Posted on 11/15/2003 3:29:51 PM PST by yonif
Under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority, a rally was held in Tulkarem on Friday in honor of Sirhan Sirhan, the Fatah gunman who last year carried out the attack in Kibbutz Metzer, killing five people, including a mother and her two children.
Sirhan, a resident of the Tulkarem refugee camp, cold-bloodedly murdered Revital Ohayon, 34, and her two sons, Matan, five, and Noam, four inside their home. He also killed Tirza Damari, 42, and Yitzhak Dori, 44, the kibbutz secretary before escaping back to the West Bank.
An undercover IDF unit caught up with Sirhan in the camp and killed him last September. A nine-year-old boy, Muhammed Ibrahim, was also shot and killed during the operation.
The rally, organized by Fatah to mark the passing of 40 days since the killing of Sirhan, was attended by hundreds of residents, political activists, gunmen from different groups, and senior Palestinian Authority officials.
Tulkarem governor Izz al-Din al-Sharif, who represented PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, delivered a speech before the crowd in which he heaped praise on Sirhan and described him as a "struggler and martyr." He also conveyed the condolences of Arafat and the Palestinian leadership to Sirhan's family.
"The Palestinian people will continue the resistance and struggle until we achieve our freedom and independent state," Sharif added. He condemned Israel's refusal to hand over Sirhan's body to his family as a "violation of international conventions."
A spokesman for Fatah's armed wing, al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, vowed to continue the fight against Israel until it ends its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He described Sirhan as "a hero who managed to infiltrate the Zionist settlement of Metzer." He urged young Palestinians to follow the example of Sirhan and launch more attacks against Israel.
Bassam Mirai, a senior Fatah leader in the Tulkarem area, also praised Sirhan's "contribution and sacrifice" for the Palestinian cause, saying all Palestinians will follow suit "until the homeland is liberated."
Last month, masked gunmen belonging to the Aksa Martyrs Brigades executed two young men from the refugee camp on suspicion that they had assisted the IDF in the killing of Sirhan. The two, Muhammad Karankah, 25, and Samer Ofi, 22, were shot dead by a makeshift firing squad shortly after making a videotaped confession in which they admitted that they had been recruited by the Israeli security forces to follow the movements of Sirhan.
Isn't this a good example of Palestinian Authority "performance" which should cut our aid to them?
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