Jenin Municipality removes monument allegedly due to Israeli threats

Headline: “The Jenin Municipality removed the Martyr Khaled Nazzal monument after threats from the occupation authorities”
      “The wife of Martyr (Shahid) Khaled Nazzal (i.e., terrorist, planned murder of 31), author Rima Kittaneh Nazzal, said in a phone call with Al-Ayyam that the Jenin Municipality removed the monument of her husband the Martyr yesterday [June 23, 2017], just one week after the municipality and district celebrated placing the monument.
Nazzal, who expressed sorrow over what happened, added: ‘It would have been preferable that the municipality wait until the occupation realized its threats to destroy the monument or the square rather than removing it itself.’
Jenin Mayor Muhammad Abu Ghali said in a phone call with Al-Ayyam that he explained the municipality’s position on his Facebook page.
And returning to the page, he said that what happened was done after the matter had reached ‘the highest political echelons’ in the office[s] of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and [US President Donald] Trump, to the point that ‘the Israeli impudence’ reached the level of ‘sending a clear message to the PA that it must take down the stone on which the name of the Martyr was written,’ or else the occupation forces ‘would immediately destroy the entire square themselves with their bulldozers.’ Based on this, the decision was made in coordination with the Martyr’s brothers in Germany and Qabatiya to remove [the monument].
Nazzal said that the removal of the monument was carried out due to the Israeli articles and pressures, and said: ‘The removal of the Martyr Khaled Nazzal monument is liable to cause the occupation to demand the removal of the George Habash (i.e., founder of the terror organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), Ahmed Yassin (i.e., founder and former head of the terrorist organization Hamas), Abu Ali Mustafa (i.e., Secretary-General of the terror organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), Yasser Arafat, and Mahmoud Darwish (i.e., Palestinian national poet) Squares and their like, and it could even be that they will have the impudence to demand the removal of the Martyr Yasser Arafat monument.’
She concluded: ‘We have nothing else to renounce, and therefore the occupation has invented new ways of renouncement and raised their symbolism to a high level in order to pressure the official Palestinian side in order to divert attention from the issues of settlement and a permanent solution.’ She emphasized: ‘If this is so, why don’t we demand the removal of monuments and statues of murderers of members of the Palestinian people and those who carry out massacres against them, whom Israeli society calls its historical leaders?’…
And returning to Jenin Mayor Abu Ghali’s statements: ‘The square still bears the name of Martyr Khaled Nazzal, and it will also continue to bear his name as the municipality council decided on that name.’ He also wondered: ‘Did we have to be dragged along by Israel’s blood plot that is dragging us to confrontation when and where it wishes?’ He emphasized: ‘We cannot bargain over the Martyrs as they do not cease to exist… [ellipsis in source] and it is our interpretation, whether we are right or mistaken, and the mudslinging and slandering will not deter us, but rather will strengthen us and our determination, as we have a supreme goal that the braggarts will not reach.’”
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Khaled Nazzal

George Habash

Ahmed Yassin

Abu Ali Mustafa

Mahmoud Darwish