PA’s incitement to terror and murder continues

The incitement of the Palestinian Authority to murder Israelis takes many forms. In some instances, the incitement is clear and direct, such as when PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas called to take revenge for the death of three terrorists and “dish out to them [Israel] twice as much as we’ve received.” In other instances, the incitement is more complex and subtle, and takes the form of glorifying imprisoned terrorist murderers and inventing libels to blame Israel for their deaths.     

While the latter form of incitement is less direct, for the PA it is often sufficient in order to drive Palestinians to participate in terror, especially when the claim is made over and over and over again, ad nauseam.

This was the case with terrorist Muhammad Kabha, who cited the insidious PA incitement regarding the death of his imprisoned terrorist murderer friend, as his reasoning and motivation to murder Israeli Esther Horgen, on December 20, 2020.

Imprisoned terrorist murderer Nasser Abu Hmeid died on Dec. 20, 2022 after a year and a half long battle with lung cancer. He was serving 7 life sentences and 50 additional years in prison for his part in the murder of 7 Israeli civilians and the injury of many others in multiple terror attacks, during the 2000-2005 PA-instigated terror war. 

Following the same pattern of incitement that drove Kabha to murder Ester Horgen,  and as if they were quoting from a pre-prepared message sheet the PA, its officials and other Palestinians are again banging the same drum of incitement. According to the PA libel, Abu Hmeid died as a result of cancer, that was intentionally injected into his body, and was then left to die in his cell as part of a premeditated policy of medical negligence.

While the incitement was led, as Palestinian Media Watch already exposed, by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh, and their Fatah party, many others also joined the effort.   

PLO Executive Committee Secretary Hussein Al-Sheikh, who also serves as Head of the PLO Negotiations Affairs Department, Fatah Central Committee member, and Head of Civil Affairs in the PA combined the “medical neglect” libel with praise for the terrorist, whose body he said should be returned to his family to “honor him as is fitting for a Martyr,” and for his extended family:

For a long time we have been investing great efforts on the regional and international level to release Nasser Abu Hmeid, who was subjected to deliberate and planned medical neglect. What interests us now is that we sent a direct request to hand over his body to his family, his friends, and his people, so that they will honor him as is fitting for a Martyr and fitting for his family, the fighting family, which all words are dumbstruck before the greatness of this family and this mother.”

[Official PA TV News, Dec. 20, 2022]

Abu Hmeid’s family, especially the mother of the family Latifa Abu Hmeid, who is also known as Um Nasser Abu Hmeid, enjoys a special status in the PA since 6 of their children actively participated in terror and murdering Israelis. Prior to Nasser Abu Hemid’s death, the family claimed one “Martyr” - i.e. a dead terrorist - and 5 sons serving life sentences for murder. In recognition of her terrorist children, as PMW exposed, Abbas even asked Latifa Abu Hmeid to symbolically lead the PA’s effort to gain full state membership in the UN. 

The PA Ministry of Education Spokesperson Sadeq Al-Khadour, said that the PA school activities to express their loyalty to another terrorist murderer, Karim Younes, were being turned “into an activity of mourning” for Abu Hmeid who died due to “medical neglect” and said that the segments read out on the school loudspeakers would be dedicated to him. This, as part of what Al-Khadour described as the PA Ministry of Educations efforts “of instilling values in the hearts of our children”: 

PA Ministry of Education Spokesperson Sadeq Al-Khadour: “We are now in an activity to express loyalty to Karim Younes, as part of the project ‘40,000 letters.’ The activity has also turned into an activity of mourning over the death of late prisoner Nasser Abu Hmeid, who died due to the policy of medical neglect. Today [Dec. 20, 2022] the [PA] Ministry of Education is expressing its loyalty [to Abu Hmeid], mourning the death of the late Martyr and all the Martyrs, and standing alongside our prisoners. We emphasize that we will continue the policy of instilling values in the hearts of our children. We announced that the segments that will be read out on the school loudspeakers tomorrow will be dedicated to late prisoner Nasser Abu Hmeid and the suffering of the sick prisoners in the occupation’s prisons.”

