{Originally posted to the PMW website}
In what was probably the largest gathering this week anywhere in the world, since self-isolation is the key to defeating the Coronavirus, Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Movement organized a celebration with “thousands” of Palestinians crammed together to honor a terrorist released from prison.
Fatah’s message to its own people is that honoring a terrorist involved in the murder of 6 Israelis takes priority over their own health.
The following pictures of the massive crowds were posted on Fatah’s official Facebook page with the following text:
“The reception for released prisoner Nidal Turkeman tonight at the Jenin refugee camp”
[Official Fatah Facebook page, March 24, 2020]
Even the Palestinian Authority criticized the event. Ironically, the Palestinian Authority – also headed by Mahmoud Abbas – used this opportunity to praise terrorist prisoners as ideal law-abiding citizens, saying “Our heroic prisoners are the first to carefully implement the law.” Palestinian Media Watch has exposed that the PA tells their people that killing Israelis is protected behavior under international law:
“[PA] Government Spokesman Ibrahim Melhem said today that the mass reception that was held yesterday in Jenin for a prisoner [Nidal Naghnaghiya Turkeman] (i.e., involved in the murder of at least 6) who was released from the occupation’s prison is ‘an unfortunate thing, and a violation of the precautionary and defensive measures taken by the [PA] government to protect our people from the spread of the Coronavirus.’ … He continued: ‘We expect our people in all of the districts to change the culture of receptions, joy, and celebrations in honor of our sons returning from the prison cells. Our heroic prisoners are the first to carefully implement the law, and the last who think to violate the order and precautionary and defensive measures, because they are a role-model of commitment and discipline.”
[WAFA, official PA news agency, March 25, 2020]
Safa, an independent Palestinian news agency, likewise criticized the event:
Headline: “A mass rally in honor of a [released] prisoner breaks the quarantine”
“The Fatah Movement held a mass rally tonight in Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank, with the participation of thousands of citizens, in order to receive a released prisoner who sat in the Israeli occupation’s prison for 17 years. This was without implementing the instructions in everything connected to the quarantine and ban on movement (i.e., due to the Coronavirus crisis).
The citizens gathered at the refugee camp’s plaza in order to receive prisoner Nidal Naghnaghiya [Turkeman] amid massive shooting [in the air].”
[Safa, independent Palestinian news agency, March 24, 2020]
Nidal Naghnaghiya Turkeman – Palestinian terrorist who was involved in a number of terror attacks, including the shooting and hand grenade attack against a Likud primaries polling station in Beit Shean in which 6 were murdered on Nov. 28, 2002. Turkeman served 17 years in prison and was released on March 24, 2020.