Read like a murderer: PA honors killer of three as role model to encourage reading

(June 21, 2018 / Palestinian Media Watch)

On Oct. 13, 2015, Palestinian terrorists Baha Alyan and Bilal Ghanem boarded a bus in Jerusalem and attacked passengers with a gun and a knife, murdering three people. Alyan was shot and killed by an Israeli security guard, while Ghanem was wounded and later imprisoned.

Before deciding to become a terrorist and murder Israelis, Baha Alyan once organized a “human reading chain” in Jerusalem. Despite Alyan being a murderer—or perhaps precisely because Alyan became a murderer of Israelis—the Palestinian Authority is now using him as a role model to encourage reading.

In the company of Mahmoud Alyan, the father of terrorist Baha Alyan, P.A. Minister of Culture Ehab Bessaiso launched the “National Reading Day events” earlier this year. Referring to terrorist Alyan’s reading chain in 2014, the P.A. minister said that because “martyrs and prisoners” had been among the initiators of that chain, the P.A. Ministry of Culture has declared March 16 National Reading Day “out of loyalty to their memory and the Palestinian national struggle, and out of our absolute belief that culture is resistance”:

Minister Bessaiso: “They formed the longest human reading chain around the walls of Jerusalem. This happened on March 16, 2014. Among those who initiated this chain were martyrs (shahids) and prisoners. Therefore, and out of loyalty to their memory and the Palestinian national struggle, and out of our absolute belief that culture is resistance, we in the Ministry of Culture have decided … to declare March 16 each year National Reading Day in all the homeland’s districts. This is out of loyalty to the martyrs and to everyone that believes that culture can remain one of the central pillars of the national resistance.”

[Official P.A. daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 17, 2018]

The P.A. Ministry of Culture had invited murderer Alyan’s father to speak at the event, and he also joined the minister for a group photo:

Left: Mahmoud Alyan, the father of terrorist Baha Alyan, speaks at the event.

Right: Group phtoto in Ramallah. P.A. Minister of Culture Ehab Bessaiso is seen in the center with his hands resting on the shoulders of terrorist Baha Alyan’s father (www.sadaa.ps) on March 16, 2018.
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In his speech, the murderer’s father said his son would have appreciated the events, and interpreted the fact that “Palestine reads” as “victory is near”:

“If he [Baha] was here for a moment, perhaps he would be happy and smile, but he would say that Palestine is reading, and when Palestine reads, victory is certainly near. This is Baha’s message and the message of the martyrs.”

[Official P.A. daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 17, 2018]

In the Qalqilya and Tulkarem districts, two “human reading chains” were established in “honor of” terrorist murderer Baha Alyan. The chains were called “Baha Is an Idea and the Idea Will Not Die.” While the official purpose of the reading chains was to encourage Palestinians to read, the slogan, however, could easily be understood to refer to the “idea” of becoming a “martyr” while murdering Israelis the way Alyan did:

Official P.A. TV narrator: “In the Qalqilya and Tulkarem districts, the Directorate of Culture, together with the Tamer Institute for Community Education, organized two human chains titled “Baha Is an Idea and the Idea Will Not Die,” in honor of Martyr Baha Alyan (i.e., terrorist, murdered 3).”

Read like a murderer: PA honors killer of three as role model to encourage reading

Murderer’s father: “If he [Baha] was here ... he would say that Palestine is reading, and when Palestine reads, victory is certainly near.”

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