Fatah uses Facebook to celebrate murder of 3 Israeli civilians in 1988: “The self-sacrificing fighters succeeded in killing”

• Fatah about terrorist murderers: “heroes” who “demonstrated heroism and daring of the most spectacular kind”

Facebook continues to prove a willing tool for Abbas’ Fatah Movement to glorify and celebrate murderous terror against Israelis.

On the 34th anniversary of what Palestinians call “the Dimona operation” Fatah posted a video it produced that celebrated the terror attack in which 3 Israeli civilians were brutally murdered.

On March 7, 1988, three Palestinian terrorists hijacked a bus taking workers to the Negev Nuclear Research Center in Dimona, murdering 3 of the passengers - Miriam Ben-Yair, Rina Shiratzky, and Victor Ram. In Israel the attack is known as the Mothers’ Bus attack because many of the passengers were working mothers. The terrorists were all killed by an Israel Police counter-terrorism unit.

Fatah celebrated the attack this month, posting a video on Facebook, glorifying the terrorists as “heroes” who “demonstrated heroism and daring of the most spectacular kind.” The video was produced by Fatah’s Commission of Information and Culture and posted on the Commission’s Facebook page:

“The Dimona operation (i.e., terror attack, 3 murdered), March 7, 1988

- On March 7, 1988, three heroes demonstrated heroism and daring of the most spectacular kind

- Planned by Martyr commander Abu Jihad (i.e., arch-terrorist responsible of murder of at least 125), the Dimona operation was carried out

- The goal of the operation was the release of the Palestinian prisoners from the Israeli prisons

- The three who carried it out –commander Martyr Kallab, Martyr Saleh, and Martyr Al-Husseini –

set out to the [nuclear] reactor in Dimona in the Negev desert, which is surrounded by the most complicated security measures

- The heroes broke through an Israeli check point and took control of a bus transporting officers (sic.) and workers to the reactor

- On the way, attack helicopters stopped them and an unequal battle between them and the occupation soldiers broke out

- The self-sacrificing fighters succeeded in killing 3 soldiers and a woman (sic., 3 civilian hostages) before they died as Martyrs

- The bodies of the three Martyrs are still being held by the occupation in the numbered cemeteries (i.e., Israeli cemeteries for temporary burial of terrorists)

Al-Asifa Fatah - the Palestinian National Liberation Movement

[Fatah] Commission of Information and Culture; the southern districts.

[Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, March 7, 2022]

Last year, Palestinian Media Watch exposed that the Fatah commission glorified the attack as “the greatest heroic slaughter, which even the biggest states in the world would not have been brave [enough] to carry out or think [of doing].” Also then, Facebook served Fatah as the tool to disseminate the message that the killing of two Israeli women and a man on their way to work was “heroic.”

PMW has stressed the problematic relationship between Fatah and Facebook numerous times over the last few years. Facebook willingly lets Fatah post images and texts that glorify terror and murder of Israelis. Following a complaint by PMW, Israeli Police opened a criminal investigation against Facebook Israel for terror incitement. At the time of writing the Police has not yet presented any conclusions from their investigation.

Text identical to the video text was posted on Facebook:

Posted text on Facebook page: “The 34th anniversary of the Dimona operation (i.e., Mothers’ Bus attack, 3 murdered), which was planned by Martyr Khalil Al-Wazir ‘Abu Jihad’ (i.e., terrorist, responsible for murder of 125)

- On March 7, 1988, three heroes demonstrated heroism and daring of the most spectacular kind

- Planned by Martyr commander Khalil Al-Wazir ‘Abu Jihad,’ the Dimona operation was carried out

- The goal of the operation was the release of the Palestinian prisoners from the Israeli prisons

- The three who carried out the operation – operation commander Martyr Abdallah Abd Al-Majid Kallab, Martyr Muhammad Khalil Saleh [Al-Khanafi], and Martyr Muhammad Abd Al-Qader Muhammad Al-Husseini [Issa] – set out

- They set out to the [nuclear] reactor in Dimona in the Negev desert, which is surrounded by the most complicated security measures

- The heroes broke through an Israeli check point and took control of a bus that was transporting officers (sic.) and workers to the reactor

- On the way, attack helicopters stopped them and an unequal battle between them and the occupation soldiers broke out

- The self-sacrificing fighters succeeded in killing three soldiers and a woman (sic., 3 civilian hostages, 2 of them women and 1 a man) before they died as Martyrs

- The bodies of the three Martyrs are still being held by the occupation in the numbered cemeteries (i.e., Israeli cemeteries for temporary burial of terrorists)

- This operation was the main reason for the Israeli Cabinet deciding to assassinate Abu Jihad”

Mothers’ Bus attack – 3 Israelis – Miriam Ben-Yair, Rina Shiratzky, and Victor Ram – were murdered when the bus they were on that was carrying workers to the Negev Nuclear Research Center in Dimona was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists Muhammad Abd Al-Qader Muhammad Issa, Muhammad Khalil Saleh Al-Khanafi, and Abdallah Abd Al-Majid Muhammad Kallab on March 7, 1988. The attack is referred to as the Mothers' Bus attack because many of the passengers were working mothers. The terrorists were all killed by an Israel Police counter-terrorism unit.

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 also planned many deadly Fatah terror attacks in the 1960’s - 1980’s. These attacks, in which a total of 125 Israelis were murdered, included the most lethal in Israeli history - the hijacking of a bus and murder of 37 civilians, 12 of them children.

The Cemeteries for Enemy Casualties (numbered cemeteries) are two burial sites maintained by the Israeli army for burying the bodies of enemy soldiers during wartime as well as terrorists. They are fenced and well-marked. Graves have markers instead of gravestones. Burial is temporary, as the bodies are eventually returned to their countries of origin. No ceremony is held. The bodies are buried in numbered caskets after their identities are documented.