PA: Palestinians murdering Israelis is Palestinian culture
PA honors murderers of 184 Israelis to launch “Bethlehem: Capital of Arab Culture Week”
While people around the world see the arts, sports, and music as expressions of culture that could be highlighted during a “culture week,” the Palestinian Authority chose the murder of Israelis as its expression of Palestinian culture with which to launch its “Arab Culture Week.”
As “the start of the activities of the Bethlehem: Capital of Arab Culture 2020-2021 week,” the PA Ministry of Culture and the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs set up an exhibit featuring pictures and names of numerous terrorist prisoners who murdered at least 46 Israelis, and terrorist “Martyrs” responsible for the deaths of at least 136.
Bethlehem was chosen as capital of Arab culture 2020/21 by the Conference of Arab Culture Ministers, and it was PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas himself who launched the year-long event in April. [Website of the Arab League Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization, April 21, 2021]
It is a very significant statement about the PA’s self-image, its chosen values, and its revering of terrorists that it launches “Arab Culture Week” by honoring mass murderers as its expression of Palestinian culture.
Text on sign: “Palestinian [PA] Ministry of Culture
Freedom to the prisoners
Liberating the Palestinian prisoners is a guaranteed right for the Palestinian people
My pulse and thumbprint are with the freedom of my heroic people
If you live, live free – or die upright like the trees”
[Facebook page of the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Oct. 9, 2021]
While Jews revere Bethlehem as the burial place of the matriarch Rachel and Christians honor the city as the birthplace of Jesus, the PA often uses Bethlehem as a city to highlight PA support for terror. Palestinian Media Watch reported that Fatah honored several murderers at a ceremony, marched dozens of armed masked men and women through the streets of Bethlehem, parading posters of mass-murderers at a rally, and held a sports tournament named after arch-terrorist Abu Jihad.
On the left side of the exhibit:
Top row second from left: “Prisoner Adnan Abayat – Aug. 24, 2004”
Top row sixth from left: “Prisoner Munif Abu Atwan”
Top row eighth from left: “Prisoner Ahmad Sa’adat”
Third row second from left: “Heroic prisoner Maher Younes, life sentence”
Third row third from left: “Heroic prisoner Mahmoud Abu Sorour, life sentence”
Third row fourth from left: “Heroic prisoner Nasser Abu Sorour, life sentence”
Fourth row third from left: “Heroic prisoner Ashraf Hajajreh, life sentence”
Fourth row fourth from left: “Heroic prisoner Mahmoud Sarahneh, life sentence”
On the right side of the exhibit:
Top row first from left: “Heroic prisoner Marwan Barghouti, life sentence”
Second row first from left: “Prisoner Karim Younes”
Other institutions showed their support for the terrorist murderers and the exhibition, among them the General Union of Palestinian Women:
Text on sign: “Freedom to the giants of endurance
Our heroic female and male prisoners
General Union of Palestinian Women – Bethlehem Branch”
The exhibit also displayed the pictures of four of the six terrorist prisoners who recently escaped from Israeli prison and were recaptured.
Some of the posters of terrorists included in the Bethlehem exhibit were adorned at the bottom with photos of terrorist Salah Khalaf “Abu Iyad,” who headed the terror organization Black September that murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, former PLO and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, and arch-terrorist Khalil Al-Wazir “Abu Jihad” who was responsible for attacks in which at least 125 Israelis were murdered:
A “prisoners’ cell” with mannequins dressed as prisoners was also included in the exhibit:
Posted text: “The [PLO] Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs: The start of the activities of the Bethlehem: Capital of Arab Culture 2020[-2021] week, the Palestinian prisoners’ cell.
The Commission of Prisoners and Released Prisoners’ Affairs participated in the Arab culture week activities in Bethlehem. The commission participated with works of art made by the prisoners and literary works, along with the presentation of exhibitions that reflect the prisoners’ situation of bullying and torture inside the occupation’s prisons. Pictures were also displayed of all the prisoners who were given long sentences. The prisoners’ cell was very unique – many of those present visited it, and they signed their fingerprints on the petition demanding to provide the prisoners with international protection.”
[Facebook page of the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Oct. 9, 2021]
The following are short descriptions of each terrorist honored and his crimes:
“Under the high patronage of H.E. President Mahmoud Abbas, and from the Church of the Nativity Square in Bethlehem, the “Bethlehem : Capital of Arab Culture for 2020-2021” event was launched on Saturday, April 10, 2021, with live transmission by the Palestinian television from ALECSO headquarters.
In his inaugural statement, President Abbas expressed his thanks to H.E. Mr. Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, to the Arab Leaders, as well as to H.E. Dr. Mohamed Ould Amar, Director-General of ALECSO, for their continuous support to the State of Palestine and its valorous people. He commended ALECSO’s efforts in the service of education, culture, science and scientific research in Palestine, and its support for all nomination files in these areas, including the file for the nomination of Bethlehem, a city with profound significance for all humanity, as Capital of Arab culture 2020-2021.
On his part, Dr. Ould Amar underlined, in his statement on this occasion, the importance of the “Capital of Arab Culture” project, which was launched in 1996, and its significant role in publicizing the rich and diverse culture of the Arab countries. He commended the choice by the Conference of Arab Culture Ministers in its latest session in Cairo, to declare Bethlehem, the historic city with deep civilizational roots, Capital of Arab Culture for 2020.
Dr. Ould Amar recalled that the city of Al-Quds has already been proclaimed “Permanent Capital of Arab Culture”, which gives the “Bethlehem : Capital of Arab Culture for 2020-2021” event a greater moral significance, and reinforces the role of culture in defending the Palestinian people’s Arab cultural identity and their historical right to every inch of their land. He concluded by stressing the need to take best advantage of such events to further promote investment in culture in order to achieve sustainable development and prosperity across the Arab world.”
[Website of the Arab League Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization, April 21, 2021]