"Freedom Tree" honoring female terrorists lit in Bethlehem with Bethlehem mayor's participation
Headline: "Lighting ‘the freedom tree' for female prisoner Ja’abis and the sick prisoners"
"The [PLO] Commission of Prisoners and Released Prisoners’ Affairs, in cooperation with the [PA-funded] Palestinian Prisoners' Cluband the Association of Released Prisoners in Bethlehem, on Saturday evening [Dec. 22, 2018] held... a ceremony forthe lighting of the tree of freedom for 2019 as a sign of loyalty to female prisoner Israa Ja’abis(i.e., terrorist, injured 1) and all of the sick female and male prisoners in the Israeli occupation's prisons.
The tree was lit in the presence of the prisoner's son, her sister, and released prisoner Samir Sarsawi (i.e., terrorist, threw a hand grenade) from the occupied Interior of 1948 (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel). The tree was decorated with balls bearing the names of all the female prisoners in the occupation's prisons.
Bethlehem Governor Kamel Hamidsaid that ‘we are transmitting a message to the world that Christ and love was born here, and this message will continue also after the occupation has been thrown out.’
Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr said ‘… our message today to the world is that the prisoners are present in the lives of the Palestinians, and that there is no solution without the release of all our male and female prisoners from the occupation’s prisons.’
Archbishop of the Sebastia District of the Greek Orthodox Church Father Atallah Hanna said: 'This tree whose lighting we are celebrating symbolizes our deep roots in this land that is owned by the Palestinians.'
[PA] Parliament (Legislative Council) Member Issa Karake noted that in the current month there is more than one birth: There is the birth of the Messiah, the birth of freedom for prisoner Samir Sarsawi who is participating for the first time after 30 years in the occupier's prisons, and at the end of this month – the birth of the Palestinian revolution, the Stone Intifada of 1987 (i.e., Palestinian wave of violence and terror against Israel, approximately 200 Israelis murdered, 1987-1993), and the birth of most veteran prisoner Karim Younes (i.e., terrorist, murdered 1 together with an accomplice)."
Israa Ja’abis – 31-year-old female Palestinian terrorist, resident of East Jerusalem, who carried out a car bomb attack near Ma’ale Adumim, a few kilometers east of Jerusalem, on Oct. 11, 2015. A policeman who noticed a suspicious vehicle signaled for the driver to stop, after which she drove closer to a group of police officers and detonated a gas balloon. One policeman suffered light injuries and Ja’abis was seriously injured. Ja'abis was serving a sentence of 11 years before being released after 8 years in prison as part of a prisoner exchange deal on Nov. 24, 2023, between Israel and Hamas in which Israel agreed to release 150 terrorist prisoners in exchange for 50 Israeli hostages during the Israeli counter-terror operation against Hamas’ terror war on Israel.
Samir Sarsawi – Israeli Arab terrorist and Fatah member who threw a hand grenade on Nordau St. in Haifa in 1988. Sarsawi was sentenced to life for the grenade throwing and his involvement in other terror attacks, but Israeli President Shimon Peres reduced his sentence to 30 years in 2012, and Sarsawi was released in November 2018.
Karim Younes - Israeli Arab terrorist who kidnapped and murdered Israeli soldier Avraham Bromberg in 1980 together with his cousin Maher Younes. Younes was originally sentenced to life in prison, but Israeli President Shimon Peres reduced his sentence in 2012. Younes is serving a 40-year sentence. In May 2017 Younes was appointed by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to the Fatah Central Committee. Younes was released from prison on Jan. 5, 2023.