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Op-ed by PLO official glorifies imprisoned terrorist Marwan Barghouti, demonizes Israel

Al-Quds, Palestinian daily  |
Headline: “Prisoner Marwan Barghouti: I hope [to achieve] Martyrdom-death (Shahada) twice for this great people”

Excerpt of an op-ed by Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Issa Karake

       “Prisoner Marwan Barghouti (i.e., terrorist who orchestrated three shooting attacks in which 5 were murdered) has decided to lead the hunger strike that is not limited in time on April 17, 2017, in conjunction with the start of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Day activities. He called this step The Battle of Freedom and Dignity. In a statement he presented a series of humanitarian demands connected to improving the living conditions of all the male and female prisoners who are in the prisons.
Fifteen years after he was kidnapped and arrested by the occupation forces, Barghouti has understood that the occupation government is trying to decide the battle against the prisoners in the prisons by controlling them and turning them into mere ghosts and numbers, and by negating their symbolism as legal fighters and prisoners of freedom who have fought and sacrificed for freedom, dignity, and independence…
Barghouti sees the prisoners sitting for more than 35 years in the prisons and dying slowly, and therefore he instills hope in a true peace, which will only begin when the occupation ends. The State of Israel has become a prison state, an intelligence services [state], an execution state, and a police state that stands behind walls, fences, checkpoints, and military control towers, a state that puts peace – which is represented by the prisoners within the prisons and the detention camps - under arrest.
Barghouti challenges Israel’s theory of redesigning consciousness, whose goal is to demonize the prisoners and describe them as terrorists and criminals without rights, who are not protected by the third and fourth Geneva Conventions…
Barghouti challenges the ‘Kapo’ (i.e., Jewish collaborators in administrating the Nazi death camps) theory, which Israel drew from the Nazi experience in every context of dealing with detainees. [This is expressed] when the prisoner’s interest becomes identical to the prison guard’s interest, by flooding the prisoners with worthless privileges at the expense of the collective national unity and at the expense of the goals of the struggle of the prisoners as prisoners of the national liberation movement…
Barghouti challenges the statements of [Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor] Liberman and the extremist leaders of Israel, who slandered the prisoners and described them as criminals and terrorists, and who considered the [PLO] Palestinian National Fund, which supports the PLO prisoners, a terror organization…
Barghouti takes off the prison clothes, removes his chains, and says: ‘I am 100% a product of Palestine. The one who created Marwan is the Palestinian people, and I am proud of this. We will continue the struggle at all costs out of loyalty to this great people, which is worthy of us sacrificing for it 1,000 times again and again. Of course we love life, and we are fighting for life and for freedom, but if the cost of the freedom of the Palestinian people is that we be imprisoned, we will suffer and be tortured – we are prepared for this.’”

Marwan Barghouti – Palestinian terrorist who is serving 5 life sentences for orchestrating three shooting attacks that killed 5 people: one attack in Jerusalem (June 12, 2001) in which Greek monk Tsibouktsakis Germanus was murdered by terrorist Ismail Radaida and another unidentified terrorist, another attack at a gas station in Givat Zeev near Jerusalem (Jan. 15, 2002) in which Yoela Hen, 45, was murdered by terrorists led by Mohammed Matla, and one shooting and stabbing attack at the Sea Food Market restaurant in Tel Aviv (March 5, 2002) in which Eli Dahan, 53, Yosef Habi, 52, and Police Officer Sergeant-Major Salim Barakat, 33, were murdered by terrorist Ibrahim Hasouna. When arrested by Israel in 2002, Barghouti headed the Tanzim (Fatah terror faction). After he was convicted and imprisoned, he was re-elected member of the Palestinian Authority parliament. On Dec. 4, 2016, he was elected to Fatah's Central Committee.

PNF declared terrorist organization by Liberman: On March 16, 2017, Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor Liberman declared the Palestinian National Fund of the PLO a terrorist organization. The fund manages financial aid received by the PLO from different sources. The Israeli Ministry of Defense declare the fund a terror organization due to the fund's "massive support for elements responsible for committing severe acts of terrorism against Israel," and stated that the fund serves "as a significant financial pipeline for tens of millions of shekels that are transferred on a monthly basis to security prisoners held in Israel for committing acts of terrorism and to members of their families," and that "the fund also supports family members of terrorists who were wounded and killed while perpetrating acts of terrorism against Israel." It also stated that "the necessary steps will be taken, in Israel and abroad, to seize and forfeit the property and money belonging to the fund.”
Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the PA uses the Palestinian National Fund to transfer money for terrorist salaries to the PLO.

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