Terrorist prisoners are “symbols of honour, heroism, and pride,” declares PLO official

Headline: “Director of [PLO] Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs: Mansour Abbas’ statements on the prisoners are embarrassing and shameful”

“Today, Friday [Feb. 5, 2021], Director of [PLO] Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr condemned the statements made by Israeli Arab Parliament Member Mansour Abbas, who described the Palestinian prisoners as ‘terrorists’ (see note below -Ed.).

Abu Bakr said that the statements that Mansour Abbas made yesterday, Thursday, during an interview with Israeli [TV] Channel 12 regarding our heroic prisoners in the occupation’s prison were embarrassing and shameful statements that represent him alone.

In a statement, a copy of which reached [the independent Palestinian news agency] Donia Al-Watan, Abu Bakr added: ‘Mansour should be ashamed of himself and this statement. He must examine history and know well that the path to liberating Jerusalem is paved only by the sacrifices of our pure-hearted Martyrs, the years of the lives of our brave prisoners, the pains of our heroic wounded, and the suffering of the uprooted and expelled in the refugee camps and in the diaspora. They are nothing but symbols of honor, heroism, and pride.’”

The mention of statements by Israeli Arab Parliament Member Mansour Abbas refers to an interview he gave to Israeli TV Channel 12 on Feb. 4, 2021, in which he said: “Placing me as a terror supporter or embracer of terrorists – that never was. Whoever published that I visited the prison and met with terrorists and embraced them – that never happened.”