Michael de Laine

By Michael de Laine, the Copenhagen Voice, 27 May 2010

Some people call them terrorists, others call them freedom-fighters. The Palestinians name schools, streets and sporting events after people they consider to be role models in an effort to undermine the chances of peace with Israel, claims Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), an Israeli non-government organisation (NGO) that studies Palestinian society from a broad range of perspectives by monitoring and analysing the Palestinian Authority through its media and schoolbooks.

PMW’s major focus is on the messages that the Palestinian leaders, from the Palestinian Authority (PA), Fatah and Hamas, send to the population through the broad range of institutions and infrastructures they control.

In a new report, “From Terrorists to Role Models: The Palestinian Authority’s

Institutionalization of Incitement”, PMW documents how the Palestinian Authority has named numerous locations and events after Palestinian terrorists responsible for killing Israeli civilians. Palestinian Media Watch says the report “documents the ongoing Palestinian Authority policy of glorifying terrorists through the naming of places and events after them, especially after those responsible for the most murderous attacks.

PMW investigates the breadth of this phenomenon and to what extent it continues in 2010.

The organisation also assesses whether this represents activities of a fringe group within society, or represents Palestinian Authority policy.

PMW notes that the Palestinian Authority’s naming of a square in Ramallah in March 2010 after the terrorist Dalal Mughrabi was not an isolated incident. It is one example among many of how the PA has institutionalized incitement by systematically turning terrorists into role models.

Dalal Mughrabi, whose 1978 bus hijacking killed 37 civilians, more Israelis than any other Palestinian terror attack, has been immortalized through the naming of numerous places and events, including: two elementary schools, a kindergarten, a computer centre, summer camps, football tournaments, a community centre, a sports team, a public square, a street, an election course, an adult education course, a university club, a dance troupe, a military unit, a dormitory in a youth centre, a TV quiz team and a graduation ceremony. And Mughrabi is just one example among many.

PMW has included 100 examples of places and events named after 46 different terrorists in its report in order to show the scope of the phenomenon. 26 of the examples have been reported in the Palestinian media in 2010.

“Terror glorification is highly visible in Palestinian society,” PMW states. “A Palestinian child can walk to school along a street named after the terrorist Abu Jihad, who planned a bus hijacking that killed 37, spend the day learning in a school named after Hamas founder Ahmad Yassin, in the afternoon play football in a tournament named after suicide terrorist Abd Al-Basset Odeh who killed 31, and end his day at a youth centre named after terrorist Abu Iyad, responsible for killing the 11 Olympic athletes in Munich.

“A young woman can join a university women’s club named Sisters of Dalal, after Dalal Mughrabi, attend a week at Al-Quds University honouring suicide bomb builder Yahya Ayyash, and participate in university rallies named after numerous terrorists.

“Honouring terrorists envelops and plays a significant part in defining the Palestinian world.”

The NGO claims that explicit and unmitigated rejection of terror on moral grounds is a basic condition for a sincere and lasting peace. Whereas the PA leadership has publicly committed to fight violence, this message can only be seen as insincere by their own people, when numerous terrorists who murdered Israelis are repeatedly glorified by the PA leadership even in 2010.

Indeed, there is no more fundamental statement of support for violence and terror than when the single act of intentionally targeting and killing Israeli civilians is enough to immortalize the name of the killer, PMW says.

If there is to be any chance for peace, the Palestinian leadership must convince their own people that terror is rejected — not merely because it is damaging to Palestinian interests in 2010, but because it is immoral and wrong at all times.

For peace to have a chance, terrorists must be ostracised as immoral outcasts, not immortalized as heroes and role models, Palestinian Media Watch says.