PMW Bulletin: Abbas: PA honoring murderer of 37 Israeli civilians like Israel honoring Min. Rehavam Zeevi

PMW Bulletin
Jan. 19, 2010
Palestinian Media Watch

Abbas equates PA's naming of square
after terrorist killer,
with Israel's naming road after terror victim
http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=1563

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
p:+972 2 625 4140 e: pmw@palwatch.org

f: +972 2 624 2803 w: www.palwatch.org

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has defended the PA's decision
to name a square after a terrorist killer, comparing it to Israel's decision
to name a road after an Israeli victim of terror.

Last week, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu protested to the US about the PA's
continued incitement to hatred and violence. Israel's protest was prompted
by Palestinian Media Watch's exposure of a birthday celebration sponsored by
Abbas, and the naming of a square in Ramallah. Both were in honor of the
terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, who was responsible for the deaths of 37 Israeli
civilians when she and other terrorists hijacked a bus in 1978.

The PA Minister of Culture, Siham Barghouti, subsequently defended this
terrorist glorification. Now Abbas himself has defended it, comparing the
PA's naming of the square after Mughrabi to Israel's naming a road after
Rehavam Zeevi, the Israeli cabinet minister who was murdered by Palestinian
terrorists. Abbas refers to Mughrabi's bus hijacking and murder of 37
civilians as "military activities," and compares her to Zeevi, who was an
officer in the Israeli army before entering politics.

The following are Abbas's words in defense of honoring terrorists:

"They [Israel] say about me that I carry out terrorist activities. What are
those terrorist activities? That I search for those who sell land in
Jerusalem and chase them. Of course I chase them, and I shall continue to do
so. Is that a crime? [Israel says,] 'Does he [Abbas] not know that they [the
PA] named a square after Dalal Mughrabi and he [Abbas] personally went [to
the ceremony]?' - Of course I did not go myself, but I do not deny [the
naming]. Of course we want to name a square after her. Okay, what about
[murdered Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam] Zeevi? They [Israelis] named a
road after him [in the Jordan Valley], near brother Saeb [Erekat, the chief
Fatah negotiator], and so on. What is it [that Israel wants]? That we
renounce our history? How? We... carried out military activities; can I then
later renounce all that we have done? No, I don't renounce it."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 17, 2010]