Israeli-Arab political party celebrates perpetrators of Jewish massacre

The Knesset’s Balad party commemorated the 90th anniversary of the execution of three terrorists who massacred Jews in Mandate-era Palestine.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

The Israeli-Arab Balad political party recently commemorated the 90th anniversary of the execution of three terrorists who massacred Jews in Mandate-era Palestine, via a post on their official Facebook page, Makor Rishon reported.

The post referred to Muhammad Jamjum, Fuad Hijazi, and Atta A-Zir as “the martyrs of the Al-Buraq revolution,” using the Palestinian nationalist term for the 1929 massacres against Jews in Hebron, Tzfat and other places across Israel, in which at least one hundred Jewish civilians were killed.

The British Mandate courts originally sentenced 27 Arab perpetrators to death, but later commuted nearly all the sentences to life in prison. Jamjum, Hijazi, and A-Zir were executed due to the particularly grisly nature of the murders they committed.

A-Zir of Hebron, led a mob that broke into the home of Rabbi Meir Shmuel Castel, who was head of the Sephardic community in Hebron. The mob killed Rabbi Castel and burned down his home.

Later, A-Zir killed yeshiva student Avrahaham Shaprio and stabbed Eliyahu Kapiloto in the back. Kapiloto died of his wounds a year later.

Jamjum broke into the home of the Abushdid family in Hebron, killing Eliyahu Abushdid and his son Isaac, and their guests, Jacob Gozlan and his son Moshe.

Fuad Hijazi of Tzfat, a municipal health official, was convicted of murdering married couple Frida and Moshe Afriat.

A-Zir, Jamjum, and Hijazi were executed 90 years ago this week at Akko Prison by British authorities.

Balad’s Facebook post described the three perpetrators as “heroes and martyrs” who will remain “engraved in the hearts of the Palestinian people on the long road to national liberation.”

According to their platform, Balad’s goals include “the end of the occupation over all Palestinian areas,” removal of the security barrier in Judea and Samaria, and surrender of all Jewish settlements.

Balad is in favor of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip, with eastern Jerusalem as its capital.

In February, the party’s Chairman, Jamal Zalakha, said at a faction meeting, “Balad is part of the Palestinian national movement. We are not the Israeli left.”

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court of Israel overturned a Central Elections Committee decision to ban Balad member Heba Yazback for praising Hezbollah and the perpetrator of the 1979 Nahariya terror attack on social media. The terrorist, among committing other horrors, smashed a young girl’s head against a rock until she died. Yazback called him a “martyr.”

In 2003, Balad was banned by the Central Elections Committee from participating in the elections after a complaint by Michael Kleiner, head of the Herut party. Kleiner argued that Balad “supports terror organizations, identifies with the enemy and acts against Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”

The Supreme Court of Israel overturned that ban several weeks later.

Balad was banned from national elections again in January 2009, and the Supreme Court of Israel overturned that ban two weeks later as well.

Balad has won seats in every Knesset since 1999.