Special to WorldTribune.com
The Palestinian Authority (PA) is using athletics to impress upon youth that terrorists who are carrying out stabbings of Israelis are martyrs who Palestinians should be “proud of.”
A report on Dec. 2 by Palestinian Media Watch said the PA has named a youth tennis tournament after two terrorists, calling their attacks on Jews “acts of patriotism.”
The PA named the Al-Rashideen High School for Boys tennis tournament after terrorists Basel and Farouq Sidr.
Basel Sidr, 19, who attempted to stab Israeli border policemen near Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem on Oct. 14, was shot and killed by police. Farouq Sidr planned to stab Israeli soldiers in Hevron on Oct. 29 and was shot and killed by soldiers as he approached them wielding a knife.
Jibril Rajoub, Head of the Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs, said that PA schools should be required to teach about the attacks as incidents which “comprise bravery and composure.”
“They contain a range of values that obligate the political elite and political and national Palestinian powers to see the will of that hero who wrote a blog,” Rajoub said. “It can be a document they could teach in schools, on the meaning of Martyrdom-death… and the meaning of patriotism… These are individual acts of bravery, and I am proud of them.
“I congratulate everyone who carried them out… the fighter, the prisoner, or the Martyr, they are assets to the entire Palestinian people.”
Meanwhile, a Palestinian terrorist who killed two Israeli civilians in a stabbing attack in south Tel Aviv on Nov. 19 told police that he regretted his actions but that his intent was to “kill Jews.”
Riad Mahmoud Al-Masalma, 36 and the father of five said he was “sorry for what I did; my life here is over.”
Al-Masalma was the first Palestinian in a decade who received permission to work in Israel — after being vetted by the Shin Bet security services — who carried out a terrorist attack in the Jewish state, Haaretz reported last month.
Palestinian Authority names tennis tournament for attackers of Israelis, salutes stabbings as ‘bravery’ added by World Tribune on
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