PA issues stamp in honor of suicide bombers and other terrorist murderers
The Palestinian Authority has issued a new stamp in honor of “the Martyrs of the numbered cemeteries” because “their names remain as torches illuminating the path.”
But who are these “Martyrs” and what are “the numbered cemeteries”?
The “Martyrs” are in fact suicide bombers and other terrorist murderers who were killed during their attacks.
The Cemeteries for Enemy Casualties (“the numbered cemeteries”) are two burial sites maintained by the Israeli army for burying the bodies of enemy soldiers during wartime as well as terrorists. Graves have markers instead of gravestones. The bodies are buried in numbered caskets after their identities are documented, and no burial ceremony is held. Burial is temporary, as the bodies are eventually returned to their countries of origin.
The PA’s new stamp exemplifies PA policy, glorifying Palestinian terrorists who attacked, wounded, and murdered Israelis. Reporting on the new PA stamp, the official PA daily described these terrorists as “pure souls” whose “struggle” is “appreciated” – qualities that prompted the PA Ministry of Communications and IT and the Palestinian Postal Administration to issue the stamp.
Palestinian Media Watch has previously documented stamps issued by Hamas in the name of the Palestinian Authority. For example the stamps below featuring rockets aimed at Israel from the Gaza Strip (2012) and a hand raising the Palestinian flag over all of Israel, implying political sovereignty over the entire area (2010):
[Arabian Stamps Center website, Dec. 5, 2012]
[Arabian Stamps Center website, Dec. 5, 2010]
Since the Fatah-Hamas split, there are two Palestinian postal authorities, one in the PA in Ramallah, and Hamas’ in the Gaza Strip. Only the PA-issued stamps are valid internationally.
The following is a longer excerpt of the report on the new PA stamp, honoring dead suicide bombers and other terrorist murderers:
Headline: “Since their names are torches illuminating the path – a first postal stamp bearing the name ‘The Martyrs of the numbered cemeteries’”
“Since the Martyrs are not numbers, and since their names remain as torches illuminating the path for all the free people who are continuing the struggle to extricate all the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights… and out of appreciation for their pure souls and their struggles, the Palestinian [PA] Ministry of Communications and IT and the Palestinian Postal Administration issued a first postal stamp bearing the name ‘The Martyrs of the numbered cemeteries’ (i.e., Israeli cemeteries for temporary burial of terrorists). This is in cooperation with the embassy of the State of Palestine [in Lebanon], the Cultural Council for South Lebanon, the non-profit organization House of the Photographer in Lebanon, the Palestine in the Eyes of the World group, and the Lebanese stamp and coin collectors’ club.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 9, 2022]
The article includes a picture of the stamp, which has “State of Palestine” written in Arabic and English at the top, and “Palestinian Martyrs in the Cemeteries of Numbers” in Arabic and English at the bottom.