor, one has the right to resort to armed struggle."
q Hafez Al-Barghouthi, editor of the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, wrote on November 15, 2009:#
"[We] must bring things to the point of no return: either [we obtain] a fully sovereign Palestinian state in the June 4, 1967 borders, or the flood will descend...
"The Palestinian people will not allow its tragedy to repeat itself without a reaction. If it must choose between a quick death and a slow one, it will choose the short road and set the land on fire everywhere...
"We owe nothing to anyone. On the contrary, it is others who owe us a huge debt. If the roads to peace are blocked by settlements and international conspiracies, we will turn ourselves into paragons of sacrifice... When we no longer have anything to lose, it will be [the Israelis] who will lose..."
q On December 24, 2009, three members of Al-Aksa Brigades killed Rabbi Meir Avshalom Chai in a drive-by shooting in Samaria and fled. Two days later, the IDF had tracked them to their homes, in the Nablus area . Two refused to come out of their homes and surrender; a third came out using his wife as a shield and was thought to be armed. They were all shot dead.
By December 27, the Palestinian Authority leadership and PA-controlled media had begun to refer to the three as shahids – holy martyrs:#
PA President Mahmoud Abbas sent a personal emissary – Secretary General of the President’s Bureau, Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim – to the homes of their families. He carried letters from Abbas that conveyed condolences and informed the families of his decision to name them “Shahids of the Palestinian Revolution” (PA TV)
Said Al-Rahim: "Without doubt, what the occupation authorities have carried out is a wild and barbaric act and a deliberate, malicious assassination in cold blood."
PA TV featured a poster of the three terrorists, expressing condolences from Abbas. The text on the poster read:
"With honor and admiration to those who are more honored than all of us.
"The Palestine Liberation Organization, Fatah, accompanies to their wedding [of martyrs with virgins in Paradise]:
“The Martyr, Commander, Hero: Rassan Abu Serah
”The Martyr, Commander, Hero: Ra'ed Al Aschregi
”The Martyr, Commander, Hero: Anan Sobh
The Director General of the Presidency expresses condolences to the Nablus Martyrs - in the name of the President [Abbas].”
Additionally, PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad personally visited the homes of the families of these men and conveyed condolences.
It should be noted that there was denial of what the three men had done. There was no claim that “innocent” men had been mistakenly killed by the IDF.
Maan News Agency on December 26 referred to the activity of these men, “which led to the death of the settler in a shooting operation."
q Dalal Mughrabi was a young female terrorist who led a party of 11other terrorists down from Lebanon into northern Israel, via the Mediterranean, in 1978. They first killed wildlife photographer Gail Rubin on the beach and then hijacked a bus. When the bus was stopped at a roadblock, and a gun battle ensued, she blew it up. In all 37 civilians, including 10 children, were killed and 71 wounded. This attack, which became known as the Coastal Road Massacre, is one of the worst in Israel’s history. Mughrabi herself was killed in the gun battle.
On December 29, 2009, PA President Mahmoud Abbas honored Mughabri’s memory on the occasion of her 50th birthday. PA dignitaries and a children’s marching band were present for the ceremony.#
A very large banner was displayed at the ceremony. It had Mughrabi’s picture on it. The text read:
"Under the auspices of President Mahmoud Abbas
The Political and National Education Authority Ceremony on the anniversary of the birth of the bride of the cosmos The Shahida (Holy Martyr) Dalal Mughrabi."
Two PA TV broadcasts noted the ceremony.
Additionally, the governor of Ramallah announced the naming of Dalal Mughrabi Square.
While on December 30, 2009, PA spokesman Jamal Nazal, writing in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, referred to her as “the heroine of Palestine’s heroines.”
q Wafa Idris, the first female Palestinian suicide bomber, detonated a bomb in the center of Jerusalem in January 2002 that killed one and injured over 100.
During the first week of January 2010, she was honored as a Shahida (Holy Martyr) in a Fatah promotional video broadcast on PA TV.#
q On January 11, 2010, the following appeared in the PA paper Al-Ayyam:#
Headline: "The occupation accuses the Palestinian leadership of incitement because of Dalal Mughrabi Square -Minister of Culture: Honoring the Shahids is the least we can do, and resistance to the occupation is a legitimate right"
"The occupation government [the Israeli government] has reiterated its familiar tune of accusing the [Palestinian] National Authority of incitement within Palestinian culture. The Israeli Prime Minister... claims that the Palestinian leadership is encouraging terror in its culture.
”Netanyahu claims that the proof, which he presented to the members of his government, is the naming of a square in the region of Ramallah and El-Bireh after the Shahida (Martyr) Dalal Mughrabi. ...
”Netanyahu is reported as saying: 'Anyone who supports naming [the square] after Dalal Mughrabi, who was responsible for the murder of dozens of Israelis, is encouraging terror and pushing peace further off...'
”Netanyahu was referring to the operation of self-sacrifice led by Mughrabi in 1978, the ‘Coast Operation’ within Israel, which led to the deaths of 36 Israelis. Netanyahu accused the [Palestinian] National Authority of incitement in schools and in cultural activities in general.
”Minister of Culture Siham Barghouti said, in response to the Israeli claims, that 'It is our right to preserve and maintain [the memory] of our fighters who sacrificed their lives for our sake and for the sake of the Palestinian cause.'
”She added: 'Honoring them in this way [by naming public places after them] is the least we can give them, and this is our right, especially since we believe that resistance, in the shadow of the ongoing occupation, is a legitimate right, and we are proud and we pride ourselves on our heritage of struggle, which has been realized by our Shahids and fighters throughout history.'
q Al-Quds, Jerusalem, January 21, 2010, reported:#
“The concluding statement of Fatah's Revolutionary Council meeting said that there was a need to step up the popular resistance and to expand it to all Palestinian areas harmed by the settlements and by the separation fence.”
q On Friday, January 29, 2010, a sermon was broadcast on PA-controlled TV that said in part:
“The Jews, the enemies of Allah and of His Messenger, the enemies of Allah and of His Messenger! Enemies of humanity in general, and of Palestinians in particular - they wage war against us using all kinds of crimes, and as you see - even the mosques are not spared their racism...
"Oh Muslims! The Jews are the Jews. The Jews are the Jews. Even if donkeys would cease to bray, dogs cease to bark, wolves cease to howl and snakes to bite, the Jews would not cease to harbor hatred towards Muslims. The Prophet said that if two Jews would be alone with a Muslim, they would think only of killing him. Oh Muslims! This land will be liberated, these holy places and these mosques will be liberated, only by means of a return to the Koran and when all Muslims will be willing to be Jihad Fighters for the sake of Allah and for the sake of supporting Palestine, the Palestinian people, the Palestinian land, and the holy places in Palestine. The Prophet says: 'You shall fight the Jews and kill them…’”#
Incitement by UNRWA
January 2010
Karen AbuZayd has retired as Commissioner-General of UNRWA and has been succeeded by Filippo Grandi, who had been AbuZayd’s lieutenant.
Providing insight into the issue of UNRWA incitement we have Mr. Grandi’s inaugural letter to the UNRWA staff, dated January 26, 2010. It appeared on the UNRWA website.#
Mr. Grandi’s letter includes the following:
“I need not tell you how difficult this period is for the Palestinian people. We are all painfully aware of the counterproductive policies collectively punishing the people of the Gaza Strip; conscious decisions that have caused untold suffering and a dramatic deterioration in the lives of the population, in contravention of international law. One of my key priorities will be to continue to advocate strongly on behalf of the 1.5 million Gazans, and to do so not only until the end of the blockade and the occupation, but also until a just and lasting solution to the plight of the refugees is achieved.
“Despite some recent economic improvements for some, the lives of most Palestinians in the West Bank continue to be made almost impossible by obstacles, walls, movement limitations and other restrictions, and by the expanding threat of settler violence. For those residing in East Jerusalem, as I do, it is cause for daily anguish to watch the situation deteriorate rapidly under our very eyes, especially the ruthless evictions of Palestinians from their homes. UNRWA will continue to stand with the affected families and all of those in need of our protection and will tirelessly lend our voice to their calls for justice.”
There are several seriously tendentious statements – and, in fact, outright misrep resenta tions – included here. But this material is problematic for reasons beyond this: UNRWA’S mandate is purely humanitarian. Grandi is assuming a political stance that is absolutely beyond his purview. How does UNRWA come to “stand with affected families” who have been evicted in eastern Jerusalem?
