PA and Fatah lie, turn murderer of 3 into victim of “arbitrary attack” and “execution in cold blood”
- Terrorist “Martyrs” are “drawing the most exalted scenes of glory” “with their blood” – official PA TV
- Murderer of 3 was “daring self-sacrificing fighter” who “amazed” Palestinians by the way he was “pouncing on the settlers with his knife… He killed three settlers and wounded a similar number” - independent Palestinian news agency
When an 18-year-old Palestinian terrorist and Fatah member stabbed and murdered 3 Israelis last week, one of the lethal stabbings was caught by a security camera.
This fact did not stop the PA and Fatah from lying about it.
Official PA TV misrepresented the terrorist murderer as an innocent victim of “a crime” who was “shot by the occupation,” and Fatah Secretary in the town of Hares, Hashem Daoud, portrayed the murderer as a victim of an “arbitrary attack” and “execution in cold blood”:
Official PA TV newsreader: “Young Muhammad Murad Souf, 18 (i.e., terrorist, murdered 3), died as a Martyr … shot by the occupation forces in the Ariel settlement industrial park…”
Fatah Secretary in town of Hares, Hashem Daoud: “We as Fatah Tanzim (i.e., Fatah terror faction) strongly condemn the arbitrary attack against our children, especially the execution of Martyr [Muhammad Souf] in cold blood today…
Official PA TV reporter: “Today a new crime has been added to the list of the occupation’s crimes, and a new Martyr joins the procession of Martyrs, who with their blood are drawing the most exalted scenes of glory and the supreme degree of loyalty to the soil of this homeland.”
[Official PA TV News, Nov. 15, 2022]
Contradicting the PA’s own “execution in cold blood” claim, the official PA daily followed another PA policy and glorified the terrorist’s act of murder, openly admitting that he murdered three Israelis. In a headline the paper announced: “The attack in Salfit: Young Muhammad Souf died as a Martyr and three settlers were killed.” Sticking to the victimhood claim, the paper also stated that the 18-year-old “was shot by the Israeli occupation forces and died as a Martyr” and that the Palestinian masses condemned “the execution.” But in order to glorify the terrorist’s attack the paper at the same time undermined its own claim of the attacker’s victimhood by quoting Israeli sources describing the terrorist’s several attacks in detail:
“Muhammad Murad Sami Souf (i.e., terrorist, murdered 3), 18… was shot by the Israeli occupation forces and died as a Martyr in the Ariel settlement industrial park…
Israeli sources noted that the Martyr killed three settlers and wounded a number of others…
Yesterday evening the residents of Hares participated in a mass-participant procession condemning the execution of young Muhammad by the occupation forces…
The occupation army said that the attack took place next to the Ariel Industrial Park. In a statement it added that the Martyr ‘came to the entrance gate to the [industrial] park and stabbed two civilians there.’
The Israeli emergency services said that a 35-year-old Israeli was stabbed to death, and that another Israeli died of his wounds at the scene of the attack. Two other people were stabbed and seriously wounded.
The occupation army said that afterwards the Martyr went to ‘a nearby gas station and stabbed two other civilians.’ He took control of a vehicle, escaped, and then ‘deliberately crashed into another civilian with the car.’ The Israeli emergency services said that a 50-year-old man was killed as a result of the crash. Another man who was stabbed on the highway was evacuated to the hospital in serious condition.
The occupation army said that a soldier succeeded in ‘neutralizing the attacker.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 16, 2022]
Palestinian Media Watch has documented how the PA exploits the death of Palestinians to serve two contradictory messages: To repeat the PA libel that Israeli soldiers deliberately target and murder Palestinians, particularly innocent children, and to glorify the dead terrorists as “Jihad fighters” and teen “Martyrs” to encourage more Palestinian teen-terror and Martyrdom-death.
Safa, an independent Palestinian news agency, praised the murderer as a “daring self-sacrificing fighter” who “amazed” Palestinians by the way he was “pouncing on the settlers with his knife,” and how he went from one attack to another “at the height of elegance and bravery.” The agency proudly stated that “he killed three settlers and wounded a similar number”:
“Even before his identity was known, Martyr Muhammad Murad Souf (i.e., terrorist, murdered 3) amazed all those who watched the video in which he is seen pouncing on the settlers with his knife, and going from place to place at the height of elegance and bravery, until he ascended to Heaven as a Martyr… He chose to end his life in a self-sacrificing operation (i.e., terror attack) that will be immortalized in history. Muhammad died as a Martyr after carrying out a stabbing and car ramming operation.”
