The PA's Ministry of Culture released its "Book of the Month" on Monday, a poetry collection honoring suicide terrorist Hanadi Jaradat, who murdered 19 Israelis. It was distributed as a special supplement in the daily Al-Ayyam.



Entitled "What Did Hanadi Say?" the collection includes a poem glorifying Jaradat's act of suicide terror, calling it "the highest goal":



"O Hanadi! Shake the earth under the feet of the enemies! Blow it up! Hanadi said: 'It is the wedding of Hanadi, the day when death as a Martyr for Allah becomes the highest goal that liberates my land.'"



Hanadi Jaradat, murderer of 19 Israelis glorified by Palestinian Authority [Photo:
Hanadi Jaradat, murderer of 19 Israelis glorified by Palestinian Authority [Photo:PMW
The poem is dedicated to Jaradat, referred to as "the Rose of Palestine," who murdered 19 Jews and Arabs in a suicide bombing in the Maxim restaurant in Haifa on October 4, 2003.



While world leaders push for a two-state solution in Israel based on an Israeli retreat to the 1967 borders in exchange for a total cessation of terrorism, the PA Ministry of Culture poem published on Monday does little to encourage such a settlement. The poem arouses in its readers a yearning to Arab sovereignty over Israel's third largest city which is located deep inside of Israel's pre-1967 borders:



O Hanadi! O Hanadi!

Revenge calls!

She shouted: 'O the light of my eyes!

O my beloved, I long for Haifa'


[PA Ministry of Culture Publication of the Month Supplement, Al-Ayyam, August 22, 2005]



This same theme of sovereignty over all of Israel was echoed earlier this year in a sermon by Sheik Ibrahim Madiras broadcast on the Palestinian Authority TV. [The 1948 borders referred to in the following clip constitute the borders of the entire State of Israel at its establishment. The PA broadcast called for Arab sovereignty over these borders, meaning the elimination of Israel] Click here to view the video clip of this broadcast.



"We might return to the 1967 borders by diplomacy, but we shall not return to the 1948 borders by diplomacy. No one on this earth recognizes [our right to] the 1948 borders. Therefore, we shall return to the 1967 borders, but it does not mean that we have given up on Jerusalem, and Haifa, Jaffa, Lod, Ramle, Netanya and Tel Aviv. Never..."



"Your father's blood was shed there, at the villages, at Ashqelon, Ashdod, Hirbia [Kibbutz Zikim] and hundreds of villages and towns that demand it from us. [Their blood] shall curse anyone who will concede a grain of earth of those villages. The land of Palestine will demand the Palestinians return as Muhammad returned - as a conqueror."





In another example of honoring female terrorists, the PA's official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, yesterday trumpeted the establishment by Hamas of a brigade of aspiring female terrorists.



This picture of women training in the Gaza strip with American-made automatic rifles was published, along with text describing the various roles for which the women are in training.



Some excepts from the Al-Hayat Al-Jadida article follow:




"According to sources in Al-Qassam brigades, this unit, which consists of several Palestinian women civilians, is trained in using all sorts of weapons that can be found inside the Gaza Strip, for example Al-Qassam rockets...



"These women were training in groups. One group was trained to prepare and plant explosives, another was trained using missile launchers, another was trained using mortars, and another was practicing an assault maneuver.



"A member of this unit said these women train for joining the efforts of jihad and liberation.



"This woman, who was a spokesperson for the unit, was wearing an army uniform, and a veil covered her face, and she was carrying a machine gun on her shoulder, and a gun on her hip.



"It is worth mentioning that the phenomenon of women militant troops is unique among the Islamic movements. The militant role of women was first revealed by the self-sacrificial actions carried out by Hiba Al-Daraghma and Hanadi Jaradat of Al-Quds Brigades [of the Islamic Jihad], and Reem Riyashi of Al-Qassam Brigades [of Hamas]."


[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, August 21, 2005]



[Based on an article by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook of Palestinian Media Watch]