View the full document at Israel Behind the News
VOL. I, ISSUE I
Incitement by the Palestinian Authority
November 2009 - January 2010
THE CENTER FOR NEAR EAST POLICY RESEARCH
BEIT AGRON INTERNATIONAL PRESS CENTER
37 HILLEL STREET
JERUSALEM 94581 ISRAEL
TEL. 02 6236368
CtrForNearEastPolicyResearch@gmail.com
www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com
_____________________________________________
q Al-Ayyam (PA), November 12, 2009, reported:#
“Mahmoud Abbas…spoke in favor of armed resistance at a rally marking the fifth anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death: ‘We will continue [Arafat's] long and exhausting struggle [that was] fraught with blood, sweat, and tears. The road [we are traveling] today is anchored in a noble heritage of struggle that we built with brave hands, an enlightened mind, and a national thinking [rooted in] long experience. We combined armed struggle with political activity. Our guns were not the guns of highway robbers. They were political guns [promoting] a noble goal.’
q According to El-Shourouq (Tunisia), November 15, 2009:#
Fatah Central Committee member Nabil Sha'ath said in an interview: "Today we have the right to return to the armed struggle in order to restore our rights. For 18 years we tried to negotiate, but Israel has continued its aggression, destruction, massacres and [construction of] settlements. Today we have the right to turn back to the alternative [routes]... If negotiations fail, we will turn to armed struggle. This is our right, as I have said... International law stipulates that, when an occupying [force] takes one's land and harms one's honor, one has the right to resort to armed struggle."
q Hafez Al-Barghouthi, editor of the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, wrote on November 15, 2009:#
"[We] must bring things to the point of no return: either [we obtain] a fully sovereign Palestinian state in the June 4, 1967 borders, or the flood will descend...
"The Palestinian people will not allow its tragedy to repeat itself without a reaction. If it must choose between a quick death and a slow one, it will choose the short road and set the land on fire everywhere...
"We owe nothing to anyone. On the contrary, it is others who owe us a huge debt. If the roads to peace are blocked by settlements and international conspiracies, we will turn ourselves into paragons of sacrifice... When we no longer have anything to lose, it will be [the Israelis] who will lose..."
q On December 24, 2009, three members of Al-Aksa Brigades killed Rabbi Meir Avshalom Chai in a drive-by shooting in Samaria and fled. Two days later, the IDF had tracked them to their homes, in the Nablus area . Two refused to come out of their homes and surrender; a third came out using his wife as a shield and was thought to be armed. They were all shot dead.
By December 27, the Palestinian Authority leadership and PA-controlled media had begun to refer to the three as shahids – holy martyrs:#
PA President Mahmoud Abbas sent a personal emissary – Secretary General of the President’s Bureau, Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim – to the homes of their families. He carried letters from Abbas that conveyed condolences and informed the families of his decision to name them “Shahids of the Palestinian Revolution” (PA TV)
Said Al-Rahim: "Without doubt, what the occupation authorities have carried out is a wild and barbaric act and a deliberate, malicious assassination in cold blood."
PA TV featured a poster of the three terrorists, expressing condolences from Abbas. The text on the poster read:
"With honor and admiration to those who are more honored than all of us.
"The Palestine Liberation Organization, Fatah, accompanies to their wedding [of martyrs with virgins in Paradise]:
“The Martyr, Commander, Hero: Rassan Abu Serah
”The Martyr, Commander, Hero: Ra'ed Al Aschregi
”The Martyr, Commander, Hero: Anan Sobh
The Director General of the Presidency expresses condolences to the Nablus Martyrs - in the name of the President [Abbas].”
Additionally, PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad personally visited the homes of the families of these men and conveyed condolences.
It should be noted that there was denial of what the three men had done. There was no claim that “innocent” men had been mistakenly killed by the IDF.
Maan News Agency on December 26 referred to the activity of these men, “which led to the death of the settler in a shooting operation."
q Dalal Mughrabi was a young female terrorist who led a party of 11other terrorists down from Lebanon into northern Israel, via the Mediterranean, in 1978. They first killed wildlife photographer Gail Rubin on the beach and then hijacked a bus. When the bus was stopped at a roadblock, and a gun battle ensued, she blew it up. In all 37 civilians, including 10 children, were killed and 71 wounded. This attack, which became known as the Coastal Road Massacre, is one of the worst in Israel’s history. Mughrabi herself was killed in the gun battle.
On December 29, 2009, PA President Mahmoud Abbas honored Mughabri’s memory on the occasion of her 50th birthday. PA dignitaries and a children’s marching band were present for the ceremony.#
A very large banner was displayed at the ceremony. It had Mughrabi’s picture on it. The text read:
"Under the auspices of President Mahmoud Abbas
The Political and National Education Authority Ceremony on the anniversary of the birth of the bride of the cosmos The Shahida (Holy Martyr) Dalal Mughrabi."
Two PA TV broadcasts noted the ceremony.
Additionally, the governor of Ramallah announced the naming of Dalal Mughrabi Square.
While on December 30, 2009, PA spokesman Jamal Nazal, writing in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, referred to her as “the heroine of Palestine’s heroines.”
q Wafa Idris, the first female Palestinian suicide bomber, detonated a bomb in the center of Jerusalem in January 2002 that killed one and injured over 100.
During the first week of January 2010, she was honored as a Shahida (Holy Martyr) in a Fatah promotional video broadcast on PA TV.#
q On January 11, 2010, the following appeared in the PA paper Al-Ayyam:#
Headline: "The occupation accuses the Palestinian leadership of incitement because of Dalal Mughrabi Square -Minister of Culture: Honoring the Shahids is the least we can do, and resistance to the occupation is a legitimate right"
"The occupation government [the Israeli government] has reiterated its familiar tune of accusing the [Palestinian] National Authority of incitement within Palestinian culture. The Israeli Prime Minister... claims that the Palestinian leadership is encouraging terror in its culture.
”Netanyahu claims that the proof, which he presented to the members of his government, is the naming of a square in the region of Ramallah and El-Bireh after the Shahida (Martyr) Dalal Mughrabi. ...
”Netanyahu is reported as saying: 'Anyone who supports naming [the square] after Dalal Mughrabi, who was responsible for the murder of dozens of Israelis, is encouraging terror and pushing peace further off...'
”Netanyahu was referring to the operation of self-sacrifice led by Mughrabi in 1978, the ‘Coast Operation’ within Israel, which led to the deaths of 36 Israelis. Netanyahu accused the [Palestinian] National Authority of incitement in schools and in cultural activities in general.
”Minister of Culture Siham Barghouti said, in response to the Israeli claims, that 'It is our right to preserve and maintain [the memory] of our fighters who sacrificed their lives for our sake and for the sake of the Palestinian cause.'
”She added: 'Honoring them in this way [by naming public places after them] is the least we can give them, and this is our right, especially since we believe that resistance, in the shadow of the ongoing occupation, is a legitimate right, and we are proud and we pride ourselves on our heritage of struggle, which has been realized by our Shahids and fighters throughout history.'
q Al-Quds, Jerusalem, January 21, 2010, reported:#
“The concluding statement of Fatah's Revolutionary Council meeting said that there was a need to step up the popular resistance and to expand it to all Palestinian areas harmed by the settlements and by the separation fence.”
q On Friday, January 29, 2010, a sermon was broadcast on PA-controlled TV that said in part:
“The Jews, the enemies of Allah and of His Messenger, the enemies of Allah and of His Messenger! Enemies of humanity in general, and of Palestinians in particular - they wage war against us using all kinds of crimes, and as you see - even the mosques are not spared their racism...
"Oh Muslims! The Jews are the Jews. The Jews are the Jews. Even if donkeys would cease to bray, dogs cease to bark, wolves cease to howl and snakes to bite, the Jews would not cease to harbor hatred towards Muslims. The Prophet said that if two Jews would be alone with a Muslim, they would think only of killing him. Oh Muslims! This land will be liberated, these holy places and these mosques will be liberated, only by means of a return to the Koran and when all Muslims will be willing to be Jihad Fighters for the sake of Allah and for the sake of supporting Palestine, the Palestinian people, the Palestinian land, and the holy places in Palestine. The Prophet says: 'You shall fight the Jews and kill them…’”#
Incitement by UNRWA
January 2010
Karen AbuZayd has retired as Commissioner-General of UNRWA and has been succeeded by Filippo Grandi, who had been AbuZayd’s lieutenant.
