Knesset Member Mohammad Barakeh of the nominally communist Hadash party met recently with the head of the Democratic Front for Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), Naif Hawatmeh, in Amman, Jordan. Barakeh reportedly expressed his deep appreciation for Hawatmeh and noted the "historic ties" between the terrorist organization and his party.

In turn, Hawatmeh expressed his admiration for the "historic role" played by the Israeli Communist Party and its successor, Hadash.

The DFLP, a splinter of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), is the third largest of the terror groups forming the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).
Hawatmeh expressed his admiration for the "historic role" played by the Israeli Communist Party.
The DFLP and its leader Hawatmeh operate in Syria and receive support from the Damascus regime. The group's most notorious attacks were the Maalot school massacre and the Avivim school bus attack, both in the 1970s, which left a total of 38 people dead, mostly children. Despite its deadly history, the DFLP is not listed as a terrorist group by the United States or by the United Nations.

As MK Barakeh met with the DFLP's Hawatmeh in Jordan, MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al) met on Sunday in Israel with jailed Palestinian Authority terrorist kingpins, from Fatah and the PFLP, Marwan Barghouti and Abed Al-Rahim Maluch.

Barghouti, a former leader of the Fatah-affiliated Tanzim terrorist militia, is serving five life sentences and an additional 20 years after being convicted of five counts of murder and one attempted murder. Barghouti was at one time considered a front-runner to challenge Fatah chief and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) for leadership of the PA. Maluch is the current deputy secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the second largest PLO constituent organization.

MK Tibi, a favored interviewee in Israeli mainstream media, was an advisor to PLO founder Yasser Arafat.

Meanwhile, the head of the Lebanese Hizbullah terrorist organization, Hassan Nasrallah, said Sunday that former MK Azmi Bishara did not spy for Hizbullah during the Second Lebanon War. Bishara, now living as a fugitive overseas, has been accused of passing intelligence information to the terrorist group and of suggesting ways that Hizbullah could cause the greatest possible damage to Israel. Nasrallah accused Israel of fabricating the charges.

In a related report of minority identification with an enemy of Israel, 300 residents of Druze villages on the Golan Heights marked a memorial day for Syrians who were killed in wars against the Ottoman empire, France and the State of Israel. Ceremonies for what is known in Syria as Martyrs' Day were held on Sunday in the Israeli towns of Buk'ata and Majdal Shams, in the Golan region. Similar ceremonies were held simultaneously throughout Syria.


Ceremonies for the Syrian Martyrs' Day were held on Sunday in Israeli towns.

Petition Filed to Ease PA Arab Requests for Israeli Citizenship
Seeking to make it easier for PA Arabs to unify with their Israeli Arab families, MK Zehava Gal'on (Meretz) has filed a petition with the High Court of Justice against the revised Law of Citizenship passed by the Knesset recently. The law prevents foreign nationals from gaining Israeli citizenship by virtue of marriage with Arab Israelis. The state had shown the court evidence that 26 of 146 recent incidents of Arab terror were carried out by Arabs from the Palestinian Authority who carried Israeli ID cards thanks to "family unification."

The Gal'on petition, submitted by attorney Dafna Holtz-Lechner, claims that the law denies Israeli Arabs their basic constitutional rights, and contadicts the principle of equality. Previous petitions against the law were turned down by the High Court last year, by a slim majority of six to five. At the time, the president of the court was still Justice Aharon Barak.

In a related item, two Israeli citizens will be charged with employing 49 illegal migrant workers from Judea and Samaria. The migrants were arrested on Sunday by the Dan district police in Tel Aviv. After being questioned, the undocumented illegals were returned to the PA.