Fatah responds to PMW's bulletin, reiterates that it honors murderer of 24
Fatah's response to yesterday's PMW bulletin:
Fatah reiterates that it honors murderer of 24
and says there will be peace only
when Israelis leave Israel
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Itamar Marcus
Palestinian Media Watch reported yesterday that Abbas' political party Fatah had honored Japanese terrorist Kozo Okamoto for his part in the terror attack in Israel's airport in 1972, in which 24 civilians were killed and 70 were injured. Fatah's response to PMW's report was to immediately issue two follow-up posts, "in response to the Israeli media."
In the new posts, Fatah reiterated that it views the murderer of 24 as a hero, and added that if Israelis wants peace they must leave what Fatah calls "our land", the term it usually uses to mean all of Israel. As PMW has reported, PA policy is to deny Israel's right to exist on any part of Israel and Mahmoud Abbas himself calls all of Israel an "occupation."
The following are today's Fatah Facebook posts in response to PMW's exposure that Fatah glorified the murderer of 24:
"Responding to the Israeli media [i.e., PMW report]:
44 years since the operation in the [Israeli] Lod Airport. Blessings to the Japanese fighter, the comrade Kozo Okamoto, hero of the operation [i.e., terror attack that killed 24 and injured 70] at the Lod airport.
The Fatah Movement is proud of all who have joined its ranks and the ranks of the Palestinian revolution for the freedom of the Palestinian people. We are proud of every fighter who has joined our mighty revolution. If Israel wants peace, it should get out of our land and we'll live in peace, for it [Israel] is the last occupation in the world."
[Official Fatah Facebook page, May 18, 2016]
"Who is the comrade and the international revolutionary Kozo Okamoto?
From Japan... a group of fighters came, who carried out one of the most famous self-sacrificing operations of the 20th century. 26 Israelis were killed and more than 80 were wounded [in the Israeli airport]... He was sentenced to a life sentence. Kozo was transferred to the depths of the terrible Zionist prisons, in addition to the different kinds of tortures he went through in the slaughterhouse that's called a 'prison.'
Kozo remained in the occupation's solitary cells for 13 whole years until 1985, the year of his release to freedom. The Popular Front - the General Command [a body that split off the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ed.] insisted on putting the name of Kozo Okamoto on the list of Palestinian prisoners that would be released in the great prisoner exchange deal that it [the Popular Front] made with the Zionist entity.
The Popular Front received its hero [Okamoto] with a large celebration ceremony in the Lebanon valley, and raised him on their shoulders.
But the Kozo that came out of the Zionist prison was not the same Kozo who had entered it 13 years previously; he came out [of prison] as the shadow of a man, completely broken and suffering from terrible physical and mental disabilities. They destroyed him physically and mentally."
[Official Fatah Facebook page, May 18, 2016]
Lod Airport attack - on May 30, 1972, Takeshi Okudaira, Yasuyuki Yasuda and Kozo Okamoto - members of the Japanese Red Army who had been recruited by the Palestinian terror organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) - carried out a terror attack at Israel's Lod (Tel Aviv) airport. Throwing hand grenades and shooting, the terrorists killed 24 (8 Israelis and 16 foreign tourists), and wounded over 70. Okudaira and Yasuda were killed during the attack, while Okamoto was arrested and sentenced to 3 life sentences, but was released in the Jibril Agreement in May 1985, after only 13 years of imprisonment, when Israel freed 1,150 Palestinian prisoners, including terrorist murderers, in exchange for three Israeli soldiers who had been taken hostage by the PFLP terrorist organization.