Providing insight into the issue of UNRWA incitement we have Mr. Grandi’s inaugural letter to the UNRWA staff, dated January 26, 2010. It appeared on the UNRWA website.#
Mr. Grandi’s letter includes the following:
“I need not tell you how difficult this period is for the Palestinian people. We are all painfully aware of the counterproductive policies collectively punishing the people of the Gaza Strip; conscious decisions that have caused untold suffering and a dramatic deterioration in the lives of the population, in contravention of international law. One of my key priorities will be to continue to advocate strongly on behalf of the 1.5 million Gazans, and to do so not only until the end of the blockade and the occupation, but also until a just and lasting solution to the plight of the refugees is achieved.
“Despite some recent economic improvements for some, the lives of most Palestinians in the West Bank continue to be made almost impossible by obstacles, walls, movement limitations and other restrictions, and by the expanding threat of settler violence. For those residing in East Jerusalem, as I do, it is cause for daily anguish to watch the situation deteriorate rapidly under our very eyes, especially the ruthless evictions of Palestinians from their homes. UNRWA will continue to stand with the affected families and all of those in need of our protection and will tirelessly lend our voice to their calls for justice.”
There are several seriously tendentious statements – and, in fact, outright misrep resenta tions – included here. But this material is problematic for reasons beyond this: UNRWA’S mandate is purely humanitarian. Grandi is assuming a political stance that is absolutely beyond his purview. How does UNRWA come to “stand with affected families” who have been evicted in eastern Jerusalem?
View the full document at Israel Behind the News
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
PA Holds Diplomatic Event In Jerusalem: Norwegians Deny Meeting With Senior Officials
by Samuel Sokol
Last Monday, Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Store held official diplomatic talks with Palestinian Authority minister for Jerusalem Ahmed A-Rawidi and Rafik Husseini, chief of staff to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
The meeting was the first that the Palestinian Authority has held in Israel's capital for almost a decade.
Then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon closed down the PA's Jerusalem headquarters, located in the Orient House, in 2001 as a response to the Second Intifada. Since then, it has been Israeli policy to prevent PA events and institutions from operating in the eastern half of the city.
Recently the European Union and the Russian Federation have requested that Israel reopen the Orient house.
When asked by Israel's Channel 10 regarding the reopening of the Orient House, during a joint press conference with Store last Sunday, Foreign Minister Lieberman stated that "there will be no more gestures. There is simply no room to talk about opening Orient House, freezing the construction in Jerusalem or any additional gestures. Now is the time for a gesture from the Palestinians."
Dr. Aaron Lerner, the director of IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis), told the Five Towns Jewish Times that the Palestine Liberation Organization, and by extension the PLO run Palestinian Authority, is banned by Israeli law from engaging in official activities within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem.
According to Lerner, the laws banning the PLO from operating in Jerusalem were not amended following the Oslo accords, "nor did Israel enter into any written understanding with the PLO as a result of Oslo that abrogated that law," he said.
When asked if they were aware that official meetings with Palestinian Authority figures are forbidden within Jerusalem, the Norwegian Embassy misleadingly stated that the their country’s ambassador was not present at the Augusta Victoria hospital and referred to a press release from the foreign ministry stating that the minister visited east Jerusalem, without any mention of Rafik Husseini, effectively denied that the meeting took place.
Further queries only resulted in Annika Evensen, the embassy’s first secretary, saying that she had “nothing to add to what is in the press release.”
According to Norwegian journalist Vidar Norberg, Store was welcomed to the hospital by Husseini, who compared Israeli policies to those of Apartheid South Africa and called for an international boycott of Israel goods.
Store held a press conference with the PA dignitary, complete with a podium and Norwegian and Palestinian Authority flags. Speaking to reporters, with the Gush Etzion city of Maaleh Adumim behind him, the foreign minister announced that Mahmoud Abbas’ goal is a peaceful and negotiated settlement of the Middle East conflict.
However, Abbas stands accused of inciting terrorism by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Palestinian Authority president was quoted in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida on January 17th defending his government’s decision to name a square in Ramallah after Dalal Mughrabi, a terrorist guilty of 37 counts of murder.
“Norway considers the Israeli presence in East Jerusalem to be in violation of international law, as does the entire international community,” Store said
LEGAL BASIS FOR CLOSING PALESTINIAN OFFICES IN JERUSALEM
Aaron Lerner 5 August,1996
The following is an English translation provided by the Foreign Ministry of
the law which serves as the legal basis for the closing of Palestinian
offices in Jerusalem.
LAW IMPLEMENTING THE AGREEMENT ON THE GAZA STRIP AND THE JERICHO AREA
(RESTRICTION ON ACTIVITY) 1994
Purpose of the Law: 1. The purpose of this law is to ensure compliance with
the undertaking of the Palestine Liberation Organization (hereinafter "the
PLO") concerning the restriction on the activity of the Palestinian
Authority to the areas of Gaza and Jericho in accordance with the Agreement
and to prevent activity of a political or governmental nature or other
similar activity within the area of the State of Israel which does not
accord with respect for the sovereignty of the State of Israel by the
Palestinian Authority or the PLO, without the agreement of the State of
Israel.
Definitions:
2. "meeting" - includes a march, assembly or congress; "the Agreement" -
the Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area signed at Cairo
between the State of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization on 4
May, 1994. "the Palestinian Authority" and "the areas of Gaza and
ericho" - as defined in the Emergency Regulations (Judea and Samaria and
the Gaza Strip - Jurisdiction over Offences and Legal Assistance) 1967;
"Representative Mission" - includes any institution, office or branch.
Restriction on the Palestinian Authority:
3.(a) The Palestinian Authority shall not open or operate a representative
mission, and shall not hold a meeting, in the area of the State of Israel
unless written permission for this has been given by the State of Israel or
by someone authorized by it to do so;
(b) The Minister of Police may, by means of an order, prohibit the opening
or operation of a representative mission of the Palestinian Authority,
order its closure, or prevent the holding of a meeting, if permission has
not been obtained in accordance with sub-paragraph (a).
(c) Orders referred to in sub-paragraph (b) shall be served, insofar as
possible, on the owner of the premises, or the occupier, or the organizers,
or whoever it seems to the Minister of Police is responsible for the
activity which is the subject of the order;
Where it is not possible to serve the order as aforesaid, the Minister of
Police shall give instructions for its publication in a manner which he
shall establish; A notice concerning the giving of the order shall be
published in the Official Gazette.
Restriction on the activity of the PLO:
4.(a) The Government may, by means of an order, the activity prohibit the
opening or the operation of a representative mission of the PLO, order its
closure, or prevent the holding of a meeting on behalf of the PLO or under
its auspices within the area of the State of Israel.
(b) The provisions of paragraph 3(c) above shall apply, with the necessary
changes, to an order referred to in sub-paragraph (a) above.
Duration of order:
5. The duration of a closure order issued pursuant to paragraphs 3 or 4
shall not exceed 6 months and may be extended from time to time for an
additional period which shall not exceed 6 months at any one time.
Ancillary authorities:
6. For the purpose of executing orders pursuant to paragraphs 3 or 4, the
Israel Police shall have all the authorities given to it by any law,
including the authority to enter into any place, to remove from there any
person, to close the place, to disperse any meeting, and to take any action
necessary to ensure the execution of the order and to use reasonable force
for this purpose.
For the purpose of this paragraph, "the Palestinian Authority" includes any
person acting on its behalf or under its auspices or using its name.
Restriction on licensing:
7.Where an order has been issued pursuant to paragraph 3 or 4, prohibiting
the opening of or operation of a representative mission, the license
required for such activity shall not be granted under any law.
Validity and entry into force:
8.(a) This Law shall enter into force on 1 January 1995.
(b) This law shall continue in force for the period of the continuance in
force of the Emergency Regulations (Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip -
Jurisdiction over Offences and Legal Assistance) 1967, as extended by the
Law implementing the Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area
(Judicial Powers and Miscellaneous Provisions) (Legislative Amendments)
1994.
View the original publication in the 5 Towns Jewish Times
View this story at www.israelbehindthenews.com
Last Monday, Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Store held official diplomatic talks with Palestinian Authority minister for Jerusalem Ahmed A-Rawidi and Rafik Husseini, chief of staff to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
The meeting was the first that the Palestinian Authority has held in Israel's capital for almost a decade.
