Ramallah governor welcomes released prisoner
Ramallah and El-Bireh Governor Laila Ghannam posted images and text on her Facebook page
Posted text: “Elder of the prisoners, fighting Maj. Gen. Fuad Al-Shubaki ‘Abu Hazem’ (i.e., senior PA official and weapons smuggler) embraces freedom after 17 years of pride, firmness, and greatness that he spent behind the occupation’s bars.
At the mausoleum for the memory of the Martyr that lives within us [former PLO Chairman and PA President] Yasser Arafat, which [Al-Shubaki] insisted that it be the first place he directed his steps towards with his release.
We had the honor of receiving an elder of Palestine, who has recorded in the pages of history the meanings of firmness and sacrifice when he defied the tortures of the prisons, the cells, and the policy of slow death in order to return to the embrace of his homeland and his free people with his head held high.
We bless released [prisoner] Al-Shubaki on the occasion of his freedom, and Palestine over the return of its elder. Through him we wish approaching freedom to all our heroic prisoners and lauded female prisoners, who are fighting the battle of freedom and honor in dealing with the procedures, plans, and policies of extremist [Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar] Ben Gvir and the Israeli Prison Service management against them.
Every time we receive a prisoner our faith and certainty strengthen that the prison gates are not locked on anyone, and that regardless of how long the darkness of prison lasts, dawn and freedom must break through.”
The images show Ramallah and El-Bireh Governor Laila Ghannam, Fatah Deputy Chairman and Fatah Central Committee member Mahmoud Al-Aloul, and PLO Executive Committee member Azzam Al-Ahmad with released terrorist prisoner Fuad Al-Shubaki at a reception event.
[Ramallah and El-Bireh Governor Laila Ghannam, Facebook page, March 13, 2023]
PLO Executive Committee member Azzam Al-Ahmad who spoke on official PA TV also serves as head of the PLO Department of Arab and Parliamentary Affairs, Fatah Central Committee member, Fatah Commissioner of National Relations, and Fatah Commissioner for Relations with Lebanon.
Fuad Al-Shubaki - Palestinian terrorist and senior PA official who was behind the attempt to smuggle 50 tons of illegal weapons to the Palestinian Authority aboard the Karine A weapons’ ship in 2002. Al-Shubaki was sentenced to a 20-year prison term that was later reduced to 17 years, and was released on March 13, 2023.
Yasser Arafat – Founder of Fatah and former chairman of the PLO and PA. During the 1960s, 70s and 80s Arafat was behind numerous terror attacks against Israelis. Although he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 together with then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and then Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Shimon Peres “for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East" after signing the Oslo Accords peace agreement, Arafat launched a 5-year terror campaign - the second Intifada (2000-2005) – in which more than 1,000 Israelis were murdered. Arafat died of an illness in 2004.