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PA official newspaper Al-Jedidah: "The Shahid Alaa Abu D'heim"
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| By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook March 9, 2008 |
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Mahmoud Abbas's official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper has honored Alaa Abu D'heim, the killer of eight religious school students -- all but one a teenager -- gunned down this week in the library of Mercaz Harav yeshiva, with the status of Shahid (Holy Islamic Martyr).
In so doing, the PA is sending its people a straightforward message of support for the terror murders and the murderer. According to the PA interpretation of Islam, there is no higher status that a human being can achieve today than that of Shahid.
The official PA daily Al Hayat Al Jadida prominently placed a picture of the killer on the front page, with the caption, "The Shahid Alaa Abu D'heim." In a Page One article on the terror killings, his act is again defined as a "Shahada achieving" action.
This honoring of terror and terrorists by the PA may have significant financial ramifications, particularly at this time. Last week the US Administration sent a request to Congress to allocate $150 million to the Palestinian Authority. Cognizant of official Palestinian Authority support for terror in the past, Congress made it illegal for the US to give money to entities that "advocate" terror, as follows:
"[The US] shall terminate assistance to any individual, entity... which she has determined to be involved in or advocating terrorist activity." Congress further legislated that "none of the [US] ... assistance under the West Bank and Gaza Program may be made available for the purpose of recognizing or otherwise honoring individuals who commit, or have committed acts of terrorism."
[2008 Foreign Operations Bill Sec. 657.B - C.1]
Since a society's honoring of terrorists is one of the greatest terror promotions, and as the budget for the PA newspaper comes from the PA's general budget, the honoring of this and recent terrorists by Abbas's PA as Holy Islamic Shahids may render the Palestinian Authority ineligible to receive any American money under the terms of US law.
The authors are co-directors of Palestinian Media Watch (www.pmw.org.il) |
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