January 21, 2003
A Palestinian soccer tournament has been named after the suicide bomber who
killed 29 people and injured 140 last year during a Passover seder, according to
the official Palestinian Authority daily Al Hayat Al Jadida.
Hamas member Abed Al-Basset Odeh walked into the dining room of the Park
Hotel in the coastal city of Netanya on March 27 and detonated an explosive
device amid 250 guests participating in the holiday meal.
The soccer tournament’s seven team also have been named after “shahids,” or
“martyrs,” according to a translation of the newspaper story by Palestinian
Media Watch.
The paper reported today that the “Tulkarm Shahids Memorial soccer
championship tournament of the Shahid Abed Al-Basset Odeh began with the
participation of seven top teams, named after shahids who gave their lives to
redeem the homeland.”
Odeh was from the West Bank town of Tulkarm.
The report said that Odeh’s brother Isam “will distribute the trophies.”
Palestinian Media Watch said the article did not specify whether children or
adults are participating in the championship event.
One of the teams in the tournament also bears Odeh’s name.
The other teams are Raed Carmi, named for the slain Tulkarm Al Aksa
Martyrs Brigade commander; Wajdi Al Hatab, for the Palestinian youth who
requested cake be distributed after his martyrdom; Tarek Abu Safaka, who
killed three Israelis in a Feb. 10, 2002 attack; Tarek Alqato, an Al Aksa Martyrs
Brigade operative killed in a clash with Israeli troops; Mahmud Marmash, a
suicide bomber who killed five Israelis in a May 2001 attack in Netanya; and
Husam Al Hamshari, a youth killed in a clash with Israeli troops.
In a report last year, Palestinian Media Watch said that under the Palestinian
Authority, numerous schools, summer camps and sports teams are named for
terrorists, and symbols of violence continue to be used in education and sports.
PMW said in an August report that U.S. funds, through USAID, helped renovate
the Dalal Al- Mughrabi school, named for the female terrorist who participated
in the bus hijacking and murder of 36 Israelis and an American, Gail Rubin, in 1978.
A summer camp was named for Ayyat al-Akhras, a woman who blew herself up
in a supermarket in Jerusalem, and another camp honored Jihad al-Amarin,
commander of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, responsible for the murder of numerous
Israelis.
