PA, make up your mind: Was dead teen an innocent “Martyr” or heroic “Jihad fighter”?
- PA calls death of teen terrorist from explosives he held an “assassination,” while Fatah calls him a “Jihad fighter”
- PA official: Boy’s death was a manifestation of Israeli soldiers’ “desire for murder”
- PA official: Israeli soldiers “receive orders from the political echelon to kill as many Palestinians as possible”
On the occasion of the UN's World Children's Day yesterday, here's a story about a Palestinian child:
Two weeks ago, a Palestinian boy died when explosives he attempted to use to attack Israeli civilians exploded prematurely. He was only 15 years old.
Now his death serves two contradictory PA messages:
- His death is used to repeat the PA libel that Israeli soldiers deliberately target and murder Palestinians, particularly innocent children.
- His death is used to glorify him as a “Jihad fighter” - a teen “Martyr” - to encourage more Palestinian teen-terror and Martyrdom-death.
Responding to “the death as a Martyr of young 15-year-old Mahdi Hashash,” Chairman of the Palestinian legislature (Palestinian National Council) Rawhi Fattouh repeated the PA libel, saying the boy’s death was a manifestation of Israeli soldiers’ “desire for murder”:
“The occupation’s crimes and assassinations, whose pace is increasing, express the desire for murder and crime among its forces, which receive orders from the political echelon to kill as many Palestinians as possible and to cause damage to their property.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 10, 2022]
On the other hand, Hashash’s death – and the terror he was involved in when he died - are described as heroic “resistance.” Calling Hashash “our Jihad fighter Martyr,” Fatah’s military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, emphasized that “the blood of the Martyrs” – like the blood of the 15-year-old – will “illuminate the path of honor, resistance, and liberation”:
“The Al-Aqsa [Martyrs’] Brigades said: ‘While announcing the death of our Jihad fighter Martyr, we emphasize that the blood of the Martyrs will continue to illuminate the path of honor, the path of resistance, and the path of liberation of the land and holy sites for the Jihad fighters and for the resistance members.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 10, 2022]
Yesterday, on the UN's World Children's Day Palestinian Media Watch released a report exposing how and why the PA causes the death of Palestinian kids. PMW has documented both the PA’s nurturing of teen terrorists and has called on international leaders to stop this PA child abuse, as well as the PA libel that Israel targets Palestinian children.
The following are longer excerpts of the reports cite above:
Headline: “The new Israeli Parliament members from the Israeli right-wing are recording their presence in the list of murders!”
“At midnight on Tuesday [Nov. 8, 2022], military vehicles of the occupation infiltrated Nablus and opened fire in every direction (sic., refers to Palestinian terrorists shooting at a guarded convoy of eight Israeli Parliament members visiting Joseph’s Tomb as it was leaving). Inside these vehicles were armed soldiers, and next to them were Israeli Parliament members from the extremist right-wing parties. Their goal was Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, as part of a political invasion with which the new Israeli Parliament members from the Israeli right-wing wanted to record their presence in the list of murders…
While the Israeli Parliament members made political and religious prayers inside the tomb, photographed each other, and published the pictures on the social media platforms of the settler militias, the occupation soldiers invaded a number of neighborhoods in Nablus and the Balata refugee camp. They fired at enraged young people who resisted the invasion with rocks and empty bottles (sic., terrorists shot at the convoy). As a result of this, three civilians were wounded by live gunfire, and approximately 60 were wounded by inhaling tear gas. Later on, medical teams announced the death as a Martyr of young Mahdi Hashash (i.e., terrorist, attempted to use explosives against the convoy but they exploded prematurely, killing him)…
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades (i.e., Fatah’s military wing) and the Balata Brigade (i.e., independent terror cell) eulogized him, and said that Hashash died as a Martyr during armed confrontation with the occupation forces that invaded the refugee camp.
In a statement, the Al-Aqsa [Martyrs’] Brigades said: ‘While announcing the death of our Jihad fighter Martyr, we emphasize that the blood of the Martyrs will continue to illuminate the path of honor, the path of resistance, and the path of liberation of the land and holy sites for the Jihad fighters and for the resistance members.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 10, 2022]
Headline: “The chairman of the [Palestinian] National Council condemns the occupation’s crime in Nablus”
“Chairman of the [Palestinian] National Council (i.e., the legislative body of the PLO) Rawhi Fattouh condemned the crime that the occupation army committed yesterday [Nov. 9, 2022] in the area of Joseph’s Tomb in eastern Nablus (sic., refers to soldiers returning fire after Palestinian terrorists shot at a convoy of Israeli Parliament members they were guarding), which caused the death as a Martyr of young 15-year-old Mahdi Hashash (i.e., terrorist, attempted to use explosives against the convoy but they exploded prematurely, killing him) and the wounding of others.
In a press release, Fattouh said that the occupation’s crimes and assassinations, whose pace is increasing, express the desire for murder and crime among its forces,which receive orders from the political echelon to kill as many Palestinians as possible and to cause damage to their property.
He added that our people will respond to these crimes with more resolve, resistance, and defense of our land, our honor, and our Palestinian identity.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 10, 2022]
Rawhi Fattouh also serves as Fatah Commissioner of International Relations and Fatah Central Committee member.