The Arab terrorist who murdered a Jewish mother, her 11-year-old daughter and a soldier last night in the agricultural community of Hamra (see next story) was granted the equivalent of Palestinian “sainthood” by the PLO media. So reports Michael Widlanski of www.themedialine.org . Yasser Arafat’s Voice of Palestine radio opened its morning newscast by labeling last night’s attack “istish-haad” — an act of “heroic martyrdom.” News anchorman Nizar Al-Ghul said, “The man carrying out the operation became a heroic martyr after killing two settlers and a soldier and wounding at least four.” The VOP news editors failed to mention that the murdered “settlers” were a 45-year-old mother and her 11-year-old daughter.

During this morning’s news magazine, the Voice of Palestine played an operatic song that repeatedly calls for “martyrs” and for acts of “heroic martyrdom” inside Jerusalem. The name of the song is “Al Quds Madinat Al-Salaam” [Jerusalem, City of Peace].

The discrepancy between Arafat’s conciliatory message to the world in English and his support of terrorism among Palestinians was further evident in the praise afforded Wafa Idris. Idris, a 27-year-old Arab woman, entered Jerusalem last week in an ambulance belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent and later set off a huge bomb on Jerusalem’s busiest street, killing one man and wounding 150. The newspapers and broadcast outlets of the Palestinian Authority glorified the woman, running her picture on the front page continuously and proclaiming her a martyr. Three days before the publication of Arafat’s New York Times op-ed [”The Palestinian Vision of Peace, Feb. 3, 2002], in which he condemned “the attacks carried out by terrorist groups against Israeli civilians,” Arafat’s Fatah organization led a demonstration for young Palestinian girls to exalt the woman suicide bomber. In the photo which documents this rally [see IsraelNationalNews.com homepage], elementary school girls are seen carrying posters of the suicide bomber. The text on the posters reads: “The Fatah Movement … proudly eulogizes their heroine martyr, from the Alamari refugee camp, the martyr Wafa Idris.” The photo, from Al Ayyam, February 1, 2002, was provided courtesy of Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch.

None of the Palestinian media outlets mentioned that Idris was apparently in a state of extreme depression after being divorced by her husband when she miscarried her baby in the seventh month of pregnancy. The husband refused to take his wife back, Israeli sources said, after it became clear that she would have difficulty conceiving children.

In an interview with MSNBC television, Arafat refused to condemn the woman’s act. “Don’t we have the right to resist occupation?”

For the last week there has been no mention whatsoever in the PLO media in Arabic of Arafat’s op-ed piece in The New York Times where he said he opposed terrorism.

Arafat speaking to an enthusiastic crowd yesterday chanted, “There are millions of martyrs marching on Jerusalem!” Arafat used the word for martyrs in reference to suicide bombers and other terrorists killed while attacking Israelis. Arafat again repeatedly called for “Jihad” - Islamic holy war and declared that he himself hopes to become a “martyr.”

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2002 and is filed under hotnews.