[Safa, independent Palestinian news agency, Nov. 17, 2022]
The news agency also movingly described the murderer as the “sole breadwinner of the orphans” after his father died, providing for his mother and seven siblings. With this in mind, the previous statement that he “chose to end his life in a self-sacrificing operation” takes on an additional meaning, namely that he might deliberately have made this choice with the PA financial “Pay-for-Slay” rewards for terror in mind.
Although he worked in an Israeli cleaning supplies factory in Ariel, his death would earn the family an immediate one-time grant of 6,000 shekels (USD 1,929), a monthly allowance of 1,400 shekels (USD 450) for the rest of their lives and many other benefits. Palestinian Media Watch has documented that personal financial trouble and the financial incentives for terror created by the PA, play a role in some terrorists’ decision to seek death through a terror attack against Israelis.
The Fatah Movement and its Shabiba Youth Movement “eulogized their Martyr Muhammad Murad Sami Souf,” who they praised as “a self-sacrificing fighter”. Fatah presented the murders as a “natural response” to Israel's alleged “crimes”:
“The battle waged by self-sacrificing fighter Martyr Muhammad Sami is a natural response to the incessant crimes of aggression and execution against our young Palestinians.”
[Ma’an, independent Palestinian news agency, Nov. 15, 2022]
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) – a member of the Abbas-headed PLO – glorified the murders as a “heroic operation.” The organization further said that terror – the PA’s so-called “resistance” - will continue and “strengthen”:
“[DFLP] emphasized that resistance in all its forms is continuing (i.e., term used by Palestinians, which also refers to the use of violence and terror), and that it will strengthen. It also said that the occupation will not succeed in extinguishing its fire, which is burning everywhere.”
[Donia Al-Watan, independent Palestinian news agency, Nov. 15, 2022]
PMW has documented similar distortions of events by the PA, for example when they turned a terrorist stabber into a poor youth whose “dream” to study at university was “murdered” by Israel.
Muhammad Murad Sami Souf - 18-year-old terrorist and Fatah member who murdered 3 Israelis and wounded 3 others in a stabbing and car ramming attack at the Ariel Industrial Park in the northern West Bank on Nov. 15, 2022. Souf was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers and armed civilians, who thereby ended his attack. Souf, from the village of Hares northwest of Ariel, had a work permit to work at Intel in the Ariel Industrial Park.
The following are longer excerpts of the reports cited above:
Headline: “The attack in Salfit: Young Muhammad Souf died as a Martyr and three settlers were killed”
“The [PA] Ministry of Health announced yesterday, Tuesday [Nov. 15, 2022], that Muhammad Murad Sami Souf (i.e., terrorist, murdered 3), 18, from the village of Hares in the western Salfit [district], was shot by the Israeli occupation forces and died as a Martyr in the Ariel settlement industrial park…
Israeli sources noted that the Martyr killed three settlers and wounded a number of others…
Yesterday evening the residents of Hares participated in a mass-participant procession condemning the execution of young Muhammad by the occupation forces and condemning the arbitrary measures that they are implementing against his family and relatives…
The occupation army said that the attack took place next to the Ariel Industrial Park. In a statement it added that the Martyr ‘came to the entrance gate to the [industrial] park and stabbed two civilians there.’
The Israeli emergency services said that a 35-year-old Israeli was stabbed to death, and that another Israeli died of his wounds at the scene of the attack. Two other people were stabbed and seriously wounded.
The occupation army said that afterwards the Martyr went to ‘a nearby gas station and stabbed two other civilians.’ He took control of a vehicle, escaped, and then ‘deliberately crashed into another civilian with the car.’ The Israeli emergency services said that a 50-year-old man was killed as a result of the crash. Another man who was stabbed on the highway was evacuated to the hospital in serious condition.
The occupation army said that a soldier succeeded in ‘neutralizing the attacker.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 16, 2022]
The following article includes an image with a picture of terrorist Muhammad Souf and the logo of Fatah-run Awdah TV on it, and in the background is another picture of Souf. In the upper right is the Fatah logo that includes a grenade, crossed rifles, and the PA map of “Palestine” that presents all of Israel together with the PA areas as “Palestine.” In the bottom left is written: “Fatah Commission of Mobilization and Organization”
Text on image: “Fatah members in the battlefield
Self-sacrificing fighter Martyr Muhammad Souf”
Headline: “Martyr Muhammad Souf – breadwinner of the orphans and daring self-sacrificing fighter”
“Even before his identity was known, Martyr Muhammad Murad Souf (i.e., terrorist, murdered 3) amazed all those who watched the video in which he is seen pouncing on the settlers with his knife,and going from place to place at the height of elegance and bravery, until he ascended to Heaven as a Martyr.
As fate would have it, 19-year-old Martyr Souf from the town of Hares, northwest of Salfit in the northern occupied West Bank, was the sole breadwinner of his family after the death of his father. He chose to end his life in a self-sacrificing operation (i.e., terror attack) that will be immortalized in history.
