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Fatah glorifies Savoy Hotel attack in which 11 were murdered as “heroic operation”


 
Posted text:  “A short video on the Savoy self-sacrificing operation (i.e., terror attack, 11 murdered), which was carried out by Fatah Movement fighters in 1975.
Production: [Fatah] Commission of Information, [Culture, and Ideology,] West Gaza branch”

Text on screen: “Fatah was here – Savoy”

An excerpt of former PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat’s 1974 UN speech – in which he speaks about the collapse of the old colonialist order and racism, and calls Zionism the most prominent example of racism – is shown.

Narrator: “Following the great success that the PLO recorded after 1973, and following the international recognition and Arab legitimacy it obtained in 1974 as the legal and sole representative of the Palestinian people… American Secretary of State [Henry] Kissinger began to work to eliminate the PLO… Kissinger adopted a step-by-step policy to reorganize the region and settle the conflict between the Arabs and the Zionist entity. The leaders of the Zionist entity viewed this as an opportunity to strengthen their aggression against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples on land and in the air, inside and outside of Palestine… The response of commander of the Palestinian revolution leader Martyr (Shahid) Yasser Arafat, and of leader Martyr Abu Jihad (i.e., terrorist, responsible for murder of 125 Israelis), was the escalation of the resistance to the Zionist enemy, the strengthening of the PLO’s role, and resistance to Kissinger’s plan to eliminate the PLO… “Forty-three years have passed since the Savoy operation, which took place on March 6, 1975, in Tal Al-Rabia (i.e., Tel Aviv, see note below). Prince of Martyrs Abu Jihad [Khalil] Al-Wazir personally supervised its planning and execution, according to leader Yasser Arafat’s instructions. The goals of the heroic operation, according to leader Martyr Abu Jihad’s orders to the heroic members of the squad were:

1. To liberate our prisoner heroes from all the Zionist prisons.
2. To avenge the blood of the three Martyr leaders who were assassinated by the Zionist Mossad…
3. To provide all the revolutionaries in the world an example of the courage and heroism of the members of the great revolutionary movement ‘Fatah.’ [...]
5. The cultural aspects of our revolution must triumph, and this is through our treatment of the hostages; we will not kill if there are women and children. We must treat them well.
6. To realize the right of return to our historical land and to wave the flag of Palestine over the land of Palestine, from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea…

On the dawn of March 6, 1975, a team from the Al-Asifa (i.e., Fatah military unit) forces reached the occupied Palestinian lands – Tal Al-Rabia – from the sea…
The destination of those who carried out the operation changed to the Savoy Hotel, because they did not succeed in reaching the Israeli Army Ministry (refers to the Israeli army headquarters in Tel Aviv –Ed.).
The self-sacrificing fighters (Fedayeen) held a number of hostages inside the hotel and demanded the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners and a plane to transfer them from the site of the operation, together with the hostages, to Syria, in exchange for keeping the hostages alive…

(An excerpt from a recording of a telephone conversation in Hebrew between one of the hostages and the Israeli security forces that was part of the negotiations with the terrorists is played –Ed.)

The Israeli occupation refused the demands of the self-sacrificing fighters, and reinforced [Israeli] forces were rushed to the site of the operation, in the presence of then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, his [Israeli] Army Minister (sic., Minister of Defense) Shimon Peres, and [Israeli Army] Chief of Staff Mordechai Gur, who decided to attack the hotel…A fierce battle broke out, at the end of which the self-sacrificing fighters’ ammunition ran out. They then blew up the hotel on top of those inside…
The Israeli authorities acknowledged the death of 11 people and the wounding of 20 others. Among the dead was [Israeli Army] Colonel Uzi Yairi, one of the senior Israeli military intelligence officers (i.e., commander of the elite Sayeret Matkal unit). Seven of those who carried out the operation died as Martyrs, heroes of the Savoy operation.”
Click to view video

Savoy terror attack: In March 1975, eight terrorists traveled by boat from Lebanon to a Tel Aviv beach. They took over the Savoy Hotel and took guests as hostages. The next morning, while Israeli forces tried to free the hostages, the terrorists murdered 8 hostages and 3 soldiers. Seven of the terrorists were killed.

Abu Jihad (Khalil Al-Wazir) - was a founder of Fatah and deputy to Yasser Arafat. He headed the PLO terror organization's military wing and also planned many deadly Fatah terror attacks in the 1960’s - 1980’s. These attacks, in which a total of 125 Israelis were murdered, included the most lethal in Israeli history - the hijacking of a bus and murder of 37 civilians, 12 of them children.

Tal Al-Rabia is the Palestinians’ Arabic translation of Tel Aviv, to wrongly imply the existence of an Arab village of that name prior to Tel Aviv.

Kamal Adwan and Kamal Nasser were both senior members of Black September, a secret branch of Fatah, who were killed by Israeli forces in April 1973. Kamal Nasser was also the spokesperson for the PLO and Fatah. Kamal Adwan was responsible for Fatah terrorist operations in Israel.

Abu Yusuf Al-Najjar was Arafat's deputy and among the founders of Fatah. He was the Commander of Al-Asifa, Fatah’s military unit, and member of Fatah’s Central Committee and PLO’s Executive Committee. He also was the Commander of Operations of the terror organization Black September, a secret branch of Fatah, and involved in the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics (Sept. 5, 1972). He was killed by Israel in 1973.

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