PA daily op-ed glorifies terrorist hijacker as an "icon"

Excerpt of op-ed by Issa Abd Al-Hafiz

Headline: "Theresa Halsa"

"Theresa Halsa (i.e., terrorist hijacker) was born in Acre in 1955…

She joined the ranks of the Palestinian revolution, and more precisely the Fatah Movement, after she saw how the occupation's soldiers treat her people. After she left the occupied land… she joined the secret organization Black September (i.e., terror organization and a secret branch of Fatah).As part of a squad, she hijacked a Belgian airplane with 170 Israelis on it (sic., 100 people, not all of whom were Israeli), and landed it at the Lod airport.

Ali Taha [Abu Snina] and Zakariya [Abed Al-Aziz] Atrash died as Martyrs in the operation, while [Halsa] was arrested and sentenced to 2 life sentences and an additional 40 years. [Current Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu, who was wounded in the exchanges of gunfire, led the Israeli attack force (sic. the rescue operation was led by Ehud Barak, who later became prime minister of Israel; Netanyahu participated in it). She was in prison for 10 years, and was released due to a prisoner exchange deal…

[Halsa] is the icon of Palestine and the icon of Jordan, who personified the wonderful unity between the two banks of the Jordan [River], between the mosque and the church, and between the people of the Arab nation, as if she were saying: 'Palestine is the common denominator of all of us.'

…

May Allah wrap our Martyrs in His mercy and let them dwell throughout Paradise."

Theresa Halsa – 17-year-old female Israeli Arab terrorist and a member of the Black September terror organization, a secret branch of Fatah, who participated in the hijacking of Sabena flight 571 from Vienna to Tel Aviv in May 1972. When the plane landed in Israel, the terrorists demanded the release of 315 Palestinian terrorists from Israeli prisons. Israel mounted a rescue operation led by Ehud Barak (who later served as Israeli Prime Minister), in which Benjamin Netanyahu (who also later served as Israeli Prime Minister) participated. During the rescue the two male hijackers, Ali Taha Abu Snina and Abed Al-Aziz Atrash, were killed, and one passenger, 22-year-old Miriam Anderson, was also killed accidentally. The two female hijackers, Rima Tannous and Theresa Halsa, were captured and sentenced to life imprisonment – Halsa for 220 years. They were released in November 1983 in a prisoner exchange. Halsa was expelled to Jordan where she lived until she died of cancer on March 28, 2020.