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Fatah football tournament teams named after numerous terrorists

Headline: "Under the auspices of the President [Yasser Arafat], the football championship Martyrs (Shahids) of the Journey of the Struggle for institutions will commence on Friday [Sept. 26, 2003]"
    “The games between the teams participating in the Martyrs of the Journey of the National Palestinian Struggle Championship will take place on the sports fields in Jericho. The championship is organized by the workers’ committee of the Al-Quds cigarette company under the auspices of President Yasser Arafat… 24 teams are participating in the championship. Each team is named after one of the Martyrs:”

PMW note: The following is an excerpt of the list of the 24 different PA institutions and private companies participating in the championship and the names of their teams. Thirteen of the teams were named after terrorists and are translated here:

1. Association of Trade Unions in Jericho – Martyr Abu Ali Iyad
2. Association of the Youth of Struggle in Ramallah – Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa
3. …
4. [Workers of the] Terminals and Borders – Martyr Jamal Mansour,
5. The Orient House of Jerusalem – Martyr [Ali] Hassan Salameh,
6. Al-Arz ice cream company – Martyr [Abu Jihad] Khalil Al-Wazir,
7. Al-Ayyam (newspaper) – Martyr Thabet Thabet
8. Akram Sbitani Electronics company –Martyr Raed Al-Karmi
9…
10. Jericho mineral water company – Martyr Salah Khalaf
11. …
12. …
13. Sunqurt food product company – Martyr Izz A-Din Al-Qassam
14. ...
15. Awis metal products company– Martyr Omar Al-Qassem
16. …
17. …
18. …
19. Health Services of Jericho – Martyr Kamal Adwan
20. …
21. …
22. [PA] Ministry of Transport in Ramallah – Martyr Dalal Mughrabi
23. [PA] Ministry of Communication in Ramallah – Martyr Yahya Ayyash
24. …"

The following are the members of the championship's higher committee who also hold positions within the PA:

1. "Dr. Saeb Erekat, representative of the President – Chairman,
2. Jibril Rajoub, National Security Advisor to the President [Yasser Arafat],
3. Alaa Husni, commander of police in the West Bank districts
4. Abd Al-Fattah Hamayel, Minister of Youth and Sports,
5. Jamil Othman Nasser, Governor of Jerusalem district
6. Tareq Zaki, Chairman of the Charity Association for the Children of Martyrs
7. Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, [Grand] Mufti of the Holy Land
8. Dr. Atallah Hanna, spokesman of the Orthodox church.
9. Abd Al-Karim Sidr, Mayor of Jericho"

Abu Ali Iyad - was appointed head of Fatah military operations in 1966 and was responsible for several terror attacks. The attacks included a bombing in the town of Beit Yosef in northern Israel on April 25, 1966 (injuring 3 people), and placing bombs in the town of Margaliot in northern Israel on July 19, 1966. He was killed in 1971 in Jordan by the Jordanian army when it forced Fatah members out of the country.

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).

Jamal Mansour was a Hamas leader in Nablus. He was imprisoned in Israel during the 1987-1991 Palestinian wave of violence and terror against Israel (the first Intifada), and was one of the senior Hamas leaders who was exiled to Lebanon by the Israeli government in 1992 and let to return in 1993. Mansour was considered the head of Hamas’ politburo in the West Bank. He was arrested twice by the PA, in 1996 and from 1997-2000. Mansour was killed by the Israeli army in the first year of the 2000-2005 PA terror campaign (the second Intifada) when rockets were fired at his office on July 31, 2001.

Ali Hassan Salameh was commander of operations of the Black September terror group. He planned many terror attacks, including the attack on the Israeli team at the Munich Olympics in 1972, in which 11 Israeli athletes were murdered.

Abu Jihad (Khalil Al-Wazir) 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.

Thabet Thabet was one of the founders of Tanzim (Fatah terror faction) in Tulkarem. Thabet was responsible for many shooting attacks against Israelis at the start of the 2000-2005 PA terror campaign (the second Intifada). Thabet was killed by the Israeli army on Dec. 31, 2000.

Raed Al-Karmi – was a senior Tanzim (Fatah terror faction) operative and responsible for the murder of 9 Israelis in several attacks: Etgar Zeituni and Motti Dayan on Jan. 23, 2001; Zvi Shelef on May 31, 2001; Danny Yehuda on June 18, 2001; Elie Na’aman on July 4, 2001; Dov Roseman on Aug. 26, 2001; Hananya Ben Avraham on Oct. 5, 2001; soldier Yaniv Levy on Aug. 28, 2001 and Israeli army officer Erez Merhavi on Sept. 6, 2001. Al-Karmi was killed by the Israeli army on Jan. 14, 2002.

Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad) - One of the founders of Fatah and head of the terror organization Black September. Attacks he planned include the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics (Sept. 5, 1972) and the murder of two American diplomats in Sudan (March 1, 1973). It is commonly assumed that his assassin, a former Fatah bodyguard, was sent by the Abu Nidal Organization, a rival Palestinian faction.

Sheikh Izz A-Din Al-Qassam was an influential Islamic preacher in British Mandate Palestine during the 1930s. He led a Muslim terror group. The Hamas terror wing is named after him – the Izz A-Din Al-Qassam Brigades.

Omar Al-Qassem led a terror squad that crossed the Jordan River into Israel to carry out a terror attack in 1968. Caught by Israeli soldiers, the squad killed two soldiers.

Kamal Adwan was responsible for Fatah’s terrorist operations in Israel in the 1960s and early ‘70s and was a senior member of Black September. He was killed by Israeli forces in April 1973.

Dalal Mughrabi led the most lethal terror attack in Israel’s history, known as the Coastal Road massacre, in 1978, when she and other Fatah terrorists hijacked a bus on Israel's Coastal Highway, killing 37 civilians, 12 of them children, and wounding over 70.

Yahya Ayyash - First Hamas bomb-maker and leader of the of Hamas’ Izz A-Din Al-Qassam Brigades in the West Bank, is considered the initiator of Palestinian suicide bombings. He built the bombs used in many terror attacks, including the Mehola Junction bombing (2 killed, 9 injured, April 16, 1993), the Afula bus bombing (8 killed, 55 injured, April 6, 1994), the Hadera central station bombing (6 killed, 30 injured, April 13, 1994), the Tel Aviv bus 5 bombing (22 killed, 47 injured, Oct. 19, 1994), the Ramat Gan bus bombing (6 killed, 33 wounded, July 24, 1995), the Ramat Eshkol bus bombing (5 killed, over 100 injured, Aug. 21, 1995), and the Bet Lid bombing (22 killed, 66 injured, Jan. 22, 1995). He was killed by Israeli security forces on Jan. 5, 1996.

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