What do you suppose would be the public’s reaction if the U.S. government decided to name schools after the terrorists who carried out the Orlando nightclub massacre, the San Bernardino slaughter, and the Boston Marathon bombing?
Outrage? Demonstrations? Lawsuits?
All of the above, and more.
Now what has been the reaction of the public – or the media or the American Jewish community – to the news that the Palestinian Authority has named schools after a terrorist who murdered American citizens?
Silence. Indifference. Acquiescence.
Thanks to the good work of Palestinian Media Watch, we know that the PA has decided to rename a school in Tulkarm the Martyr Salah Khalaf School.
Salah Khalaf was a senior PLO terrorist who operated under the direct command of Yasir Arafat and masterminded a series of attacks in the 1970s attributed to the PLO front group Black September. They carried out the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. One of the eleven was an American citizen, Cleveland weightlifter David Berger.
Khalaf also planned the Palestinian attack on a diplomatic reception at the Saudi Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, on March 1, 1973. The terrorists kidnapped and murdered the American ambassador, Cleo Noel, and another U.S. diplomat, George Moore (as well as a Belgian diplomat).
An internal State Department report that was declassified and made public in 2006 stated: “The Khartoum operation was planned and carried out with the full knowledge and personal approval of Yasir Arafat, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and the head of Fatah. Fatah representatives based in Khartoum participated in the attack, using a Fatah vehicle to transport the terrorists to the Saudi Arabian Embassy.”
Note that the PA’s decision to name the school in Tulkarm was not some low-key matter. On the contrary, the PA insisted on making a big public show of the fact that it is naming a school after a murderer of Americans. The PA daily newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reported (on Sept. 24) that a ceremony was held to lay the cornerstone of the school, and a PA official, Tulkarm district governor Issam Abu Bakr, gave a speech in which he “emphasized the importance of the project of building the school named after Martyr Salah Khalaf, in order to commemorate the memory of this great national fighter.”
Two other PA officials also took part in this public glorification of a murderer of Americans: Tulkarm mayor Iyad Al-Jallad, and Tulkarm Education Directorate head Salam Al-Taher.
That’s not all. It turns out there are already three other PA schools named after Khalaf. In Gaza – which the PA ran from 1994 until the Hamas coup in 2007 – there is a Salah Khalaf Elementary School and a Salah Khalaf Junior High School. Also, in Rafah, there is a Martyr Abu Iyad School. Abu Iyad is the well-known nickname nom de guerre for Khalaf.
There are many other schools in PA territory that are named after terrorists – in fact, Palestinian Media Watch has found 25 of them. And, of course, we should be deeply concerned about what goes on inside the schools: the indoctrination of students with anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatred and incitement to violence.
But what goes on inside these schools begins with the name on the front of the building the students enter each morning. That name teaches the children who it is their society honors and who represents the values they should strive to emulate. In short, who should be their role model.
The Palestinian Authority, which receives $500 million in American taxpayers’ money each year, is teaching its children to honor and emulate a murderer of American citizens.
In America, we name our schools after George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. In Tulkarm, the PA names its schools after kidnappers and killers.
This is the PA we are supposed to believe is “moderate” and has forsaken terrorism. This is the PA J Street and the State Department insist should be given a sovereign state, as soon as possible.
Members of Congress have the final say on how U.S. funds are spent abroad. It’s time for American Jewish organizations to educate Congress about the need to stop funding regimes that glorify murderers of Americans.