Muhammad died as a Martyr after carrying out a stabbing and car ramming operation next to the settlement of Ariel, which crouches over the lands of the northern Salfit [district]. He killed three settlers and wounded a similar number…
His mother spoke about her son, who left home in body but remains present among them in spirit. She told [the independent Palestinian news] agency Safa: ‘May Allah desire him, he left school to provide for us after the death of his father, and he was responsible for all the house expenses.’
When his father died, Muhammad was a 10th grader. He decided to leave school and join the job market to provide for his mother and seven siblings. The firstborn among them is Sami, who is studying law at An-Najah [National] University, and who is now about to complete his studies…
Muhammad worked at the beginning at the Barkan industrial settlement, and afterwards moved to work at a cleaning supplies factory in the Ariel industrial settlement, but this did not blind his eyes to the truth about these settlements, which crouch and expand on his land…
His mother said: ‘His life was from the mosque to home, and from home to work. He had no time for leisure activities other than the time he spent when his friends visited the home.’ She added: ‘My dream was to build a home for him, to marry him off, and to rejoice in his celebration, but he wanted something else. He chose Martyrdom and achieved it.’”
[Safa, independent Palestinian news agency, Nov. 17, 2022]
Headline: “Fatah eulogized Martyr Souf: The occupation bears responsibility for the situation we have reached”
“On Tuesday evening [Nov. 15, 2022], the Fatah Movement and its [Fatah] Shabiba [Youth Movement] eulogized their Martyr Muhammad Murad Sami Souf (i.e., terrorist, murdered 3) from the village of Hares in the Salfit district. They held the occupation responsible for the situation we have reached as a result of the incessant aggression against our people.
In a statement, a copy of which reached [the independent Palestinian news agency] Ma’an, Fatah said: ‘The battle waged by self-sacrificing fighter Martyr Muhammad Sami is a natural responseto the incessant crimes of aggression and execution against our young Palestinians, which we have been warning about for a long time.’
Fatah emphasized: ‘The consequences of the occupation government continuing its aggressive behavior, allowing [the spilling of] Palestinian blood, and the wild behavior and aggression of the settler herds, will be an open confrontation with the occupation, and it alone will bear the responsibility for it breaking out. It is our people’s right to defend itself and to fight for its freedom and independence.’
Fatah called on the international community to stop the occupation’s crimes, to provide protection to our people, and to put the perpetrators of these crimes on trial.”
[Ma’an, independent Palestinian news agency, Nov. 15, 2022]
Headline: “The Democratic Front [for the Liberation of Palestine]: The heroic operation in Salfit is a response to the occupation’s crimes”
“The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) said that the Salfit operation (i.e., terror attack committed by terrorist Muhammad Souf, who murdered 3) is a response to the occupation’s crimes and its organized terror against our people and their land.
In a statement, a copy of which reached [the independent Palestinian news agency] Donia Al-Watan, the DFLP said that our people’s willpower and its resistance will remain stronger than the occupation’s tyranny, its terror, its security system, and its military reinforcements.
It emphasized that resistance in all its forms is continuing (i.e., term used by Palestinians, which also refers to the use of violence and terror), and that it will strengthen. It also said that the occupation will not succeed in extinguishing its fire, which is burning everywhere.
The DFLP added that the PLO Executive Committee must implement the recent decisions of the [PLO] Central Council on stopping the security coordination [with Israel], revoking the recognition of the occupation state, and establishing the united national headquarters so that it will lead our people’s struggle and provide it with a framework.”
[Donia Al-Watan, independent Palestinian news agency, Nov. 15, 2022]
The DFLP (Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine) has carried out numerous terror attacks, including the Ma’alot massacre in which 22 schoolchildren and 4 adults were murdered (May 15, 1974), the Avivim school bus massacre, in which 9 children and 3 adults were murdered (May 22, 1970), the Kiryat Shmona massacre (18 murdered, April 11, 1974), the Beit Shean attack (4 murdered, Nov. 19, 1974), the Jaffa street bombing in Jerusalem (7 murdered, Nov. 13, 1975) the Tiberias bombing (2 high school students murdered, May 15, 1979), the Night of the Gliders (in which two terrorists infiltrated Israel from Lebanon using hang gliders, murdering 6 Israeli soldiers on Nov. 25, 1987), and the Geha junction suicide bombing near Tel Aviv (4 murdered, Dec. 25, 2003.) The DFLP has participated in and claimed responsibility for dozens of other terror attacks.
The terms “all means,” “all means of resistance,” “all forms,” are used by PA leaders to include using all types of violence, including deadly terror against Israeli civilians such as stabbings and shootings, as well as throwing rocks and Molotov Cocktails.