Then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon closed down the PA's Jerusalem headquarters, located in the Orient House, in 2001 as a response to the Second Intifada. Since then, it has been Israeli policy to prevent PA events and institutions from operating in the eastern half of the city.
Recently the European Union and the Russian Federation have requested that Israel reopen the Orient house.
When asked by Israel's Channel 10 regarding the reopening of the Orient House, during a joint press conference with Store last Sunday, Foreign Minister Lieberman stated that "there will be no more gestures. There is simply no room to talk about opening Orient House, freezing the construction in Jerusalem or any additional gestures. Now is the time for a gesture from the Palestinians."
Dr. Aaron Lerner, the director of IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis), told the Five Towns Jewish Times that the Palestine Liberation Organization, and by extension the PLO run Palestinian Authority, is banned by Israeli law from engaging in official activities within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem.
According to Lerner, the laws banning the PLO from operating in Jerusalem were not amended following the Oslo accords, "nor did Israel enter into any written understanding with the PLO as a result of Oslo that abrogated that law," he said.
When asked if they were aware that official meetings with Palestinian Authority figures are forbidden within Jerusalem, the Norwegian Embassy misleadingly stated that the their country’s ambassador was not present at the Augusta Victoria hospital and referred to a press release from the foreign ministry stating that the minister visited east Jerusalem, without any mention of Rafik Husseini, effectively denied that the meeting took place.
Further queries only resulted in Annika Evensen, the embassy’s first secretary, saying that she had “nothing to add to what is in the press release.”
According to Norwegian journalist Vidar Norberg, Store was welcomed to the hospital by Husseini, who compared Israeli policies to those of Apartheid South Africa and called for an international boycott of Israel goods.
Store held a press conference with the PA dignitary, complete with a podium and Norwegian and Palestinian Authority flags. Speaking to reporters, with the Gush Etzion city of Maaleh Adumim behind him, the foreign minister announced that Mahmoud Abbas’ goal is a peaceful and negotiated settlement of the Middle East conflict.
However, Abbas stands accused of inciting terrorism by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Palestinian Authority president was quoted in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida on January 17th defending his government’s decision to name a square in Ramallah after Dalal Mughrabi, a terrorist guilty of 37 counts of murder.
“Norway considers the Israeli presence in East Jerusalem to be in violation of international law, as does the entire international community,” Store said
LEGAL BASIS FOR CLOSING PALESTINIAN OFFICES IN JERUSALEM
Aaron Lerner 5 August,1996
The following is an English translation provided by the Foreign Ministry of
the law which serves as the legal basis for the closing of Palestinian
offices in Jerusalem.
LAW IMPLEMENTING THE AGREEMENT ON THE GAZA STRIP AND THE JERICHO AREA
(RESTRICTION ON ACTIVITY) 1994
Purpose of the Law: 1. The purpose of this law is to ensure compliance with
the undertaking of the Palestine Liberation Organization (hereinafter "the
PLO") concerning the restriction on the activity of the Palestinian
Authority to the areas of Gaza and Jericho in accordance with the Agreement
and to prevent activity of a political or governmental nature or other
similar activity within the area of the State of Israel which does not
accord with respect for the sovereignty of the State of Israel by the
Palestinian Authority or the PLO, without the agreement of the State of
Israel.
Definitions:
2. "meeting" - includes a march, assembly or congress; "the Agreement" -
the Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area signed at Cairo
between the State of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization on 4
May, 1994. "the Palestinian Authority" and "the areas of Gaza and
ericho" - as defined in the Emergency Regulations (Judea and Samaria and
the Gaza Strip - Jurisdiction over Offences and Legal Assistance) 1967;
"Representative Mission" - includes any institution, office or branch.
Restriction on the Palestinian Authority:
3.(a) The Palestinian Authority shall not open or operate a representative
mission, and shall not hold a meeting, in the area of the State of Israel
unless written permission for this has been given by the State of Israel or
by someone authorized by it to do so;
(b) The Minister of Police may, by means of an order, prohibit the opening
or operation of a representative mission of the Palestinian Authority,
order its closure, or prevent the holding of a meeting, if permission has
not been obtained in accordance with sub-paragraph (a).
(c) Orders referred to in sub-paragraph (b) shall be served, insofar as
possible, on the owner of the premises, or the occupier, or the organizers,
or whoever it seems to the Minister of Police is responsible for the
activity which is the subject of the order;
Where it is not possible to serve the order as aforesaid, the Minister of
Police shall give instructions for its publication in a manner which he
shall establish; A notice concerning the giving of the order shall be
published in the Official Gazette.
Restriction on the activity of the PLO:
4.(a) The Government may, by means of an order, the activity prohibit the
opening or the operation of a representative mission of the PLO, order its
closure, or prevent the holding of a meeting on behalf of the PLO or under
its auspices within the area of the State of Israel.
(b) The provisions of paragraph 3(c) above shall apply, with the necessary
changes, to an order referred to in sub-paragraph (a) above.
Duration of order:
5. The duration of a closure order issued pursuant to paragraphs 3 or 4
shall not exceed 6 months and may be extended from time to time for an
additional period which shall not exceed 6 months at any one time.
Ancillary authorities:
6. For the purpose of executing orders pursuant to paragraphs 3 or 4, the
Israel Police shall have all the authorities given to it by any law,
including the authority to enter into any place, to remove from there any
person, to close the place, to disperse any meeting, and to take any action
necessary to ensure the execution of the order and to use reasonable force
for this purpose.
For the purpose of this paragraph, "the Palestinian Authority" includes any
person acting on its behalf or under its auspices or using its name.
Restriction on licensing:
7.Where an order has been issued pursuant to paragraph 3 or 4, prohibiting
the opening of or operation of a representative mission, the license
required for such activity shall not be granted under any law.
Validity and entry into force:
8.(a) This Law shall enter into force on 1 January 1995.
(b) This law shall continue in force for the period of the continuance in
force of the Emergency Regulations (Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip -
Jurisdiction over Offences and Legal Assistance) 1967, as extended by the
Law implementing the Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area
(Judicial Powers and Miscellaneous Provisions) (Legislative Amendments)
1994.
View the original publication in the 5 Towns Jewish Times
View this story at www.israelbehindthenews.com
Training the Palestinian Security Forces for What?
by Jonathan Rosenblum, Director of Jewish Media Resources
On Thursday afternoon December 24, Rabbi Meir Chai, a 45-year-old religious school teacher, was shot and killed as he left the Shomron settlement of Shavei Shomron, in which he lived with his wife and seven children. Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade claimed responsibility almost immediately, and promised “more quality operations from us.... “
Two days later, on Shabbos, Israeli forces blockaded Nablus and surrounded the homes where the three Al-Aqsa Brigade members who plotted the attack lived. None of the three surrendered in response to a demand from the IDF forces that they do so, and each was subsequently killed in gun battles with Israeli forces.
The response of the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian media to the murder of Rabbi Chai and to Israel’s subsequent killing of his murderers raises again troubling questions about the Palestinian security services forces currently being trained by American and European experts.
Since 2005, the Untied States and EU have spent hundreds of millions of dollars training thousands of members of the various Palestinian security forces on the assumption that those forces will constitute one of the key institutions of the Palestinian state in the making. Those forces have been trained both in the basic police work and tasked with anti-terrorist efforts (at least in the minds of the trainers), on the assumption that a reduction in anti-Israel terror is a key component in winning Israeli agreement to the creation of a Palestinian state.
The results so far do not justify the investment nor give much cause to hope that the Palestinians are any closer to creating a stable political entity capable of living in peace with Israel. In The Case for Democracy, Natan Sharansky argued that only a democratic Palestinian state, in which citizens are capable of freely proclaiming their views in the marketplace, offers any hope of long-term peace with Israel. The creation of a trained police force would not have been self-evidently the first item on the agenda in creating the basics of a civil society capable of evolving into a democratic state. Nor has the record of the Palestinian security forces provided much cause for optimism on this score. Palestinian human rights groups have raised constant complaints against the various security forces for arbitrary arrests, brutality, and shakedown operations.
