by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has defied senior members of
US Congress by announcing his refusal to dismiss a senior PA official
who glorified a murderer.Following Palestinian Media Watch's report last month that Abbas' advisor and Head of the PA's NGO Authority, Sultan Abu Al-Einein, glorified the murderer of an Israeli just three days after the killing, five members of the US Congress sent a letter to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas demanding that the PA official be removed from office:
"We ask that you publicly and officially denounce and condemn Mr. Al-Einein's remarks at once and remove him from his position in your government."
The
letter was signed by Reps. Ed Royce, Eliot Engel, Nita Lowey, Ted
Deutch, and Brad Sherman. PA official Abu Al-Einein had praised the
murderer with the following words:
"We salute the heroic fighter... Blessings to the breast that nursed [him]."
Abbas
has now announced that he will not remove Abu Al-Einein from his
position, and likewise rejected Congress' demand for condemnation. In addition, the PA distorted the demands made by US Congress in the letter. Reports from different Palestinian sources said that the Congressmen demanded Sultan Abu Al-Einein be deported, despite the fact that deportation was never mentioned in the letter.
An announcement on the website of Fatah's Lebanese branch called the US request a sign of "American arrogance":
"This
request testifies to American arrogance, to the unqualified preference
for the Zionist occupation, and the insistence to ignore the
Palestinians' national rights and principles, to judge things always on
the basis of the American-Israeli strategic alliance, and on protecting
Israeli security."
Click to see more PA glorification of terrorists.The following are the reports from Palestinian sources of Abbas' rejection of Congress' demand:
"In
a letter [to Mahmoud Abbas], the American Congress demanded that the
Palestinian Authority deport Sultan Abu Al-Einein, the Head of the
Non-Governmental Organizations Authority, and President Mahmoud Abbas's
advisor for local authorities. This was done after his recent statements
were described [by Congress] as incitement against Israel.
Abu Al-Einein's Bureau Chief, Raafat Ulayyan, told Ma'an that American Congress sent an official letter protesting Abu Al-Einein's visit to the family of the person who carried out the operation (i.e., the murder) at the Za'atara check-point south of Nablus during which a settler was killed.
He went on to say that the Americans
documented Abu Al-Einein's statements that called for the killing of
settlers and for struggle, and demanded that the Palestinian Authority
expel him from Fatah and banish him from the Palestinian territories to a
foreign country.
Ulayyan stressed that
President Mahmoud Abbas and the PA responded to the letter with a letter
[of their own] in which it was emphasized that Sultan Abu Al-Einein is
the chosen leader of a major organization, and that he is a PA employee
working in the Fatah movement."
[Ma'an (Palestinian News Agency), Arabic version, June 12, 2013]
[The English version of the article added:]
The
congressmen were identified by the JTA as Democrats Eliot Engel, Nita
Lowey, Brad Sherman, and Ted Deutch and Republican Ed Royce.Their letter
said that 'allowing this type of incitement and hate mongering to take
place within your ranks is intolerable if you are truly dedicated to
non-violence. We ask that you publicly and officially denounce and
condemn Mr. Al-Einein's remarks at once and remove him from his position
in your government.'"
[Ma'an (Palestinian News Agency), English version, June 13, 2013]
"Fatah
Central Committee Member Sultan Abu Al-Einein said that the American
government has demanded that the Palestinian leadership work to deport
him from the Palestinian territories following 'My visit to the home of a
family of a prisoner who killed a settler.' He made it clear that he
would not leave.
Abu Al-Einein said in an
announcement to the news agency: 'The American Congress has demanded
that the Palestinian leadership deport me from Palestine following my
visit to the home of the family of 24 year-old As'ad Muhammad Zaghal
from the Tulkarem suburb of Shweikeh, who killed an Israeli settler at
the Al-Za'atara military checkpoint on April 30, 2013. [Congress] saw
this as inciting to murder settlers.'
He added: 'It is unfortunate that the American government sees only with one eye. It sees Sultan Abu Al-Einein visiting a disabled family, but it doesn't see the organized crimes that settlers and the occupation's soldiers commit against the Palestinian people.'
He added: 'It is unfortunate that the American government sees only with one eye. It sees Sultan Abu Al-Einein visiting a disabled family, but it doesn't see the organized crimes that settlers and the occupation's soldiers commit against the Palestinian people.'
[www.fatehmedia.ps (The Information and Culture Commission
of the Fatah Movement), June 12, 2013]
Headline: "Fatah's Lebanese branch rejects the American Congress' request to deport one of its leaders from Palestine"
"This request testifies to American arrogance, to the
unqualified preference for the Zionist occupation, and the insistence to
ignore the Palestinians' national rights and principles, to judge
things always on the basis of the American-Israeli strategic alliance,
and on protecting Israeli security.
We express our solidarity with Mahmoud Abbas, the President
of the State of Palestine, and we declare before him that we are loyal
soldiers on the way of the struggle that he is leading in the footsteps
of the symbol Yasser Arafat. Similarly, we salute brother Sultan Abu
Al-Einein, a member of the Fatah Central Committee who in the past led
the [Fatah] movement in Lebanon. The brave and principled stands that
brother Sultan Abu Al-Einein is taking are the least we can do to
express our devotion to Palestine, to our people, to our cause, and to
our revolution that will continue until victory."
Lebanese branch, June 14, 2013]
No comments:
Post a Comment