By Itamar Marcus, Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin, March 12, 2003
Introduction:
On March 11, 1978, Palestinians led by a woman terrorist Dalal
Mughrabi, hijacked an Israeli bus. The hijacking ended with 36 Israelis
murdered, along with American nature photographer Gail Rubin (niece of
American Senator whom the terrorists had shot when they spotted her taking
pictures. The large number of Israeli civilians killed turned this act of terror for
Palestinians into “one of the greatest successes of the struggle.” and turned Dalal Mughrabi into the Palestinian’s heroic, ideal
woman: “Dalal is a symbol for the Palestinian nation.”
Mughrabi is honored in names of summer camps, schools and colleges,
police and military courses. Annual ceremonies and TV broadcasts
commemorate the day of her terror mission.
This week on the anniversary of her terror attack, the Palestinian Authority daily
again wrote an article glorifying Dalal Mughrabi’s mass murder. The following is
the text:
“On the morning of March 11, 1978, a woman Palestinian fighter ,
Dalal Mughrabi, created a legend that would be taught for many years, when
she and her Fedayeen unit infiltrated the Palestinian coastal plain near Tel Aviv
causing tens of killed and injured, after taking Israeli passengers as hostages on
a bus along the coastal highway.
She and her unit opened fire at the military vehicles in the vicinity,
resulting in hundreds of injuries among the occupying soldiers, especially
because this highway is frequently used by military vehicles transporting
soldiers between the Zionist colonies in the suburbs and Tel Aviv.
The army, headed by Barak, and with the assistance of tanks and
helicopters, pursued the bus until it was finally stopped near the colony of
Herzliya. A real battle took place between Dalal and her unit and the occupation
forces …
Journalists’ cameras captured the blind hatred that overcame Barak and
his soldiers during the operation…
Twenty-five years after this heroine’s death as a Shahida ,
many Palestinian women are following in her footsteps every day. Examples
include Wafa Idris, and Ayyat al-Akhras, who performed acts of Shahada- Seeking during the
blessed al-Aksa Intifada to protect the homeland.
The Shahida Dalal Mughrabi shall remain one of the symbols of the
Palestinian national struggle.”
The Zionist Organization of America points out that this is just the latest in a
series of PA actions glorifying Mugrahbi:
* In August 2002, a school in the PA-controlled town of Al-Shuyukh, near
Hebron, was renamed “the Dalal Mugrahbi School.”
The school receives U.S. funding through the ANERA organization,
whose spokesman, Peter Gubser, claimed on August 11, 2002 that the
school’s directors had agreed to revert to the school’s original name; yet on
August 16, 2002, the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah again referred
to it as “the Dalal Mugrahbi School in Al- Shuyukh.” (Palestinian Media Watch)
* There is a Dalal Mughrabi Girls High School (PA Television, March 31, 2000);
a Dalal Mugrahbi Summer Camp in Rafiah (PA Television, August 9, 2001); a
Dalal Mugrahbi Kindergarten in Dura (Al Ayyam, May 30, 2001); and a Dalal
Mugrahbi Course in the Fatah Women’s Young Staff Preparatory Course
(Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, Jan. 25, 2002)
* On March 9, 2000, the PA affiliated newspaper Al Ayyam called the Tel Aviv
coastal massacre “one of the greatest successes of the struggle.”
* On August 30, 2000, an official PA Television broadcast asserted: “Dalal is a
symbol for the Palestinian nation.”
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “We call on the Bush
administration to speak out against the PA’s glorification of the murder of an
elderly American citizen. Bush’s silence sends a message to the PA that the
U.S. does not seriously object to the PA glorifying murderers of Americans.”
