Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction has praised Arab Israeli terrorist Nashat Milhem no less than its “unity partner” Hamas, which mourned the “martyr” who murdered three in Tel Aviv after he was eliminated last Friday.
Fatah posted an uncensored version of the picture of Milhem lying in a pool of blood on Friday, after he was shot dead by security forces in his hometown of Arara in the north, where he apparently received aid from Arab residents and family members as he hid out for a week.
“Nashat Milhem died as a martyr after an armed confrontation in the courtyard of a mosque in Umm Al-Fahm on blessed Friday, congratulations and may Allah receive you in Heaven,” wrote Fatah on its official Facebook page, as revealed by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).
PMW revealed that the PA Ministry of Health called the murderer of three “one of the dearest martyrs,” and said his “name is engraved with his pure blood.” A martyr, “shahid” in Arabic, is someone who dies for Allah, showing how the PA gives a religious imperative to terrorism.
However, after the ministry said Milhem couldn’t be put on its list of dead terrorist “martyrs” because he isn’t from areas of Judea and Samaria under PA administration, it received fierce criticism and issued a press release Saturday emphasizing he is a “martyr” even if he isn’t on the list.
“The omission of Nashat Milhem from its lists does not mean the title (of martyr) has been taken away from him. On the contrary, he is one of the dearest martyrs, and his name is engraved with his pure blood, which watered the ground of our free land…the omission of Milhem from the list under no circumstances means that Nashat is not a martyr. On the contrary, he is like every Palestinian Martyr from everywhere in the land.”
The official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida also praised Milhem’s “Tel Aviv operation,” and portrayed the murderer who opened fire on security forces before being shot dead as a victim.
“An Israeli ‘commando’ force assassinated young Nashat Milhem, who carried out the Tel Aviv operation, yesterday during an exchange of gunfire,” reported the paper on Saturday, going on to reference the “execution” of the terrorist on Sunday.
The Qatari state-funded Al-Jazeera made a point on Saturday to report the social media uproar after the PA decided not to include Milhem as “martyr number 150” on its list of the terrorists killed in the current “uprising” – its term for the Arab terror wave that began in mid September to early October.
Under the hashtag #the_150th_Martyr_despite_your_opposition, users on Twitter criticized the PA Ministry of Health and Abbas, and “many expressed their condemnation and great anger” according to the paper, as revealed by PMW.
One tweet quoted by Al-Jazeera said Milhem was “were born a leader, lived like a leader, and down with the leaders after you.”
Another read: “the hero does not need certificates of this world or a death certificate from the Ministry of Health,” and went on to describe Milhem as “a martyr of the homeland.”
“Is someone who gave his soul for Allah at all interested in lists of the traitorous (Palestinian) Authority?,” wrote another.
PA Security Forces official spokesperson Adnan Al-Damiri also called Milhem a “martyr,” and condemned the rumor that the PA forces helped Israel catch the murderer.
“After Nashat Milhem’s death as a martyr, do the hostile and filthy-minded continue to spread (the lie), together with the occupation and its mobilized, false media, that Martyr Nashat was in the West Bank and the Palestinian security assisted in searching for him?!?!,” he wrote on Facebook on Friday.
“Do Hamas, its halfwits, and its dupe followers still rely on the Hebrew media, leaks from the Hebrew press, and enemy sources, in order to satisfy their lust for hatred of Fatah and the PA? You should be ashamed of your lie, even just a little. A Muslim does not lie, and a fighter does not lie!”