[Official PA TV, Dec. 20, 2022]

The General Supervisor of the Official PA Media Ahmad Assaf, who holds the rank of PA minister and also serves as Chairman of the Board of the PA news agency WAFA and General Supervisor of Fatah-run Awdah TV, followed the messaging dictate, claiming that with Abu Hmeid’s death, “Palestine has lost a fighter who dedicated his life to defending Palestine and its people” and that the crime of his “assassination,” joined the list of Israel’s crimes:

“General Supervisor of the Official [PA] Media [with the rank of] minister Ahmad Assaf emphasized that with the death as a Martyr of prisoner commander Nasser Abu Hmeid, 50, Palestine has lost a fighter who dedicated his life to defending Palestine and its people.

During his visit to the home of Martyr Abu Hmeid’s family, Assaf said that the crime of his assassination joins the list of the occupation’s crimes…”

[WAFA, official PA news agency, Dec. 20, 2022]

An editorial in the official PA daily described the death of terrorist Abu Hmeid as a “knight” dismounting his noble steed after a “confrontation with the forces of evil” who died as the result of a “racist policy, that has turned medical neglect of prisoners” into a means of harming the terrorist prisoners:

“No knight dismounts his noble steed except after spending an extended period in confrontation with the forces of evil and aggression in his defense of justice, good, freedom, honor, and peace. This is Nasser Abu Hmeid, who dismounted his noble steed yesterday [Dec. 20, 2022], after spending an extended period in confrontation with the Israeli prison guard, the representative of evil and aggression – an extended period of resolve and resistance to the prison guard, his arbitrary measures, and his racist policy, that has turned medical neglect of prisoners into a means of harming the resolve of their free willpower …

He dismounted, but he ascended to the heavens in the Paradise of Almighty and All Merciful [Allah], together with the friends [of Allah] and the righteous. He dismounted with his body, but he remains a story that will be told, a role model, and a promise, a commitment and an oath that will not be forgotten.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 21, 2022]

An op-ed by Lebanese journalist, Hala Salameh, published in the official PA daily similarly referred to Abu Hmeid as a “knight” who had been “murdered” after he was “unjustly” arrested:

“Nasser Abu Hmeid is one of the stories of the knights of Palestine. Through his vigor and his body, he set out against the occupation’s hate and hostility…

The prison guard’s oppression spread like cancer in his gaunt body, which entered a coma several times and stopped responding to treatment…

The occupation murdered Nasser Abu Hmeid through a series of crimes, which ended with his death as a Martyr. He was unjustly arrested by it many times on charges of defending his land, and was given 7 life sentences.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 21, 2022]

The official PA daily also carried an image of an angel lifting the body of Abu Hmeid from his death bed but unable to take his body, ostensibly referring to the Israeli decision to not hand his body over to the PA and his family. As PMW has shown, the burial processions of terrorists often turn into events filled with terror glorification and incitement.

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 21, 2022]

The Deputy Director-General of the PA funded PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Abd Al-‘Al Al-Anani embellished the libel even more claiming that Israel uses the prisoners for experiments, and allows doctors and nurses in training to treat them. These, according to the claim of Al-Anani  contribute to the “wide spread of cancerous growths among the prisoners”:

“Unfortunately, the world does not know that the occupation is doing experiments with medicines on the bodies of the prisoners. Also doctors and nurses in training take turns treating the prisoners. This is what explains the wide spread of cancerous growths among the prisoners in the occupation’s prisons. Other than Nasser [Abu Hmeid] there are 26 prisoners who were officially diagnosed by Israeli doctors as cancer patients.”

[Official PA TV, Dec. 20, 2022]

Bassem Barhoum, a regular columnist for the official PA daily, also made his contribution. According to Barhoum Abu Hmeid was a “model of resolve and heroism” who was “deliberately assassinated” and “left to die” not wanting to ask for a pardon.