Nor has the training proved successful in creating a national identity that supercedes various other identities. Almost all members of the security forces are simultaneously members of Fatah, the revolutionary Palestinian organization from which most of the current leaders of the Palestinian Authority were drawn, and profess loyalty to Fatah. In addition, American trainers are not sufficiently sensitive to the importance of clan loyalties in Palestinian society.
The latter may have played a key role in the total failure of the American and European-trained forces to prevent a Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, even though those forces enjoyed a vast numerical advantage over the Hamas forces. Many Palestinian Authority fighters simply deserted or joined with Hamas fighters. Low levels of loyalty and esprit de corps have also characterized the Palestinian Authority forces in confrontation with Palestinian gunmen on the West Bank since 2007. Palestinian Security forces proved incapable of evicting Fatah gunmen from the casbah. They proved similarly ineffective in operations against an Islamic Jihad group in the Kabatya refugee camp. And in a mock drill, fake “Hamas” operatives attacked a PA prison and freed all the prisoners after the Palestinian security forces fled the scene.
Most important from Israel’s point of view, the American-trained forces have proven to be indifferent as an anti-terrorist force. As Maj.-General Yaakov Amidror, the former head of the IDF Staff and Command College and former head of the IDF Research and Assessment Division, points out, police work may have legitimacy in Palestinian society, anti-terrorist activities do not. Israel continues to carry out 70-80% of the anti-terrorist actions in the West Bank. To the extent that the Palestinian Authority security forces have conducted such operations, it has been almost entirely out of a desire to prevent a repeat of Hamas’s takeover of the Gaza Strip in the West Bank, not out of any desire to protect Israel from terror attacks.
Indeed it would be impossible to expect Palestinian security forces to show any commitment to anti-terror action when the Palestinian Authority leadership continues to glorify terrorism. After the murder of Rabbi Chai, approximately 100 meters from the site of a recently removed security checkpoint, the Palestinian Authority issued no condemnation of his murder, even after the Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade claimed responsibility. Palestinian media described Anan Subbah as the mastermind of the murder of Rabbi Chai, after the former was killed by IDF security forces. And yet Palestinian Authority President Abbas sent personal condolences to “the holy martyrs of the Palestinian revolution,” and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salem Fayyad personally visited the families of the slain terrorists. Meanwhile the official Palestinian media denounced their deaths as “murder in cold blood” and an “assassination.”
The proclamation of Rabbi Chai’s murderers as “military commanders, brave heroes and fighters,” was of a piece with the Palestinian Authority’s consistent glorification of terrorists. In late December, Abbas sponsored a celebration of the 50th birthday of Dalal Mughrabi, the mastermind of the 1979 Coastal Road Massacre, in which 37 Jews were killed. The official proclamation described her as the “bride of the cosmos,” and the Palestinian Authority daily proclaimed her “the heroine of the Palestinian heroines.”
Two high schools, numerous sports competitions, a new computer center, a Palestinian summer camp and a town square have been named after Mughrabi to date. A one-hour Palestinian television special recently celebrated the 1979 attack. In a similar vein, the Palestinian Authority just issued a musical video celebrating Wafa Indris, the first Palestinian female suicide bomber.
But while the U.S.-trained Palestinian security forces have proven largely ineffective against Palestinian terrorists of various stripes, they do threaten Israel. Twice before have CIA-trained Palestinian security forces, with whom there was a façade of cooperation with Israel, turned their guns on Israelis - the first time during the Tunnel Riots of 1996 and the second time at the outset of the Second Intifada called by Yasir Arafat after the 2000 Camp David summit. The fear is that those being trained under the supervision of U.S. General Keith Dayton may prove more effective than their predecessors. Dayton has himself stated that U.S. training has lifted Palestinian expectations of receiving their state within two years, and he raised the spectre of the Palestinian security forces turning their guns on Israel if those expectations are not met.
There is evidence that those U.S.-trained security forces include members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade responsible for the murder of Rabbi Chai. PA Prime Minister Fayyad, the great “Palestinian moderate” in Western eyes, has previously offered shelter to Brigade members in the compounds of the Palestinian security forces and paid their salaries out of PA coffers. Dan Diker, one of Israel’s most respected political analysts, writes that senior Al-Aqsa Brigade commanders have been assigned senior positions in the PA security forces, such as Aba Jabbal, the senior Palestinian Authority officer in Nablus. The mastermind of the murder of Rabbi Chai’s murder, Anan Subbuh, was found with two M-16s in his possession, even though as part of a U.S.-brokered amnesty agreement, he had foresworn any future possession of such arms.
Senior members of the Israeli defense establishment point out that the Palestinian security forces are not only receiving training from the United States and Europe, but high quality equipment. For instance, advanced surveillance equipment capable of monitoring military communications networks, intelligence networks, and cellular phones has been employed against Israeli targets. Abu Yousuf, a senior officer in Abbas’s Force 17 Presidential Guard, told the New York Sun (August 21 2007), “I do not think the operations of the Palestinian resistance [a code word for terrorism] would have been so successful and would have killed more than one thousand Israelis since 2000... without these [American] trainings.”
After the IDF eliminated the three terrorists who murdered Rabbi Chai, the United States demanded public clarifications from Israel of what had taken place. No similar clarifications were sought from the PA after Rabbi Chai’s murder and the PA’s failure to condemn it.
Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice-president of Agudath Israel of America, wrote to Secretary of State Clinton, of Mr. Abbas’s failure to disassociate himself and the Palestinian Authority from Rabbi Chai’s murder, “There is something deeply wrong here.” When the recipients of half a billion dollars in aid under the 2010 foreign aid budget law “are linked to terrorists, and even have words of praise for terrorists, it is only logical to question the wisdom, not to mention the moral rectitude of our aid,” he continued.
Indeed.
Jonathan Rosenblum is the director of Jewish Media Resources, a leading media organization dedicated to furthering an understanding of Torah Judaism. Jewish Media Resources works with foreign journalists stationed in Israel and with local journalists by providing access to leading figures within the Orthodox Jewish community in Israel, and with information and insights about the community. Jonathan also serves as an English-language spokesman for the Orthodox Jewish community with foreign journalists.
View the Post at israelbehindthenews.com
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Recent Official Incitement of the Palestinian Authority Media
With Renewed Talks in the Offing, This Report is Most Salient
Abbas sponsors birthday celebrations honoring "Martyr" Dalal Mughrabi, killer of 37 (Palestinian Media Watch)
Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
p: +972 2 625 4140 +972 2 625 4140 e: pmw@palwatch.org
f: +972 2 624 2803 w: www.palwatch.org
This week Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas once again honored the memory of the terrorist Dalal Mughrabi - this time by sponsoring a
ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of her birth. Mughrabi led the
worst terror attack in Israel's history in 1978, when she and other
terrorists hijacked a bus and killed 37 civilians. Present at the ceremony
were Palestinian dignitaries and a children's marching band. Earlier this
year, Abbas sponsored a computer center named after Mughrabi.
The PA further glorified Mughrabi on the date of her birth when the Governor
of Ramallah announced the naming of the "Dalal Mughrabi Square".
An article by Fatah spokesman Jamal Nazal in the official PA daily [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 30, 2009] defined the terrorist Mughrabi as "the heroine of Palestine's heroines."
The text on the giant banner carrying Mughrabi's portrait at the birthday
ceremony read:
Two PA TV news broadcasts focused on the celebration:
"Under the auspices of President Mahmoud Abbas, the Political and National
Education Authority held a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the
Shahida (Martyr) Dalal Mughrabi, commander of the Coastal Operation (i.e.
hijacking of bus and killing of 37 civilians)."
[PA TV (Fatah), Dec. 29, 2009]
==========================================
Abbas and PA turn latest terrorist murderers into Palestinian national heroes
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
p: +972 2 625 4140 +972 2 625 4140 e: pmw@palwatch.org
f: +972 2 624 2803 w: www.palwatch.org
Rabbi Meir Avshalom Hai -- a 45-year old Israeli and father of seven
children - was killed in a drive-by shooting last Thursday. The Al-Aqsa
Martyrs' Brigades, part of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's
Fatah movement, took responsibility for the killing. On Friday night,
Israeli forces located and killed three of the terrorists involved in the
attack. The fourth surrendered to the PA police.
The response of the PA has been unequivocal support and backing for the
terrorists. Since Friday, the leadership of the PA, the heads of Fatah, the
heads of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and the PA-controlled media have
continuously portrayed the killers as Palestinian heroes and Shahids -- holy
Martyrs -- while describing Israel's killing of the three terrorists as
"murder in cold blood" and "assassination."
