PA official defends naming school after mastermind of Munich Olympics massacre
PA official defends naming school
after mastermind of Munich Olympics massacre
while Fatah glorifies second planner of the killings
- PA official: Israel "is deluded if it thinks the Palestinian people can change its culture"
- Fatah honors terrorist Abu Daoud: "The main planner of the Munich operation that executed the Israeli Olympic delegation in 1972 in the heart of Germany"
Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
Following Palestinian Media Watch's report on a new Palestinian Authority school named after Salah Khalaf, one of the planners of the murders of the 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972, District Governor of Tulkarem Issam Abu Bakr, who is a PA official, defended the naming of the school after the terrorist.
After the Israeli Prime Minister's Arabic spokesman Ofir Gendelman responded to PMW's report and tweeted about the naming of the "Martyr Salah Khalaf School," the PA official replied with praise for the terrorist and others like him, stating that Palestinians will never forget them:
"The occupation is deluded if it thinks that the Palestinian people can change its culture and forget its leaders, Martyrs Yasser Arafat, Khalil Al-Wazir (Abu Jihad), Salah Khalaf, and a great number of the fighters who sacrificed their blood for the freedom, independence, and establishment of the independent Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem." [Ma'an, independent PA news agency, Oct. 26, 2016]
Fatah also glorified the Munich Olympics massacre this week, honoring Muhammad Daoud Oudeh, another of the planners of the terror attack, boasting that they "executed" the Israeli athletes "in the heart of Germany":Posted text: "Picture of Muhammad Daoud 'Abu Daoud,' one of the leaders of Fatah's Black September organization and the main planner of the Munich operation that executed the Israeli Olympic delegation in 1972 in the heart of Germany."
[Official Fatah Facebook page, Oct. 24, 2016, emphasis added]
The Palestinian Authority and Fatah have a long history of glorifying the Munich Olympics massacre and the terrorists behind it. Recently, PMW documented that Fatah called the killings "a heroic operation" and in 2014, Fatah bragged about the attack in a film posted on its Facebook page, stating that "the world stood still in view of the Munich operation." The following is a longer excerpt of the Tulkarem District Governor's statement:
Headline: "Tulkarem District Governor: The occupation is deluded if it thinks that we will forget the Martyrs"
"Tulkarem District Governor Issam Abu Bakr responded to what Israeli Prime Minister's [Office] Spokesman Ofir Gendelman published on his Twitter account (see note below -Ed.) regarding his accusing Martyr (Shahid) Salah Khalaf of "terror," following the laying of the cornerstone of a school named after him (i.e., Khalaf) in the city of Tulkarem, and he said that the occupation is deluded if it thinks that the Palestinian people can change its culture and forget its leaders, Martyrs Yasser Arafat, Khalil Al-Wazir, Salah Khalaf, and a great number of the fighters who sacrificed their blood for the freedom, independence, and establishment of the independent Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem.
District Governor Abu Bakr's statements were made during a reception ceremony for the new students held by the Student Unification Council and the [Fatah] Shabiba student movement at the Tulkarem branch of Al-Quds Open University."
[Ma'an, independent PA news agency, Oct. 26, 2016]
Israeli Prime Minister's Office Spokesperson for the Arab Media Ofir Gendelman posted a picture of the inauguration of "the Martyr Salah Khalaf School" in Tulkarem to his Twitter account on Oct. 25, 2016, together with the following text: "Glorification of terrorists in the PA:New school named after mastermind of the Munich Olympics massacre (11 Israeli athletes were murdered)."Abu Iyad (Salah Khalaf) - Founder of Fatah and head of the terrorist organization Black September. Attacks he planned included the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics (Sept. 5, 1972) and the murder of two American diplomats in Sudan (March 1, 1973).
Abu Jihad (Khalil Al-Wazir) - was a founder of Fatah and deputy to Yasser Arafat. He headed the PLO terror organization's military wing and planned many deadly Fatah terror attacks killing 125 Israelis. This included the most lethal in Israeli history, the hijacking of a bus and killing of 37 civilians, 12 of them children.