Fatah, PLO eulogize terrorist hijacker who died of cancer

Headline: “Palestine eulogizes an icon of the struggle Theresa Halsa”

“Fighter Theresa Halsa (i.e., terrorist, involved in murder of 1), who was born in 1954 in the old city of Acre in northern Palestine (sic., an Israeli coastal city), passed away yesterday [March 28, 2020] in Amman, the capital of Jordan, at the age of 66, after suffering from cancer…

Theresa was a young Jordanian woman who in the 1970s, and more precisely in 1972, participated in hijacking a plane of the Belgian airline Sabena [en route] to Lod Airport in occupied Palestine (sic., Lod is an Israeli coastal city).

[The plane] was freed in [an Israeli] military operation, which led to the deaths as Martyrs of Ali Taha Abu Snina and Zakariya Atrash (i.e., accomplices in the hijacking). During the operation of taking control of the plane, Theresa shot a bullet that wounded the arm of [later Israeli] occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was part of the Israeli military unit appointed to liberate the plane (sic., Netanyahu was wounded when another Israeli soldier’s gun accidentally discharged as he used it to strike Halsa –Ed.). Halsa was wounded by a number of bullets and was arrested. She was sentenced to 220 years of imprisonment [in Israel], but was released after 12 years (sic., 10) in prisoner exchanges with the enemy…

On Nov. 23, 1971, she left the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel) without the knowledge of her family and fled to the West Bank, and from there to Lebanon, together with a young female fellow student.

Halsa joined the Fatah Movement, and thus emphasized that women have the right to engage in the resistance and stand in the forefront…

The PLO Executive Committee eulogized fighter Theresa Halsa, who embodied the loftiest forms of sacrifice and self-sacrifice for the liberation from the occupation. The committee said in a statement yesterday: ‘The late fighter… continued in her devoted struggle from the start of the 1970s with Palestine in her heart, and continued in her loyal giving for the heroic wounded and prisoners after her release from the occupation’s prison.’ …

Fatah also eulogized fighter and released prisoner Theresa Halsa (Um Salman), who was in charge of the wounded in the Jordanian arena.

In the eulogy notice, Fatah recalled the deceased’s virtues and her patriotic positions, as she joined the [Fatah] Movement in her youth and was a role model of the fighting woman. She was arrested at the age of 17, and the Israeli occupation sentenced her to 2 life sentences and another 40 years, of which she served 10…

The Fatah Shabiba [Youth] Movement in Palestine issued a statement in which it eulogized fighter Halsa and recalled the struggle history of the daughter of the Galilee, whose national consciousness began at an early stage with her joining Fatah and the military self-sacrificing activity at the forefront, by which she serves as an example and role model of the Palestinian resistance woman…

[The Shabiba] noted that fighter Halsa will stay alive in the hearts of the members of the younger generation and of all the generations of Palestine…

It conveyed the Shabiba’s condolences to her family, to all members of our Palestinian people, and to all of humanity.”

Theresa Halsa – 17-year-old female Israeli Arab terrorist and a member of the Black September terror organization, a secret branch of Fatah, who participated in the hijacking of Sabena flight 571 from Vienna to Tel Aviv in May 1972. When the plane landed in Israel, the terrorists demanded the release of 315 Palestinian terrorists from Israeli prisons. Israel mounted a rescue operation led by Ehud Barak (who later served as Israeli Prime Minister), in which Benjamin Netanyahu (who also later served as Israeli Prime Minister) participated. During the rescue the two male hijackers, Ali Taha Abu Snina and Abed Al-Aziz Atrash, were killed, and one passenger, 22-year-old Miriam Anderson, was also killed accidentally. The two female hijackers, Rima Tannous and Theresa Halsa, were captured and sentenced to life imprisonment – Halsa for 220 years. They were released in November 1983 in a prisoner exchange. Halsa was expelled to Jordan where she lived until she died of cancer on March 28, 2020.