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas declared the killers "Shahids" (holy Martyrs) and
sent his personal emissary to visit the families:
Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim:
[PA TV (Fatah) News, Dec. 27, 2009]
PA Prime Minster Salam Fayyad went even further, personally visiting the
families of the terrorists along with other senior PA officials.
[WAFA news agency, Dec. 26, 2009]
The Fatah movement is glorifying the terrorists:
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 27, 2009]
PA TV focused on the Fatah poster (above), signed with condolences of PA
Chairman Abbas, honoring the three terrorists. The following is the text on
the poster with pictures of the terrorists:
It's important to note that in condemning Israel's killing of the
terrorists, the PA is not denying that those killed were responsible for the
murder of Rabbi Hai:
In the official announcement right after the terror attack, Fatah took
responsibility, while calling the killers "Jihad Fighters" and warning of
more "quality operations:"
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 25, 2009]
After the terrorists were killed the Fatah changed from threatening more
"quality operations" to warning that it would avenge the killing of the
"Jihad Fighters:"
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 27, 2009]
=============================================
Fatah vows to escalate struggle against occupation
Thu Dec 31, 2009:44 am ET
RAMALLAH (West Bank) (AFP) - The secular Fatah movement led by Palestinian
president Mahmud Abbas on Thursday vowed to step up its struggle against the
Israeli occupation with demonstrations and diplomacy.
"Our program emphasizes the importance of a two-track approach, with the first being the escalation of the popular struggle to resist occupation,"
the movement said in a statement.
The group said it would model the struggle on the weekly demonstrations in
two West Bank towns, Bilin and Nilin, where residents hurl rocks and protest
against the expansion of Israel's controversial separation barrier.
Fatah, which marks the 45th anniversary of the start of its armed struggle
on Friday, also vowed to "increase movement on the international level to
pursue Israel, to isolate it and to force it to answer to international
law."
"We renew our vow to continue the struggle until the end of the occupation
and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with east
Jerusalem as its capital, and a solution to the refugee issue," it said.
Fatah went on to say that it "would not spare any effort in restoring
Palestinian national unity and returning the Gaza Strip from the hands of
those who have taken it hostage," referring to its Hamas rivals.
The two main Palestinian movements have been divided into geographically
separated hostile camps since the Islamist Hamas seized power in Gaza in
2007.
The secular Fatah was founded by the late iconic leader Yasser Arafat in the
1950s and formally launched its armed struggle against Israel on January 1,
1965.
Arafat entered into peace negotiations with Israel when he signed the 1993
Oslo autonomy accords, but during the 2000 Palestinian uprising Fatah's
armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, carried out scores of deadly
attacks.
When Abbas became president following Arafat's death in 2004 he brought the
armed struggle to a halt, but the movement has never given up its "right to
resistance" against the Israeli occupation of lands seized in 1967.
Abbas sponsors birthday celebrations honoring "Martyr" Dalal Mughrabi, killer of 37 (Palestinian Media Watch)
Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
p: +972 2 625 4140 +972 2 625 4140 e: pmw@palwatch.org
f: +972 2 624 2803 w: www.palwatch.org
This week Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas once again honored the memory of the terrorist Dalal Mughrabi - this time by sponsoring a
ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of her birth. Mughrabi led the
worst terror attack in Israel's history in 1978, when she and other
terrorists hijacked a bus and killed 37 civilians. Present at the ceremony
were Palestinian dignitaries and a children's marching band. Earlier this
year, Abbas sponsored a computer center named after Mughrabi.
The PA further glorified Mughrabi on the date of her birth when the Governor
of Ramallah announced the naming of the "Dalal Mughrabi Square".
An article by Fatah spokesman Jamal Nazal in the official PA daily [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 30, 2009] defined the terrorist Mughrabi as "the heroine of Palestine's heroines."
The text on the giant banner carrying Mughrabi's portrait at the birthday
ceremony read:
"Under the auspices of President Mahmoud Abbas
The Political and National Education Authority
Ceremony on the anniversary of the birth of the bride of the cosmos
The Shahida (Martyr) Dalal Mughrabi."
Two PA TV news broadcasts focused on the celebration:
"Under the auspices of President Mahmoud Abbas, the Political and National
Education Authority held a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the
Shahida (Martyr) Dalal Mughrabi, commander of the Coastal Operation (i.e.
hijacking of bus and killing of 37 civilians)."
[PA TV (Fatah), Dec. 29, 2009]
==========================================
Abbas and PA turn latest terrorist murderers into Palestinian national heroes
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
p: +972 2 625 4140 +972 2 625 4140 e: pmw@palwatch.org
f: +972 2 624 2803 w: www.palwatch.org
Rabbi Meir Avshalom Hai -- a 45-year old Israeli and father of seven
children - was killed in a drive-by shooting last Thursday. The Al-Aqsa
Martyrs' Brigades, part of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's
Fatah movement, took responsibility for the killing. On Friday night,
Israeli forces located and killed three of the terrorists involved in the
attack. The fourth surrendered to the PA police.
The response of the PA has been unequivocal support and backing for the
terrorists. Since Friday, the leadership of the PA, the heads of Fatah, the
heads of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and the PA-controlled media have
continuously portrayed the killers as Palestinian heroes and Shahids -- holy
Martyrs -- while describing Israel's killing of the three terrorists as
"murder in cold blood" and "assassination."
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas declared the killers "Shahids" (holy Martyrs) and
sent his personal emissary to visit the families:
"Secretary General of the Presidents Bureau, Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim, conveyed condolences on behalf of President Mahmoud Abbas to the residents of Nablus
and to the families of the three Shahids [Martyrs] for the Martyrdom of
their sons, who were assassinated by Israeli occupation forces yesterday
morning. He conveyed to the fighting families letters of condolences from
the President [Abbas] and updated them as to [Abbas's] decision to declare
them as Shahids [Martyrs] of the Palestinian revolution..."
Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim:
"Without doubt, what the [Israeli] occupation
authorities have carried out is a wild and barbaric act and a deliberate,
malicious assassination in cold blood."
[PA TV (Fatah) News, Dec. 27, 2009]
PA Prime Minster Salam Fayyad went even further, personally visiting the
families of the terrorists along with other senior PA officials.
"Prime Minister visits Nablus and conveys condolences to the families of the Shahids (Martyrs). Prime Minister Dr. Salam Fayyad today visited the city of
Nablus in the wake of the Israeli military operation, and presented
condolences to the families of the three Martyrs who were murdered by the
occupation forces.
Dr. Fayyad was accompanied by Internal Affairs Minister Dr. Said Abu Ali,
leaders of the security agencies, and Police Director-General Major General
Hazem Atallah, and they visited the house of mourning, which was held in the
Trade Unions compound in the city... The Prime Minister condemned the
Israeli military operation in the city."
[WAFA news agency, Dec. 26, 2009]
The Fatah movement is glorifying the terrorists:
"Mahmoud Al-Aloul, member of the Fatah Central Committee, said that the occupation murdered these three young men as well as another three in Gaza,
in cold blood. He described them as '[military] commanders, brave heroes,
and fighters.'"
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 27, 2009]
PA TV focused on the Fatah poster (above), signed with condolences of PA
Chairman Abbas, honoring the three terrorists. The following is the text on
the poster with pictures of the terrorists:
"With honor and admiration to those who are more honored than all of us." [Reference to supreme honor of Shahids - Martyrs in Islam] (http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=110)
"The Palestine Liberation Organization, Fatah, accompanies to their wedding:"
[Reference to Islamic belief that Martyrs marry virgins in Paradise]
The Martyr, Commander, Hero: Rassan Abu Serah
The Martyr, Commander, Hero: Ra'ed Al Aschregi
The Martyr, Commander, Hero: Anan Sobh
The Director General of the Presidency expresses condolences to the Nablus
Martyrs - in the name of the President [Abbas]
It's important to note that in condemning Israel's killing of the
terrorists, the PA is not denying that those killed were responsible for the
murder of Rabbi Hai:
"The Shahid Imad Mughniyeh group [named after Hezbollah terrorist] of the [Fatah's] Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades has denounced the [Israeli] crime of the
assassination in Nablus, killing three Fatah activists, including Anan Sobh,
who, according to the [Fatah's Al-Aqsa] Brigades, planned the Tulkarem
operation which led to the death of the settler in a shooting operation."
