PA continues to celebrate the most heinous murderers who participated in the 1929 Arab massacre of the Jews
Today, the 18th of the Hebrew month of Av, is the anniversary of the 1929 Arab massacre of 67 Jews in Hebron. While the massacre started in Hebron, rampaging Arabs also murdered Jews in Jerusalem and Safed. In total, in the course of just one week, Arabs murdered 130 Jews.
Of the many participants in the massacre, three murderers, who “committed particularly brutal murders [of Jews] at Safed and Hebron,” according to the report by the British Government to the League of Nations (Dec. 31, 1930), were singled out by the British authorities and hung for their actions.
While the massacre took place 65 years before its creation, the Palestinian Authority has adopted the three murderers as Palestinian heroes and role models, and it marks the day of their hanging, using it as an opportunity to glorify their killings every year.
This year is no different, and the PA published numerous items in its official PA press honoring the killers. Referring to them as “fighters” and “Martyrs” the PA official daily intertwined the glorification of the murderers with the modern-day PA policy prohibiting the sale of land to Jews:
“Yesterday, June 17 [2022], was the 92nd anniversary of the execution of the three fighters Muhammad Jamjoum, Fuad Hijazi, and Ataa Al-Zir (i.e., the murderers) by the British Mandate authorities…
The three Martyrs wrote a letter the day before the execution which said: ‘…We have willingly sacrificed our souls and skulls so they will be foundations for building our nation’s independence and freedom, so that the nation will continue to be united and carrying out jihad in order to remove the enemies from Palestine and so that we will protect its land and not sell even one inch of it to the enemies.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 18, 2022]
The article was accompanied with an image of three cards hanging from nooses with “Muhammad Jamjoum,” “Fuad Hijazi,” and “Ataa Al-Zir” written on them. The text at bottom of the cards reads: “The Martyrs of the Al-Buraq Rebellion (i.e., the PA name for the massacre and accompanying riots) June 17, 1930”
PA TV marked the hanging of the murderers by running a number of special fillers. One filler shows an artist creating an image of murderers Muhammad Jamjoum, Fuad Hijazi, and Ataa Al-Zir, while part of the song “From Acre Prison”, in which murderer Ataa Al-Zir is referred to as “the distinguished person,” is played in the background.
Lyrics: “Muhammad Jamjoum, Ataa Al-Zir, and Fuad Hijazi, the power of ammunition,
Look at the one going first, the distinguished person,
They are executing us on verdicts of the oppressor.”
Text on screen: “The homeland will never forget its revolutionaries. Ataa Al-Zir.”[Official PA TV, June 17, 2022]
On a previous occasion PA TV emphasized the importance of the song glorifying these three murderers, saying that it is a “basic part of our culture” and an expression of the Palestinian “national identity”. Using the song to glorify them, the PA presenter added that the chorus expresses pride in the murderers – who he calls the “noble heroes of Palestine”:
Official PA TV narrator: “Because songs are a basic part of our culture and they express our national identity… and because these songs are present in our consciousness and still fascinate us with values and meanings… It’s here: ‘The Tune of the Homeland.’
Lyrics:
From Acre Prison went forth the funeral of Muhammad Jamjoum and Fuad Hijazi.
Take revenge for them, my people
Official PA TV narrator: This is the chorus of the pain and suffering from the torture of prison… which expresses the pride of the young ones who presented the most wondrous things in the pages of the [history of the] struggle against the invading occupiers. They are the noble heroes of Palestine – Martyrs Muhammad Jamjoum, Ataa Al-Zir, and Fuad Hijazi... Our poet was witness to the three becoming Martyrs, and his talent provided the poem “The Ground Shook Under the Invaders’ Feet”:
“They were three heroes
Who competed with each other who would die first
Their feet rose above the hangman’s neck
They became an example, O my friend
Throughout the length and width of the land
And from Acre Prison went forth the funeral.”
[Official PA TV, The Tune of the Homeland, Jan. 15 (twice), 16 (three times), and 17 (twice), 18 (twice), 2021]
The second filler refers to the murderers declaring “Glory and eternity to our people’s pure Martyrs:
Text on screen: “Glory and eternity to our people’s pure Martyrs, the Martyrs of the Al-Buraq Rebellion (i.e., the 1929 Hebron Massacre and accompanying riots).”
[Official PA TV, June 17, 2022]
Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah also celebrated the murderers with a post on the official Facebook page of Fatah’s Commission of Information and Culture:
Posted text: “Ninety-two years since the execution of the heroes of the Al-Buraq Rebellion: Muhammad Jamjoum, Fuad Hijazi, and Ataa Al-Zir (i.e., murderers).
‘Three men who competed over death
And their feet rose above the hangman’s neck.’”
The image shows murderers Muhammad Jamjoum, Fuad Hijazi, and Ataa Al-Zir. In the upper left corner is the Fatah logo that includes a grenade, crossed rifles, and the PA map of “Palestine” that presents all of Israel together with the PA areas as “Palestine.”
Text on image: “The Martyrs of the Al-Buraq Rebellion
Martyr fighter Fuad Hijazi
Martyr fighter Muhammad Jamjoum
Martyr fighter Ataa Al-Zir
Three men who competed over death
And their feet rose above the hangman’s neck.”
[Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, June 17, 2022]
As Palestinian Media Watch has already exposed, this is not the first time the PA has glorified the 1929 murderers. Rather, the adoption and glorification of the murderers is an annual event.
The following is a longer excerpt of one of the articles mentioned above:
Headline: “Ninety-two years since the three red ones”
“Yesterday, June 17 [2022], was the 92nd anniversary of the execution of the three fighters Muhammad Jamjoum, Fuad Hijazi, and Ataa Al-Zir (i.e., murderers) by the British Mandate authorities…
The three Martyrs wrote a letter the day before the execution which said: ‘…We have willingly sacrificed our souls and skulls so they will be foundations for building our nation’s independence and freedom, so that the nation will continue to be united and carrying out jihad in order to remove the enemies from Palestine and so that we will protect its land and not sell even one inch of it to the enemies.’ …
Palestinian poet Ibrahim Touqan immortalized the three Martyrs in his poem ‘The Three Red Ones,’ which was sung by the Alashekeen band, and at its start it says: ‘Three men who competed over death, and their feet rose above the hangman’s neck.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 18, 2022]
Muhammad Jamjoum, Fuad Hijazi, and Ataa Al-Zir “committed particularly brutal murders [of Jews] at Safed and Hebron,” according to the report by the British Government to the League of Nations (Dec. 31, 1930), and were executed by hanging by the British in 1930. Jamjoum, Hijazi, and Al-Zir were convicted of attacking British soldiers and murdering Jews during the 1929 Arab Riots, known by Palestinians as the Al-Buraq Rebellion, which was a wave of Arab violence in late August 1929 following a Jewish protest at the Western Wall calling for national rights. In a week, 133 Jews were killed – mostly murdered in their homes by Arabs, including the Hebron Massacre in which 65 Jews were murdered in one day and the Safed Massacre in which 18 Jews were murdered in one day; 116 Arabs were also killed during the confrontations – mostly by British police trying to stop the riots. The British reported the cause of violence in the riots was “the Arab feeling of animosity and hostility towards the Jews” (1930 Shaw Commission Report).