Abbas appoints terrorist to Fatah party leadership

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas named the murderer of an IDF soldier to his Fatah party’s Central Committee.

By Gil Zohar, World Israel News

Across the Gaza Strip and in cities in Judea and Samaria under Palestinian administration, it’s common to find streets, squares and cultural institutions glorifying terrorists with blood on their hands. Recently, for example, the PLO’s Supreme Council named a youth camp “Brothers of Dalal” after Dalal Mughrabi, the leader of the 1978 Coastal Road massacre, where Palestinian terrorists hijacked a bus and killed 37 civilians, including children, and wounded over 70.

In the latest example of incitement by extolling murder, Fatah on Monday appointed terrorist Karim Younes to its Central Committee. Younes and his cousin, Maher Younis, are Israeli citizens who in 1980 jointly kidnapped and murdered IDF soldier Avraham Bromberg. The cousins are both serving a life sentence at the Hadarim Detention Center in northern Israel.

The decision to appoint Karim Younes to Fatah’s Central Committee was made by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

Under the Palestinian Authority, the Younes cousins are depicted as role models for youth. Each has been honored by having a square named after them.

According to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), in the last month, Abbas – who heads both the PA and Fatah – honored 44 terrorists who together murdered 440 people, the vast majority of them Israelis.

PMW considers it noteworthy that Abbas chose an Israeli citizen to be among Fatah’s decision-makers. This is consistent with the PA message to Israeli Arabs to see themselves as part of the Palestinian national movement and to view all of the land of Mandate Palestine as part of a future Palestinian state that will replace Israel.

The appointment of Younes was announced right after Abbas had sent a message to Israelis demonstrating in Tel Aviv on Saturday for “Two States – One Hope.” Haaretz quoted Abbas as saying “the opportunity [for peace] still exists, and it cannot be missed when our hand is extended in peace that is created among those who are brave.”

The PLO’s director of Prisoners’ Affairs, Issa Karake, welcomed the appointment of Younes, claiming it demonstrated that Palestinian prisoners held by Israel “are not terrorists and not criminals,” but “freedom prisoners and fighters.”

“I want to note an additional achievement, which was a political response by the Palestinian leadership when the Fatah Revolutionary Council made a decision to appoint prisoner Karim Younes, the most veteran of the prisoners, as a member of the Fatah Movement Central Committee. I think that this is a very great and significant political response, [which says] that our prisoners are not terrorists and are not criminals. They are freedom prisoners and fighters who enjoy an important national, human, and legal status among their leadership and among their Palestinian people,” Karake said.