[Ma'an News Agency, Dec. 26, 2009]
In the official announcement right after the terror attack, Fatah took
responsibility, while calling the killers "Jihad Fighters" and warning of
more "quality operations:"
"A group announcing that it belonged to the Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs'
Brigades claimed responsibility for the shooting... 'The Jihad Fighters
confirmed that the person who was in the car had taken a direct hit, and
praise to Allah - the Jihad Fighters escaped unharmed...' The announcement
said that 'this action is part of a series of operations; you can expect
more quality operations [terror attacks] from us.'"
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 25, 2009]
After the terrorists were killed the Fatah changed from threatening more
"quality operations" to warning that it would avenge the killing of the
"Jihad Fighters:"
Headline: "The occupation murders three residents of Nablus in cold blood...
the President's [Abbas's] Bureau denounces the Israeli crime..."
"The [Fatah's] Al-Aqsa Brigades announced: 'By the act of murdering an
elite group of our Jihad Fighters in Nablus and in Gaza, the occupation is
opening for itself the gates of Hell.' They threatened that 'our activists
will not stand idly by while the blood of Jihad Fighters is spilled... The
enemy will hear nothing from us but the language of blood and fire, and our
Shahada [Martyrdom] Seekers will go out to [the enemy] from every place in
order to turn his days into nights, and he will come to regret his crime. We
shall not sleep over the blood of our Jihad Fighters, and our response will
be swift... We affirm the continuation of our choice of blood and Martyrdom.
The only choice, in the face of the repeated attacks against our people in
the towns and villages and refugee camps of the occupied homeland. We shall
turn the spilled blood of the Martyrs and the commanders into a torch of
fury that will burn the forces of evil and aggression."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 27, 2009]
=============================================
Fatah vows to escalate struggle against occupation
Thu Dec 31, 2009:44 am ET
RAMALLAH (West Bank) (AFP) - The secular Fatah movement led by Palestinian
president Mahmud Abbas on Thursday vowed to step up its struggle against the
Israeli occupation with demonstrations and diplomacy.
"Our program emphasizes the importance of a two-track approach, with the first being the escalation of the popular struggle to resist occupation,"
the movement said in a statement.
The group said it would model the struggle on the weekly demonstrations in
two West Bank towns, Bilin and Nilin, where residents hurl rocks and protest
against the expansion of Israel's controversial separation barrier.
Fatah, which marks the 45th anniversary of the start of its armed struggle
on Friday, also vowed to "increase movement on the international level to
pursue Israel, to isolate it and to force it to answer to international
law."
"We renew our vow to continue the struggle until the end of the occupation
and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with east
Jerusalem as its capital, and a solution to the refugee issue," it said.
Fatah went on to say that it "would not spare any effort in restoring
Palestinian national unity and returning the Gaza Strip from the hands of
those who have taken it hostage," referring to its Hamas rivals.
The two main Palestinian movements have been divided into geographically
separated hostile camps since the Islamist Hamas seized power in Gaza in
2007.
The secular Fatah was founded by the late iconic leader Yasser Arafat in the
1950s and formally launched its armed struggle against Israel on January 1,
1965.
Arafat entered into peace negotiations with Israel when he signed the 1993
Oslo autonomy accords, but during the 2000 Palestinian uprising Fatah's
armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, carried out scores of deadly
attacks.
When Abbas became president following Arafat's death in 2004 he brought the
armed struggle to a halt, but the movement has never given up its "right to
resistance" against the Israeli occupation of lands seized in 1967.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Terrorist murderer whom Israel allowed to attend Bethlehem Fatah conference hopes Fatah returns to terror
Originally published by the Ma'an News Agency
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an Exclusive) - “I have waited 30 years to come back to
Palestine, and I won’t leave. I will wait until I get a Palestinian ID card
so I can bring back my wife and children,” said Khalid Abu Isba, one of two
Palestinian fighters who survived the famous attack on a beach in north of
Tel Aviv on 11 March 1978.
In the city for Fatah’s upcoming convention, Abu Isba was speaking during an
interview at Ma’an’s Bethlehem office.
The operation that made him famous was led by the legendary female fighter
Dalal Al-Mughrabi. Al-Mughrabi’s name is synonymous with the 1978 attack,
which is today a symbol of an earlier era when the Palestinian movement was
led by refugees living in Lebanon and other places of exile, struggling to
retrieve the homeland they lost in 1948.
The Palestinians who carried it out called the attack the “Martyr Kamal
Udwan operation,” after the PLO chief of operations killed in an Israeli
commando raid on Beirut in April 1973. The Israelis called it “Coastal Road
Massacre.”
Palestine, Abu Isba says, is the homeland for which he sacrificed in the
1978 operation that saw him injured and detained. During that operation, 13
Palestinian fighters hijacked an Israeli bus, and fierce battle erupted
between them and Israeli forces. Thirty five Israelis were killed as well as
all the Palestinian fighters except Abu Isba and another named Hussein
Fayyad.
Both were injured and detained by Israeli forces. After spending seven years
in prison, both were released in a prisoner exchange deal in 1985 between
Israel and The Popular front for the Liberation of Palestine- General
Command led then by Ahmad Jibreel.
Abu Isba says he was worried Israel would not allow him to come to Palestine
to partake in sixth Fatah conference in Bethlehem. For reasons that may
never be known, Israeli authorities allowed the former guerilla leader to
cross into the West Bank this weekend.
Yet Abu Isba is returning to a Palestine, and a Fatah, that have changed
dramatically in the three decades since the raid on the coast road. Inside
the occupied territories, his movement has become closely identified with
the Oslo peace accords and its offspring, the hapless bureaucracy of the
Palestinian Authority. A weak Palestinian “sovereignty” has returned to a
few square kilometers of the homeland, but the rest has been annexed,
splintered, and subdivided over the Olso years. Fatah is embroiled in a
bitter power struggle with Hamas. It is a movement also seeking to reconcile
its past as a resistance movement with its present state.
While visiting Ma’an, however, Abu Isba seemed happy to be back in one
corner of Palestine. He says he is happy with the young Palestinian
generation. “For your sake, young people, we sacrificed, and we will
continue to,” he said.
”Bring back the Fatah of the revolution”
Asked about his expectations for the Fatah conference, he said, “After the
conference is finished, Fatah should continue with change, close the ranks,
and restore Fatah’s dignity.”
The veteran fighter said he hoped his movement would return to a program of
popular resistance.
“We hope the conference will bring back the Fatah of the revolution, the
Fatah of Abu Ammar [Yasser Arafat] and the Fatah of sacrifices after waiting
20 years since the fifth conference,” he added.
Abu Isba applauded the decision to increase the number of delegates to the
conference to 2,260 highlighting that more delegates are still needed in
order to cover all the regions where Fatah is active. He pointed out that
Fatah in Jordan and Lebanon need to have more representatives in the
conference. He mentioned that late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat had
increased the number of delegates to the fifth conference 20 years ago.
With regards to Hamas’ refusal to allow Fatah delegates from Gaza to leave
to Bethlehem, Abu Isba said, “Hamas plans to thwart Fatah conference to tell
the world that Fatah is unable to lead the Palestinian people.”
“They [Hamas] try to impose religion by force, thus, the Palestinian people
in the beloved Gaza Strip will rebel. If Hamas was confident about its
strength, and popularity, they would have accepted president Abbas’ call for
elections,” he added.
Commenting on the Israeli military offensive against the Gaza Strip last
winter, he said, “Hamas did not achieve anything in that war. They continued
to slam Egypt for refusing to open the Rafah crossing during the war without
considering that Egypt wanted to avoid displacing the Palestinian people....
Hamas is not ready to stage a coup in the West Bank, and if they stage a
coup, they will then start criticizing Jordan for not opening the Allenby
Bridge,” he added.
He said that Hamas lauds Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi, who is in prison in
Israel for his actions during the Second Intifada, “But once the man is
released and starts playing a role in PA [Palestinian Authority] politics,
Hamas will have prepared accusations [against him] in advance.”
With regards to Fatah leader Farouq Qaddoumi’s recent accusations that
President Mahmoud Abbas was being involved in an assassination of Yasser
Arafat, he said, “If he [Qaddoumi] had such information, why did he remain
silent for five years? His silence is complicity. There must be
international sides who planned these accusations with Qaddoumi.”
