Palestinian sports teams named after terrorists
Teams named after Rabbi Glick’s shooter and terrorists
Abu Jihad, Khaled Nazzal and Abu Ali Mustafa
participate in Palestinian football championship
Terrorists responsible for the murders
of more than 150 people
Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
During the month of Ramadan, Palestinian youth will be playing a football tournament in the Palestinian town Abu Dis, east of Jerusalem. Some of the participants will be playing on teams named after terrorists who have killed numerous Israeli civilians. This is Palestinian role modeling for kids.
The following teams are named after terrorists:
“TheMartyr Abu Jihad team” (Abu Jihad responsible for deaths of 125)
“TheMartyr Khaled Nazzal team” (Nazzal responsible for Ma’alot massacre, 22 schoolchildren and 5 adults killed)
“TheMartyr Abu Ali Mustafa” (Ali Mustafa responsible for many terror attacks)
“The Mutaz Hijazi team” (Shot and attempted to murder Rabbi Glick in November 2014)
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 23, 2015]
(See information of terrorists below)
Presenting murderous terrorists as heroes to children by naming sporting tournaments after them is a long-standing policy of the Palestinian Authority and Fatah, as documented numerous times by Palestinian Media Watch. This practice continues unabated despite the PA’s pledges to cease incitement.
Recently, Fatah and the PLO organized a tournament named after two terrorists who planned and carried out some of the most lethal terror attacks in Israel's history: “The Martyr Raed Al-Karmi and Martyr Dalal Mughrabi Tournament.” Raed Al-Karmi was responsible for the murder of 9 Israelis from 2001-2002 and Dalal Mughrabi led the killing of 37 in 1978.
Last month, Fatah and PLO also honored two terrorists serving life sentences for murder with a table tennis tournament and Fatah was the patron of a chess tournamentthat venerated yet another terrorist.
The Abu Dis Youth Club which hosts the current tournament also held a tournament in 2010 named after Abu Jihad under the auspices of Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatahmovement.
Abu Jihad was a founder of Fatah and deputy to Yasser Arafat. He headed the PLO terror organization's military wing and also planned many deadly Fatah terror attacks. These attacks, which killed a total of 125 Israelis, included the most lethal in Israeli history - the hijacking of a bus and killing of 37 civilians, 12 of them children.
Khaled Nazzal - Secretary of the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), and commander of its military branch. He was responsible for the Ma’alot massacre in which 22 schoolchildren and 5 adults were killed (May 15, 1974).
Abu Ali Mustafa - Secretary-General of the terror organization “Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine” (PFLP). The PFLP, which rejected the Oslo Accords (1993), has planned and carried out numerous terror attacks against Israeli civilians since its founding in 1967 and throughout the Palestinian terror campaign between 2000-2005 (the Intifada).
Mutaz Hijazi - Islamic Jihad member and released prisoner from Jerusalem who attempted to assassinate Rabbi Yehuda Glick, a prominent activist working to assure rights for Jews to visit and pray on the Temple Mount, on Oct. 29, 2014. The assassination attempt took place following a conference on establishing times and places for Jews to pray on the Temple Mount. Glick was seriously wounded in the attack; Hijazi was killed soon afterwards when he opened fire on an Israeli police force that was attempting to arrest him.
Click to see more examples of PA and Fatah using sports as a vehicle to present murderers as heroes to children and youth.
The following is a longer excerpt of the report in the official PA daily, mentioning the teams named after terrorists in the Abu Dis Youth Club championship:
Headline: “Continuation of Ramadan football championship in Abu Dis”
“The Abu Dis Youth Club and the organizing committee arranged the sixth Ramadan Abu Dis Championship, which takes place on the grass field of the Abu Dis Club starting in the month of Ramadan, immediately after evening prayers. The sports teams of Abu Dis, Al-Eizariya, Al-Sawahrah Al-Sharqiya, Jabel Mukaber, Sheikh Sa’ad, and Jerusalem are participating in this year’s championship...
This year, as usual, 32 teams participated, bearing the names of Martyrs (Shahids), prisoners, villages [from which Palestinians were] deported, and Palestinian regions. The participating teams were divided into eight groups, so that each group included four teams. The draw and division of the teams was as follows:
...
The second group: Alam Al-Takyif team (“The World of Air conditioning” - the name of a company - Ed.), Martyr Abu Jihad team, prisoner Khader Adnan team, Al-Hutta team (Al-Hutta is one of the gates of the Al-Aqsa Mosque -Ed.).
...
The fifth group: Return team, Martyr Khaled Nazzal team, The Night Horsemen (The Night Horsemen is an Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades unit -Ed.) team, Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa.
...
The seventh group: Qastel team, Ashkelon team, Martyr Abu Amar [Yasser Arafat] team, Mutaz Hijazi team.”
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 23, 2015]