Abu Jihad (L) and Yasser Arafat. (AP) Abu Jihad (L) and Yasser Arafat. (AP)
Abu Jihad Arafat

Consistent with their official policy of youth indoctrination, the Palestinians named a camp after arch-terrorist Abu Jihad.

By: United with Israel Staff

The Palestinian Authority (PA) and Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah political faction are continuing their policy of honoring terrorists as role models, presenting them as heroes to Palestinian youth.

Around 600 high school students belonging to Fatah’s Shabiba youth movement in Jenin are participating this month in the “Martyr Abu Jihad Camp.” The camp is held at a facility of the PA National Security Forces.

Khalil Al-Wazir, known as 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 terror attacks in the 1960’s – 1980’s. These attacks, in which a total of 125 Israelis were murdered, included the most lethal in Israeli history – the hijacking of a bus and murder of 37 civilians, 12 of them children. He was assassinated by Israeli commandos at his home in Tunis in 1988.

On the occasion of the anniversary of Abu Jihad’s so-called “Martyrdom,” the day of his death marked this month, Fatah made a point of glorifying the arch-terrorist as a great heroic Palestinian leader, vowing to remain “loyal” to his “path.”

The PA Ministry of Information marked the 30th anniversary of the terrorist’s “death as a Martyr” by stating that Abu Jihad’s legacy would remain “a source of inspiration.”

“The [PA] Ministry of Information said that the death of Abu Jihad, the one of a kind military mind, is a difficult loss for Palestine, but his heritage will remain present in the pages of our history, and will remain a source of inspiration for our resistance,” the PA’s official daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reported early this month, according to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).

The death of terrorist Abu Jihad fell on the day before the anniversary of the death of another arch-terrorist, Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rantisi, co-founder of the Hamas terror organization. Fatah honored them together with a post on Facebook, stating that “a people whose leaders are Martyrs (Shahids) will triumph, Allah willing.”

At a rally in Ramallah, Deputy Chairman of Fatah and Fatah Central Committee member Mahmoud Al-Aloul stated that Abu Jihad “was and will remain our example and a role model.”

PMW, which monitors incitement in the Palestinian media, has documented several Palestinian schools that are named after terrorist murderers.

Naming schools after terrorists is yet another form of Palestinian terror incitement, consistent with the Palestinian Authority’s policy of presenting terrorists as role models for Palestinian youth.

Indeed, the PA educational system routinely poisons the minds of Palestinian children by educating them to hate Israel and Israelis through terror-promoting messages. It even uses cultural mediums such as school plays, sports events and summer camps for this heinous objective.