Sunday marked International Women’s Day. Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction celebrated the event in a unique way: by lauding a female Arab terrorist who kidnapped and murdered a 16-year-old Israeli.
Fatah posted an image of terrorist Amna Muna on its official Facebook page, terming her “O glorious one,” and vowing she “is always present in our hearts,” as revealed and translated by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).
“When we speak of the Palestinian woman on her day (i.e., International Women’s Day), you must be present, O glorious one, the prisoner who was exiled from Palestine to Turkey, and is always present in our hearts. Warm wishes to the women of Palestine,” read the post.
Muna facilitated the murder of 16-year-old Ofir Rahum on January 17, 2001. She met Rahum in an online chat room and convinced him to meet her, at which point she drove him to Ramallah where he was murdered by her two terrorist accomplices.
Despite being arrested and handed a life sentence, she was freed in the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal that saw 1,027 Arab terrorists go free.
PMW notes that upon her released in 2011, the official PA daily interviewed Muna and termed her “brave” and a “female fighter and leader.” Likewise a PA TV host honored her, saying “without a doubt, I love you.”
After being freed Muna was deported to Turkey given that she refused to go to Gaza.
As for Women’s Day, the PA has a problematic record on the issue with rampant cases of “honor killings,” the Islamic phenomenon of murdering a woman to defend “familial honor.”
There was a 100% increase in honor killings under the PA in 2013, with victims of the practice including women who were raped, or refused arranged marriages. As of last May that high rate of killing was set to continue in 2014, and PA journalists complained over the phenomenon, calling for a change.
Surprisingly, in contrast to PA ambivalence on the issue, a member of the Hamas “parliament,” Dr. Yunis Al-Astal, spoke out strongly against “honor killings” last February, saying the killing is worse than the affront to the “family honor” that sparked the murder.
