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Abbas supports PA’s naming square after terrorist killer

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
Jan. 19, 2010

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Abbas equates PA’s naming of square after terrorist killer,
with Israel's naming road after terror victim

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

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]

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