View this article at Israel Behind the News
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an Exclusive) - “I have waited 30 years to come back to
Palestine, and I won’t leave. I will wait until I get a Palestinian ID card
so I can bring back my wife and children,” said Khalid Abu Isba, one of two
Palestinian fighters who survived the famous attack on a beach in north of
Tel Aviv on 11 March 1978.
In the city for Fatah’s upcoming convention, Abu Isba was speaking during an
interview at Ma’an’s Bethlehem office.
The operation that made him famous was led by the legendary female fighter
Dalal Al-Mughrabi. Al-Mughrabi’s name is synonymous with the 1978 attack,
which is today a symbol of an earlier era when the Palestinian movement was
led by refugees living in Lebanon and other places of exile, struggling to
retrieve the homeland they lost in 1948.
The Palestinians who carried it out called the attack the “Martyr Kamal
Udwan operation,” after the PLO chief of operations killed in an Israeli
commando raid on Beirut in April 1973. The Israelis called it “Coastal Road
Massacre.”
Palestine, Abu Isba says, is the homeland for which he sacrificed in the
1978 operation that saw him injured and detained. During that operation, 13
Palestinian fighters hijacked an Israeli bus, and fierce battle erupted
between them and Israeli forces. Thirty five Israelis were killed as well as
all the Palestinian fighters except Abu Isba and another named Hussein
Fayyad.
Both were injured and detained by Israeli forces. After spending seven years
in prison, both were released in a prisoner exchange deal in 1985 between
Israel and The Popular front for the Liberation of Palestine- General
Command led then by Ahmad Jibreel.
Abu Isba says he was worried Israel would not allow him to come to Palestine
to partake in sixth Fatah conference in Bethlehem. For reasons that may
never be known, Israeli authorities allowed the former guerilla leader to
cross into the West Bank this weekend.
Yet Abu Isba is returning to a Palestine, and a Fatah, that have changed
dramatically in the three decades since the raid on the coast road. Inside
the occupied territories, his movement has become closely identified with
the Oslo peace accords and its offspring, the hapless bureaucracy of the
Palestinian Authority. A weak Palestinian “sovereignty” has returned to a
few square kilometers of the homeland, but the rest has been annexed,
splintered, and subdivided over the Olso years. Fatah is embroiled in a
bitter power struggle with Hamas. It is a movement also seeking to reconcile
its past as a resistance movement with its present state.
While visiting Ma’an, however, Abu Isba seemed happy to be back in one
corner of Palestine. He says he is happy with the young Palestinian
generation. “For your sake, young people, we sacrificed, and we will
continue to,” he said.
”Bring back the Fatah of the revolution”
Asked about his expectations for the Fatah conference, he said, “After the
conference is finished, Fatah should continue with change, close the ranks,
and restore Fatah’s dignity.”
The veteran fighter said he hoped his movement would return to a program of
popular resistance.
“We hope the conference will bring back the Fatah of the revolution, the
Fatah of Abu Ammar [Yasser Arafat] and the Fatah of sacrifices after waiting
20 years since the fifth conference,” he added.
Abu Isba applauded the decision to increase the number of delegates to the
conference to 2,260 highlighting that more delegates are still needed in
order to cover all the regions where Fatah is active. He pointed out that
Fatah in Jordan and Lebanon need to have more representatives in the
conference. He mentioned that late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat had
increased the number of delegates to the fifth conference 20 years ago.
With regards to Hamas’ refusal to allow Fatah delegates from Gaza to leave
to Bethlehem, Abu Isba said, “Hamas plans to thwart Fatah conference to tell
the world that Fatah is unable to lead the Palestinian people.”
“They [Hamas] try to impose religion by force, thus, the Palestinian people
in the beloved Gaza Strip will rebel. If Hamas was confident about its
strength, and popularity, they would have accepted president Abbas’ call for
elections,” he added.
Commenting on the Israeli military offensive against the Gaza Strip last
winter, he said, “Hamas did not achieve anything in that war. They continued
to slam Egypt for refusing to open the Rafah crossing during the war without
considering that Egypt wanted to avoid displacing the Palestinian people....
Hamas is not ready to stage a coup in the West Bank, and if they stage a
coup, they will then start criticizing Jordan for not opening the Allenby
Bridge,” he added.
He said that Hamas lauds Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi, who is in prison in
Israel for his actions during the Second Intifada, “But once the man is
released and starts playing a role in PA [Palestinian Authority] politics,
Hamas will have prepared accusations [against him] in advance.”
With regards to Fatah leader Farouq Qaddoumi’s recent accusations that
President Mahmoud Abbas was being involved in an assassination of Yasser
Arafat, he said, “If he [Qaddoumi] had such information, why did he remain
silent for five years? His silence is complicity. There must be
international sides who planned these accusations with Qaddoumi.”
View this article at Israel Behind the News
Monday, March 16, 2009
The Philadelphia Bulletin: Palestinian Authority TV Celebrates Major Terror Attack
Palestinian Authority TV Celebrates Major Terror Attack
by David Bedein
On March 12, and again yesterday, the official Palestinian Authority (PA) television, known as the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation (PBC), which operates under the direct supervision of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, and uses Israeli government frequencies, ran a television program celebrating a major Palestinian terror attack that occurred 31 years ago.
On March 11, 1978, Palestinian terrorists landed on an isolated beach located near Caesarea, where they murdered American nature photographer Gail Rubin, a cousin of the late U.S. Sen. Abraham Ribicoff, D-Conn. The terrorists proceeded to hijack a bus and murder 37 Israeli passengers aboard the vehicle.
This weekend, the Palestinian Authority celebrated this terror attack with an hour-long TV special, which included Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) training camps, while featuring interviews with Palestinian terrorists who described the planning and implementation of the killings.
According to an excerpt of the program that was translated by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), the narrator described the attack as “... one of the most important and most prominent special actions, executed by the Palestinian revolution by sea, on the coast between Haifa and Tel Aviv.
“This action, which was carried out by a group of heroes and led by the heroic fighter Dalal Mughrabi, had a great impact on continuing events of the Arab-Israeli conflict.”
The spokespeople of the outgoing prime minister, Ehud Olmert, who has often described the Fatah and the PA as “moderates,” were asked if they would issue a specific condemnation of the broadcast. No response was forthcoming.
Whenever this level of incitement has emanated from the PA, the standard response of Mr. Olmert’s spokespeople has been to “always ask the Palestinians to stop their incitement.”
However, during the three years of Mr. Olmert’s tenure, his spokespeople will not provide any record of his administration’s having issued a specific reprimand to the PA for their use of their official media organs to endorse terrorist attacks.
David Bedein can be reached at bedein@thebulletin.us
by David Bedein
On March 12, and again yesterday, the official Palestinian Authority (PA) television, known as the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation (PBC), which operates under the direct supervision of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, and uses Israeli government frequencies, ran a television program celebrating a major Palestinian terror attack that occurred 31 years ago.
On March 11, 1978, Palestinian terrorists landed on an isolated beach located near Caesarea, where they murdered American nature photographer Gail Rubin, a cousin of the late U.S. Sen. Abraham Ribicoff, D-Conn. The terrorists proceeded to hijack a bus and murder 37 Israeli passengers aboard the vehicle.
This weekend, the Palestinian Authority celebrated this terror attack with an hour-long TV special, which included Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) training camps, while featuring interviews with Palestinian terrorists who described the planning and implementation of the killings.
According to an excerpt of the program that was translated by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), the narrator described the attack as “... one of the most important and most prominent special actions, executed by the Palestinian revolution by sea, on the coast between Haifa and Tel Aviv.
“This action, which was carried out by a group of heroes and led by the heroic fighter Dalal Mughrabi, had a great impact on continuing events of the Arab-Israeli conflict.”
The spokespeople of the outgoing prime minister, Ehud Olmert, who has often described the Fatah and the PA as “moderates,” were asked if they would issue a specific condemnation of the broadcast. No response was forthcoming.
Whenever this level of incitement has emanated from the PA, the standard response of Mr. Olmert’s spokespeople has been to “always ask the Palestinians to stop their incitement.”
However, during the three years of Mr. Olmert’s tenure, his spokespeople will not provide any record of his administration’s having issued a specific reprimand to the PA for their use of their official media organs to endorse terrorist attacks.
David Bedein can be reached at bedein@thebulletin.us
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