TEL AVIV – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party praised the murder of an American tourist in Jaffa on Tuesday, calling the terrorist a “heroic martyr,” Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported.
On its official Facebook page, Fatah posted a sketch of a hand (pictured) gripping a knife over a map of Israel and the Palestinian territories. The Arabic text on the arm reads “the heroic shahid” – the Arabic term for “martyr.” The name of the terrorist, Bashar Masalha, is written on the map.
Masalha, a 22-year-old man from the Palestinian town of Qalqilya, went on a stabbing rampage in Tel Aviv-Jaffa on Tuesday night, killing Vanderbilt University student and U.S. Army veteran Taylor Force, 29, who was visiting Israel, and wounding 12 others.
An anchor on the official Palestinian TV station referred to the American casualty and the other victims as “settlers.” The network also referred to the terrorist as a martyr.
The Palestinian Authority routinely refers to all Israelis as settlers and has used the term to justify murder on numerous occasions.
The attack in Jaffa happened close to where Vice President Joe Biden was meeting former Israeli president Shimon Peres.
On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Biden for his strong support and slammed the PA for failing to condemn terror attacks against Israelis.
“Unfortunately, President Abbas has not only refused to condemn these terrorism attacks. His Fatah party actually portrays the murderer of this American citizen as a Palestinian martyr and a hero. This is wrong. This failure to condemn terrorism should be condemned … by everyone in the international community,” Netanyahu said.