Palestinian Media Watch Special Report
August 15, 2002

PALESTINIAN MEDIA WATCH
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Special Report #40
Palestinian terrorists are the Palestinian heroes:
The Dalal Mugrhabi - Wafa Idris phenomenon
August, 15 2002

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]

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
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.

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.

INSTITUTIONS NAMED FOR MUGHRABI:
Girls High School:
Last week the PA agreed to rename The Dalal Mughrabi Girls' High School,
after PMW publicized that a PA school named for a terrorist was receiving US
funding and the USAID threatened to withhold that funding.

Another Girls High School:
PA TV interviewed teachers and students of "The Dalal Mughrabi Girls' High
School" in a special program at the end of the "Festival of the Sacrifice".
PATV. March 31, 2000]

**According to the PA Ministry of Education's response to USAID "Several
months ago, the ministry of education changed the name of the school to
Dalal Al Mughrabi school simply because they wanted to give a woman's name
to the girls school." [IMRA]. This indicates that the above interviews were
in yet another girls high school named for her.

Summer camp:
"The Rafiah municipality hosted today the closing ceremony of the Shahida
[died for Allah] Dalal Mughrabi Summer Camp.." [PATV August 9, 2001]

Kindergarten:
"The Kernel of Palestine (Dalal Al Mughrabi) Kindergarten in Dura, in the
Hebron District, marked the graduation of a new class of children.
[parentheses in original -ed]

[Al Ayyam May 30, 2001]

Fatah course:
".the graduation ceremony of the Fatah Women's Young Staff Preparatory
Course. The course was called 'The Shahida Dalal Mughrabi Course'."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida January 25, 2002]

CULTURE:
on TV
"Dalal is a symbol for the Palestinian nation. Through the show we transmit
to the viewer the Palestinian woman's role as a fighter. as a builder of the
Palestinian society. we cling to Dalal as an individual who belongs to the
Palestinian consciousness."
Immediately following this statement a scene is shown from a film about the
terrorist in which Israelis wearing kippot [skull caps] are threatening a
Palestinian with a pistol, interrogating him in the cemetery in which Dalal
Al-Mughrabi is buried, when she appears alive above her grave.
[Dr. Salah Al-Kadumi, 'Panorama', cultural program, PA TV, August 31, 2000]

TV video music clips
Mughrabi's picture is on the TV screen with these words: "I am a Daughter
of Palestine" introducing this song:
"I am a daughter of Palestine,
I am the midday sun,
My grandfather is Salladin [conqueror of Jerusalem from Christian control]
My father is Abu Ammar [Arafat].
I am Palestinian, my appearance Arabic.
My name is liberty
I am the daughter of revolutionaries."

[Special program on summer camps, PATV July 25, 2001]

18 part series in daily newspaper
An 18 part series appeared in Al-Ayyam's bi-weekly supplement 'The Women's
Voice' relaying "the Heroic story of Al Mughrabi, who led a squad to one of
the greatest successes of the struggle."
[Al-Ayyam, January September 2000, this quote: March 9, 2000]

In crossword puzzles:
Clue: "Famous Palestinian Shahida"
Solution: "Dalal El Mughrabi".

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 23, 2000]

Clue: "Palestinian Shahida"
Solution: "Dalal El Mughrabi".

[Al Quds, August 2, 2001]

ROLE MODEL
As inspiration for today's woman suicide terrorists:
"Most of the stories of the woman Shahids [died for Allah] . are still
connected to the death of the Shahida Dalal Mughrabi. who, with her small
group, succeeded in causing the greatest number of casualties amongst the
Israelis... Despite the passing of so many years since the falling of the
Shahida Mughrabi, we feel as if her heroism was at work just yesterday.Even
if a Martyr is absent from her body, the spirit of her struggle continues to
live within the consciousness of women aspiring to perform similar acts of
heroism."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 11, 2002]

Idol of other terrorists:
Upon the release of the woman terrorist Kafaah Affifi, she said:
"Ever since my childhood, the picture of Dalal Mughrabi was my most prized
possession; her heroism strengthened me.

[Al-Ayyam supplement August 9, 2001]

Referred to in lectures
"At the graduation ceremony of a Public Relations seminar conducted by the
PA Office of National Direction and the Khan Yuness [University] Faculty of
Education. [National Direction Chief] Amid Mazen Iz Addin: 'we still live
the memory of Dalal Al Mughrabi's liberation of the land."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 10, 2000]

Referred to in graduation courses
"The Presidential Guard, Force 17, conducted a ceremony upon completion of
the course. Lt. Colonel Jamal Ka'eed. noted that March was the month of
Dalal Mughrabi's operation which raised the Palestinian Flag on our occupied
land [Israel's coast near Tel-Aviv] and declared the State of Palestine in
the heart of the homeland."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 3, 2000]

Portrayed as heroic action
".we were transferred to the Tul Karem prison one day after the heroic
coastal [road] operation. We had read and heard amazing accounts of this
operation, whose participants included the Palestinian woman fighter [feda'
ya], Dalal Mughrabi."

[quoted from Faazel Yuness autobiography, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 1, 2000]

On TV quiz for children:
"Guess the hero/heroine"
"Our heroine was martyred together with her comrades, leaving behind a
handwritten will in which she asks the fighters to clutch their weapons and
put a freeze on all secondary disagreements among themselves, while
escalating the primary conflict with the enemy and aiming all rifles in its
direction."
Correct Solution: "Dalal Al-Mughrabi"

[PA TV, January 22 1997]

On TV quiz for children:
"She died as a Shahida [death for Allah] ...
Correct Solution: Dalal Al-Mughrabi participated in the coastal road bus
attack 1978"

[PATV August 28,1996]

2 New Palestinian Symbols: Suicide terrorists Wafa Idris and Ayyat al-Akhras

As stated, the adoration of Mughrabi is a part of a comprehensive pattern by
the Palestinian Authority of glorification of successful terrorist. Two
recent woman suicide bombers are now actively being transformed by the PA
into new PA heroines and role models.

Wafa Idris was the first woman suicide bomber. She blew herself up on
January 27, 2002, killing 1 and injuring over 150 in Jerusalem. A youth
group was named for her - and just finished a course in democracy and human
rights.

"The students committee of the Shabiba student movement, 'the Shahida Wafa
Idris cell' in the Al-Quds Open University in Tubass, celebrated yesterday
the completion of a course in democracy and human rights."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, August 11, 2002]

Ayyat al-Akhras - killed 2 Israelis as she blew herself up in a supermarket
in Jerusalem, on March 29, 2002. The Palestinians named a summer camp for
children in her name:

"Today the activities begin in the tenth Scouts summer camp, the Shahid
Seeker [Death for Allah]- Ayyat al-Akhras Camp..."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 4, 2002]

Dalal Mughrabi and Wafa Idris as Palestinian symbols with Yasser Arafat.
The successful inculcation of ideology is reflected in the behavior of the
people. A recent news item on PA TV - parents have named their two daughters
for two woman terrorists of the past and the present - Mughrabi and Idris:
"Quadruplets born in Shechem [Nablus] were named Yasser, Arafat, Dalal [for
Dalal Mughrabi] and Wafa [for Wafa Idris]. These are names that represent
to every Palestinian support, assistance and love of the symbols of our just
issue." [PATV Feb. 19, 2002]

Note the comment by PA TV: the names of these woman terrorists are
Palestinian "symbols".