First, a clarification. Palestinian Media Watch is an invaluable resource that translates and interprets items from the palestinian press. It's located in Jerusalem and headed by Itamar Marcus. Palestine Media Watch, on the other hand, is an Arab propaganda tool that mobilizes support for pro-palestinian, anti-Israeli media drives. It's located in Wayne, Pennsylvania and headed by Ahmed Bouzid.
With that settled, it was PalestinianMW, of course, that broke the story that IMRA forwarded to the State Dept. last week on the use of USAID funds in the "Dalal al-Mughrabi" school project. As a result, the school will no longer be named after a terrorist murderer.
PalestinianMW is not sitting on its laurels, however. Its website is undergoing some rennovations but, in the meantime, you can find this PMW alert (in full) on IMRA's website, here: The school naming is part of a pattern of PA glorification of terrorist killers, a PA policy even when the Oslo process was presumed to be Mughrabi is honored in names of summer camps, schools, and college, police and military courses. Annual ceremonies and TV broadcasts commemorate the day of her terror mission. TV documentaries have been aired about her, an 18 part documentary series ran in a PA daily, and she is the subject of quiz shows for children, crossword puzzles, cultural programs and more. The PA has as policy been encouraging children to see as role models - not doctors and lawyers - but terrorists. The implications for future peace are ominous. The following are some examples of the PA representation of Dalal Al-Mughrabi as a Palestinian symbol, and examples of how the PA is now turning the two recent woman suicide bombers into new symbols using similar social tools.....The State Department's swift response to PMW's exposure of the Palestinian Authority [PA] girls' school named for the terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, is welcome, but it should not be presumed the essential problem has been solved. The naming of a girls school for this terrorist was not in a vacuum. Dalal Mughrabi, killer of 36 Israelis and the American Gail Ruben in 1978, is the Palestinian's heroic, ideal woman. "Dalal is a symbol for the Palestinian nation" [PA TV, August 30 2000] because her killing of so many civilians on a bus is seen as "one of the greatest successes of the struggle." [Al-Ayyam, March 9, 2000]
progressing. This brief study looks at the PA adoration of Dalal Mughrabi together with examples of glorification of recent woman suicide terrorists, Wafa Idris and Ayyat Al Akhras. It demonstrates the values the PA is inculcating among their people and their children.
It's a long and detailed list, worth a look.
