Ramallah municipality celebrates naming a street after arch-terrorist Abu Jihad: “One of the symbols of the Palestinian struggle”
Headline: “Ceremony to name a street in Ramallah after Martyr Khalil Al-Wazir ‘Abu Jihad’”
“The Ramallah municipality celebrated yesterday [April 20, 2010] the naming of one of the streets of the city - more specifically in the Mahmoud Darwish Square in the Al-Masyoun neighborhood - after commander Martyr (Shahid) Khalil Al-Wazir (Abu Jihad,) in the presence of several senior officials, national faction representatives and the Martyr’s family. This took place a few days after the 22nd anniversary of his assassination on April 16, 1988…
The street inauguration ceremony was opened with a speech by the mayor of Ramallah, Janet Mikhail, in which she said:
‘Our celebration of the inauguration of Martyr Abu Jihad Street honors one of the symbols of the Palestinian struggle, and one of those who raised the name of Palestine to Heaven. He marked luminous milestones in the history of the national struggle, and the self-sacrificing fighting (Fida'i) enterprise. We are gathered here to honor the emir of our Martyrs, Abu Jihad (Khalil Al-Wazir), one of the pillars of the contemporary Palestinian revolution, and one of the symbols of the cause.
He is the commander who died as he was drawing his weapon against the enemy, and ascended [to Heaven], where his soul embraced the clouds as he was holding his rifle.’…
Mikhail emphasized the resistance of the municipality, all residents of Ramallah, and the Palestinian people to the Israeli threats and [Israel’s] unacceptable interference in the naming of Palestinian streets.
She said: ‘The threats voiced by several occupation leaders are ridiculous, and their attempts to interfere and oppose the names we give to our streets and the commemoration of our Martyrs and heroes arouse scorn, for the history of nations cannot allow the enemies to interfere with it, or foreign elements, whoever they may be – to enter it. All the Martyrs, male and female, are part of the history of our Palestinian revolution, and you [Israel] will not succeed in obscuring the facts, rage as you will.’
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.
Mahmoud Darwish is considered the Palestinian national poet. He published over 30 volumes of poetry and 8 books of prose and has won numerous awards. He joined the Israeli Communist Party in 1961 and the terrorist organization PLO in 1973, becoming a member of the PLO Executive Committee in 1987. He left the PLO in 1993 because it signed the Oslo Accords with Israel.
Many in Israel see his poetry as inciting hate and violence. One poem he wrote in 1988 at the height of the Palestinian wave of violence and terror against Israel (the first Intifada, 1987-1993) calls to Israelis: “Take your portion of our blood - and be gone… Live wherever you like, but do not live among us… Die wherever you like, but do not die among us… Leave our country, our land, our sea, our wheat, our salt, our wounds, everything, and leave the memories of memory.”
He also wrote “Silence for the Sake of Gaza” in 1973, which many see as glorifying terror: “She wraps explosives around her waist and blows herself up. It is not a death, and not a suicide. It is Gaza's way of declaring she is worthy of life.”
His defenders have claimed that Israel misinterprets his poetry and that he sought reconciliation with Israel. One wrote in 2017: “Darwish arranged meetings between Palestinian and Israeli intellectuals, and published essays on their discussions. He was optimistic that, through mutual understanding, the two sides could eventually reconcile.” [https://www.bcalnoor.org/]
“The Ramallah municipality celebrated yesterday [April 20, 2010] the naming of one of the streets of the city - more specifically in the Mahmoud Darwish Square in the Al-Masyoun neighborhood - after commander Martyr (Shahid) Khalil Al-Wazir (Abu Jihad,) in the presence of several senior officials, national faction representatives and the Martyr’s family. This took place a few days after the 22nd anniversary of his assassination on April 16, 1988…
The street inauguration ceremony was opened with a speech by the mayor of Ramallah, Janet Mikhail, in which she said:
‘Our celebration of the inauguration of Martyr Abu Jihad Street honors one of the symbols of the Palestinian struggle, and one of those who raised the name of Palestine to Heaven. He marked luminous milestones in the history of the national struggle, and the self-sacrificing fighting (Fida'i) enterprise. We are gathered here to honor the emir of our Martyrs, Abu Jihad (Khalil Al-Wazir), one of the pillars of the contemporary Palestinian revolution, and one of the symbols of the cause.
He is the commander who died as he was drawing his weapon against the enemy, and ascended [to Heaven], where his soul embraced the clouds as he was holding his rifle.’…
Mikhail emphasized the resistance of the municipality, all residents of Ramallah, and the Palestinian people to the Israeli threats and [Israel’s] unacceptable interference in the naming of Palestinian streets.
She said: ‘The threats voiced by several occupation leaders are ridiculous, and their attempts to interfere and oppose the names we give to our streets and the commemoration of our Martyrs and heroes arouse scorn, for the history of nations cannot allow the enemies to interfere with it, or foreign elements, whoever they may be – to enter it. All the Martyrs, male and female, are part of the history of our Palestinian revolution, and you [Israel] will not succeed in obscuring the facts, rage as you will.’
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.
Mahmoud Darwish is considered the Palestinian national poet. He published over 30 volumes of poetry and 8 books of prose and has won numerous awards. He joined the Israeli Communist Party in 1961 and the terrorist organization PLO in 1973, becoming a member of the PLO Executive Committee in 1987. He left the PLO in 1993 because it signed the Oslo Accords with Israel.
Many in Israel see his poetry as inciting hate and violence. One poem he wrote in 1988 at the height of the Palestinian wave of violence and terror against Israel (the first Intifada, 1987-1993) calls to Israelis: “Take your portion of our blood - and be gone… Live wherever you like, but do not live among us… Die wherever you like, but do not die among us… Leave our country, our land, our sea, our wheat, our salt, our wounds, everything, and leave the memories of memory.”
He also wrote “Silence for the Sake of Gaza” in 1973, which many see as glorifying terror: “She wraps explosives around her waist and blows herself up. It is not a death, and not a suicide. It is Gaza's way of declaring she is worthy of life.”
His defenders have claimed that Israel misinterprets his poetry and that he sought reconciliation with Israel. One wrote in 2017: “Darwish arranged meetings between Palestinian and Israeli intellectuals, and published essays on their discussions. He was optimistic that, through mutual understanding, the two sides could eventually reconcile.” [https://www.bcalnoor.org/]