While world mourns Corona victims, PLO and Fatah mourn terrorist hijacker
Praise for terrorist hijacker Theresa Halsa:
- “An example and role model”
- “Embodied the loftiest forms of sacrifice”
- “Will be commemorated in history in letters of light”
- “Heroic Theresa… this courageous woman”
Corona crisis or not, both the PLO and Fatah are upholding PA tradition, praising and honoring terrorist plane hijacker Theresa Halsa who died of cancer last week.
An Israeli Arab terrorist and member of the Black September terror organization, Halsa, together with other terrorists, hijacked Sabena flight 571 from Vienna to Tel Aviv in May 1972. When the plane landed in Israel, Israeli military launched a rescue operation during which two male terrorists and one passenger were killed, while two female terrorists – including Halsa – were captured. Halsa was sentenced to life imprisonment, but was released in a prisoner exchange in 1983 and expelled to Jordan, where she lived until she died of cancer last week.
While the whole world is mourning thousands of victims of the Corona virus, Fatah youth movement Shabiba sent “condolences to all of humanity” over the death of the plane hijacker:
“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.”[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 29, 2020]
Predictably, both the PLO and Fatah mourned the terrorist hijacker, praising her as a patriot, “an example,” and “role model.” The official PA daily glorified her as “an icon of the struggle”:
PLO:
“The PLO Executive Committee eulogized fighter Theresa Halsa, who embodied the loftiest forms of sacrifice and self-sacrifice for the liberationfrom the occupation. The committee said in a statement yesterday: ‘The late fighter… continued in her devoted strugglefrom 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.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 29, 2020]
Fatah:
“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.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 29, 2020]
Fatah also commemorated the terrorist hijacker on Facebook, eulogizing her “with great sorrow and heavy grief,” and vowing that her name “will be commemorated in history in letters of light as long as we live”:
Posted text: “The Fatah Movement eulogizes fighter Theresa Halsa
With great sorrow and heavy grief… [She was] the first Arab female self-sacrificing fighter (Fida’iya), a Jordanian Christian who hijacked a plane with 140 Israeli passengers on board (sic., 90 passengers, not all of whom were Israelis).
She demanded to release Jordanian and Palestinian prisoners in 1972, when she was 17 years old.
She was arrested and released in 1983 as part of a prisoner exchange deal…
Your name will be commemorated in history in letters of light as long as we live.”[Official Fatah Facebook page, March 28, 2020]
Two op-eds in the official PA daily also praised the terrorist. One referred to her as “the icon of Palestine” [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 1, 2020] and the other called her “heroic” and “courageous”:
“Heroic Theresa… This courageous woman, through her pioneering experience, embodied a number of things, and foremost among them confirmation that women have an important role in life in general and in the struggle in particular, which is no less important than the men's role."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 1, 2020]
Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the PA and Fatah praise and elevate female terrorists and murderers to role models for society, among them terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi, bomb maker Shadia Abu Ghazaleh, Fatima Barnawi – a terrorist who placed a bomb in a theater, and others.
The following is a longer excerpt of the report on the praise for the terrorist in the official PA daily and Fatah’s post on Facebook:
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.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 29, 2020]
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.
Images and text posted on the official Fatah Facebook page
Posted text: “The Fatah Movement eulogizes fighter Theresa Halsa (i.e., terrorist and plane hijacker, involved in murder of 1)
With great sorrow and heavy grief, Fatah eulogizes fighter, released prisoner, and director of the portfolio of the wounded in the Jordanian arena Theresa Halsa ‘Um Salman.’
For those who do not know, Theresa Halsa is a Jordanian [whose father is from] Karak, and her mother is a Palestinian from Acre.
[She was] the first Arab female self-sacrificing fighter (Fida’iya), a Jordanian Christian who hijacked a plane with 140 Israeli passengers on board (sic., 90 passengers, not all of whom were Israelis).
She demanded to release Jordanian and Palestinian prisoners in 1972, when she was 17 years old.
She was arrested and released in 1983 as part of a prisoner exchange deal…
Your name will be commemorated in history in letters of light as long as we live.”
The images show Theresa Halsa at different times of her life, including one of her being sentenced following the attack and one of her lying in a hospital bed being embraced by a young girl.
[Official Fatah Facebook page, March 28, 2020]
Excerpt of op-ed by Issa Abd Al-Hafiz
Headline: "Theresa Halsa"
"Theresa Halsa (i.e., terrorist hijacker) was born in Acre in 1955…
She joined the ranks of the Palestinian revolution, and more precisely the Fatah Movement, after she saw how the occupation's soldiers treat her people. After she left the occupied land…she joined the secret organization Black September(i.e., terror organization and a secret branch of Fatah). As part of a squad, she hijacked a Belgian airplane with 170 Israelis on it(sic., 100 people, not all of whom were Israeli), and landed it at the Lod airport.
Ali Taha [Abu Snina] and Zakariya [Abed Al-Aziz] Atrash died as Martyrs in the operation, while [Halsa] was arrested and sentenced to 2 life sentences and an additional 40 years. [Current Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu, who was wounded in the exchanges of gunfire, led the Israeli attack force (sic. the rescue operation was led by Ehud Barak, who later became prime minister of Israel; Netanyahu participated in it). She was in prison for 10 years, and was released due to a prisoner exchange deal…
[Halsa] is the icon of Palestine and the icon of Jordan, who personified the wonderful unity between the two banks of the Jordan [River], between the mosque and the church, and between the people of the Arab nation, as if she were saying: 'Palestine is the common denominator of all of us.' … May Allah wrap our Martyrs in His mercy and let them dwell throughout Paradise."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 1, 2020]
Excerpt of op-ed by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: "Peace to Theresa's soul"
"At the peak of the Coronavirus epidemic, which has brought disaster to the whole world, Theresa Halsa (i.e., terrorist hijacker) passed from our world to the world of eternity last Saturday [March 28, 2020]…
When Theresa reached Beirut and asked to join the Fatah Movement, she embarrassed the commanders with whom she met, and some even thought that she was a spy who was sent by the Israeli security forces. However, heroic Theresa proved and confirmed her [national] affiliation when she immediately joined – together with four (sic., three) of her heroic comrades (Rima Issa [Tannous], Ali Taha [Abu Snina], and Zakariya [Abed Al-Aziz] Atrash) [parentheses in source] – training to carry out a self-sacrificing operation that was set for them: the hijacking of an airplane of the Belgian Sabena company on May 8, 1972, to Lod Airport, in order to exchange the captive Zionists Israelis for a number of heroic prisoners in colonialist Israel's prisons.
As fate would have it, heroic Theresa was saved from death together with her comrade Rima, while heroes Ali and Zakariya died as Martyrs. She was sentenced to 4 life sentences, of which she served 10 years in prison. She was released in a prisoner exchange in 1983…
This courageous woman, through her pioneering experience, embodied a number of things, and foremost among them confirmation that women have an important role in life in general and in the struggle in particular, which is no less important than the men's role."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 1, 2020]