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The Palestinian Authority Turns Terrorist Murderer Into a Folk Hero
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (C) alongside Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (L) and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, July 26, 2023. Photo: Reuters/Palestinian Presidents’ Office
Palestinian Authority (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 (PMW) has reported about this phenomenon numerous times.
The most recent 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. [emphasis added]
[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]. [emphasis added]
[WAFA, official PA news agency, April 7, 2024]
To incite hatred against Israel, the PA claims that the Jewish State abuses Palestinian prisoners through medical neglect, medical experiments, and by intentionally infecting them with diseases. However, the International Red Cross regularly visits these prisoners and has not documented or accused Israel of any of these claims. Likewise, lists of demands occasionally issued by the prisoners during hunger strikes — such as during one in 2011 — include no demands relating to these claims.
PMW has documented prisoners talking about how they “lack nothing” in the prisons, and that “the worst thing about Israeli prison” is riding in a prison vehicle that has no padding on the seat. When PMW contacted the Israeli Ministry of Health in 2007 regarding PA claims of medical experiments on prisoners, the ministry responded: “Clinical testing on prisoners in prison was never approved, never performed, and is most certainly not taking place at present.”
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.” [emphasis added]
[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. [emphasis added]
[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.”
The author is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.
The post The Palestinian Authority Turns Terrorist Murderer Into a Folk Hero first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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