“During the arbitrary and violent imprisonment, the Israeli occupation state slowly and deliberately assassinated prisoner Nasser Abu Hmeid and left him to die in his cell from an incurable disease…
Nasser Abu Hmeid is a model of resolve and heroism. He chose to die with his head held high as a Martyr in the occupation’s detention facilities from his severe and painful disease, and not to ask pardon from the occupation state’s prime minister (sic., president). He rejected the principle of humiliation and concession, and presented a Palestinian national example of uprightness…”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 21, 2022]

Ramallah and El-Bireh District Governor Laila Ghannam  added:

“What happened is an assassination and slow murder, and not [medical] neglect.”

[WAFA, official PA news agency, Dec. 20, 2022]

PA Supreme Shari’ah Judge and Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, who recently referred to Jews as “grazing herds of humanoids… apes and pigs” added his contribution. According to Al-Habbash, Israel “maliciously and deliberately” assassinated Abu Hmeid, “through the policy of deliberate medical neglect, ‘slow murder’”. Accordingly, Al-Habbash added, that Abu Hmeid’s death was a “full-fledged war crime” which warranted establishing an “international investigative committee”.

“[PA] Supreme Shari’ah Judge of Palestine and [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas’] Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Sheikh Mahmoud Al-Habbash said that the occupation state decided to maliciously and deliberately assassinate Martyr prisoner Nasser Abu Hmeid, 50, from the Al-Amari refugee camp, and this was through the policy of deliberate medical neglect, ‘slow murder,’ which is being implemented by the occupation’s Israeli Prison Service against the sick prisoners.

In a press release, Al-Habbash said that this crime is a full-fledged war crime and organized state terror, which is being managed by the occupation government against our prisoners and our fighters who are behind bars. This is as punishment, and only because they seek freedom, strive for this, and pay its price with their blood, their souls, and their best years…

He demanded to establish an international investigative committee against the policy of deliberate medical neglect that is being implemented by the occupation government against our prisoners, and to impose deterrent sanctions on it because it is violating all the international conventions that emphasize the right to life and our people’s right to wage its legitimate struggle for freedom and liberation from the occupation.

Al-Habbash expressed condolences to the members of our Palestinian people whoever and wherever they are, to the Martyr’s family, to his brothers who are behind prison bars, and to his Jihad fighting mother who is standing firm, Um Nasser [Abu Hmeid] (i.e., mother of terrorists responsible for at least 10 murders; see note below), who has been and will remain one of the symbols of our ongoing struggle.”

[Ma’an, independent Palestinian news agency, Dec. 20, 2022]

The PA Minister of Justice Muhammad Shalaldeh claimed that Abu Hmeid’s death – the death of a terrorist responsible for multiple murders - was “a crime against humanity” and breached international law:

“First of all, regarding Martyr Nasser Abu Hmeid (i.e., terrorist, responsible for murder of 7) who died as a Martyr today [Dec. 20, 2022] as a result of deliberate medical neglect by the occupying power, this is considered a crime against humanity and a war crime according to the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions, Protocol I of 1977 [to the Geneva Conventions], and the International Criminal Court regulations (sic., see note below regarding PA libel on medical abuse of Palestinian prisoners).”

[Official PA TV, Dec. 20, 2022]

The PA Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad Al-Malki continued the line of using Abu Hmeid’s death, due to “medical neglect”, to attack Israel, saying that his ministry would “work to submit prisoner Martyr Nasser Abu Hmeid’s case to the International Criminal Court”:

“[PA] Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad Al-Malki … emphasized that the ministry will work to submit prisoner Martyr Nasser Abu Hmeid’s case to the International Criminal Court.

The minister of foreign affairs and expatriates held the occupation authorities and their various arms fully and directly responsible for the crime of medical neglect that caused his death as a Martyr. [He also held them responsible] for their refusal of all the international and regional demands, calls, and positions, which called for his immediate release so that he would be able to receive the necessary treatments outside of the prisons…

Al-Malki said that Martyr Nasser Abu Hmeid is not just a victim of the occupation, its injustice, and its persecution, but also a victim of the international policy of double standards.”

[WAFA, official PA news agency, Dec. 20, 2022]