Mayor Bohbot, who believed Abbas was interested in peace, was bitterly disappointed to learn that Abbas glorifies terrorists.
Shlomo Bohbot, the mayor of the northern town of Ma’a lot, sent a missive to Palestinian Authority (PA) head Mahmoud Abbas sharply criticizing the PA’s naming of a town square in Jenin after Khaled Nazzal. Nazzal was the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and commander of its military branch, who planned the notorious Ma’alot Massacre.
In the May 1974 Ma’alot Massacre, terrorists took school children and their teacher hostage, and eventually murdered 22 children and four adults.
Nazzal also planned an attack which resulted in the murder of four hostages in an apartment in Beit Shean in November, 1974, and a shooting and grenade attack in central Jerusalem in April 1984, in which one Israeli was murdered and 47 others were wounded.
In the missive, Bohbot writes that he was “enraged and shocked” to learn that the PA has named a square after Nazzal, who murdered the victims “in cold blood.”
Last year, Bohbot headed a goodwill delegation that met Abbas in Ramallah, in an attempt to boost warmer relations between the two sides.
“Following the visit, and facing much public pressure, I told the Israeli media that I was impressed by your keen intent and that of the Palestinian Authority to achieve peace and by your opposition to violence and terrorism,” Bohbot wrote.
“Unfortunately, naming the square after the heinous murderer harms the trust, deeply hurts feelings and distances the prospects of peace,” Bohbot added.
He called on Abbas to remove the memorial for Nazzal at the square, “if you [Abbas] are keenly interested in real peace and in winning hearts among the Israeli public.”
Bohbot sent a copy of the letter to President Donald Trump, the US Ambassador in Israel David Friedman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
This incident was the latest show of Palestinian incitement to terror in accordance with the Palestinian Authority’s policy of presenting terrorists as role models for Palestinian youth.
The PA has named at least 28 schools after terrorists and at least three schools after Nazi collaborators. Significantly, the PA Ministry of Education is directly and solely responsible for the naming of schools.
PA schools also teach children to idolize terrorists in artwork and imagery.
By: Max Gelber, United with Israel