Walid Daqqa: From terrorist to PA’s role model and victim

• PLO senior official: “Daqqa (i.e., terrorist murderer) left behind a legacy of struggle and sacrifice that will serve as a source of inspiration for future generations”
• Palestinian Writers’ Union Secretary General: Walid Daqqa’s glorious heritage must be recorded and these acts of heroism must be studied
• PA TV: Walid Daqqa was a leader and intellectual whose ideas will never be buried

PA propaganda specializes in taking despicable perpetrators of terrorist acts and turning them into role models and victims at the same time. Palestinian Media Watch has reported about this phenomenon numerous times. Today’s Palestinian terrorist folk hero is Walid Daqqa, who died this week of cancer in prison while serving a life sentence for taking part in the kidnapping and brutal murder of Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984. Daqqa had been receiving treatment at an Israeli hospital.

As it has routinely done when imprisoned terrorists have died of illness, the PA is portraying Daqqa as having been executed by Israel despite his having received comprehensive medical treatment:

“The [PA] Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned the crime of executing cancer patient prisoner Walid Daqqa, 62, at the Assaf HaRofeh Hospital.”

[WAFA, official PA news agency, April 8, 2024]

Further attempting to paint Daqqa as a victim, the chairman of the Palestinian National Council, the PA-funded PLO legislative body, also accused Israel in an official PA publication of executing Daqqa and withholding medical treatment.

“This evening, Sunday [April 7, 2024, Palestinian] National Council Chairman Rawhi Fattouh held the occupation (i.e., Israeli) government fully responsible for the death as a Martyr of fighter Walid Daqqa. Fattouh said: ‘Walid Daqqa was executed through [medical] neglect and non-provision of medical treatment. The occupation authorities rejected the PA’s request to provide him with the treatment he required at specialized hospitals, in a clear violation of Article 4 of the [Third] Geneva Convention that protects captives (sic., Palestinian terrorists do not meet the definition of “prisoners of war” presented in that article).”

[WAFA, official PA news agency, April 7, 2024]

Libel on medical abuse of Palestinian prisoners

While the PLO Executive Committee’s Secretary General similarly accused Israel of medical negligence and of causing Daqqa’s “slow death,” he simultaneously advanced the narrative of the murderer being a role model who has left behind a legacy that would inspire future generations.

“Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Hussein Al-Sheikh mourned today freedom-fighter Walid Daqqa, who died in an Israeli prison today, after being exposed to the crime of medical negligence and the policy of deliberate slow death practiced by the Israeli Prison Service administration against Palestinian prisoners. He stressed that Israel ignores all international conventions, agreements, and human rights regarding prisoners, emphasizing in particular that it deprives them of their right to receive treatment. He considered it a full-fledged crime compounding the series of crimes of the Israeli occupation. He added that Daqqa left behind a legacy of struggle and sacrifice that will serve as a source of inspiration for future generations.”

[WAFA, official PA news agency, English edition, April 7, 2024]

The secretary general of the Palestinian Writers’ Union idolized Daqqa and other terrorist prisoners even further on official PA TV, suggesting that their heritage should be recorded and turned into educational material:

“In our meetings in South Africa with the [National Writers] Association of South Africa, we spoke about the suffering in the prisons, and particularly about Walid Daqqa…This glorious heritage needs to be written down…and turned into instructional material for…schools, training institutes, universities, and cinema. These acts of heroism must be studied.”

[Official PA TV, Palestinian Writers’ General Union Secretary-General Murad Al-Sudani, April 7, 2024]

Finally, in a program titled Giants of Endurance on official PA TV, the anchor heaped praise upon Daqqa, whom he described as a “leader and intellectual,” concluding that “the body may die, but the doctrine will never be buried.”

Indeed, the PA has been doing everything it can to ensure that the doctrine motivating these murderous terrorists never gets buried. The doctrine is alive and kicking in the PA, despite the talk and attempts at its superficial “revitalization.”