Children and adults holding photos of terrorist Samir Kuntar, their hero. (Wissam Nassar/Flash 90)

“It is frankly disgusting, even as a Palestinian, to see so many of my countrymen mourning a man who murders babies. This is the direct result of the ongoing incitement against Israel and Jews.” – Scholar Bassam Tawil

Samir Kuntar, a Hezbollah terrorist who, among other acts of barbarism, murdered an Israeli child in 1979 by smashing her head against a rock, after forcing her to watch him kill her father, was killed last week in a Damascus suburb. He was allegedly hit, along with other terrorist leaders, by an Israeli Air Force strike.

In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Maher Huthut announced the naming of his newborn baby after Kuntar.

At Kuntar’s lavish funeral on Tuesday in Ramallah, Fatah Central Committee member Azzam al-Ahmad hailed Kuntar as a hero of the Palestinian people, saying that his murder will not weaken the “resistance.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (C) stands by the coffin of senior PA official Ziad Abu Ein, a convicted terrorist, in Ramallah last year. (STR/Flash90)

“The national and Islamic forces in the Ramallah and El-Bireh district set up a mourning tent to receive those offering condolences over leader Samir Kuntar’s death as a Martyr (Shahid),” Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, the official PA daily, announced on Wednesday, according to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).

PMW quoted 15 statements of praise for Suntar, who, the watchdog says, has become a Palestinian “superhero.”

For example, as reported by Palestinian news agency Ma’an: “Martyr Samir Kuntar is a Palestinian symbol…We gather today in honor of Martyr Kuntar, in order to accompany him to his wedding [i.e., Martyr’s funeral] as a Martyr, in the name of all the Palestinian people, and in order to emphasize to him and to everyone fighting for Palestine – You will remain present throughout our lives. We will not forget your heroic acts and sacrifice, and we will talk about you with all future generations,” Issa Karake, director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, stated at the funeral.

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven (L) and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas . (AP/TT/ Jonas Ekstromer)

As noted by Middle East-based scholar Bassam Tawil in an article published by the Gatestone Institute, “Kuntar was not a Palestinian. He was Lebanese Druze. This irregularity still has not stopped Palestinians from adoring him for murdering Jews. Palestinians will worship anyone who carries out a terror attack against Israel or Jews – such as the Japanese terrorist, Kozo Okamoto, who led the 1972 massacre at Israel’s Lod Airport, in which 24 people were murdered and more than 70 wounded.”

“The arch-terrorist is now being mourned in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a ‘national hero and fighter’ who sacrificed his life for the sake of the Palestinians. This is who many Palestinians consider their role model: the only requirement is that they try to destroy Israel and murder Jews,” Tawil said.

Europeans Urged to ‘Wake Up’

“It is frankly disgusting, even as a Palestinian, to see so many of my countrymen mourning and heaping praise on a man who murders babies. This show of solidarity with a baby-killer and arch-terrorist is the direct result of the ongoing incitement against Israel and Jews that takes place each day in mosques, the press and social media in the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” Tawil stated. “It is precisely this non-stop incitement and indoctrination that is driving young Palestinians to take knives, run out, and stab the first Jew they meet.”

According to Tawil, it is European funding that has “largely bankrolling this venom…and that this is precisely why no peace process with Israel will ever work.” He urges the “gullible” Europeans to “wake up.”

By: Terri Nir, United with Israel
(With files from Palestinian Media Watch and Gatestone Institute)