JERUSALEM – Just in case anyone missed it the first time around, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party reiterated its praise for the terrorists who committed a 1972 attack on Israel’s airport after reports that the party was honoring the surviving gunman, Kozo Okamoto, (pictured) ahead of the anniversary of the attack.
Fatah issued two follow-up posts on its official Facebook page “in response to the Israeli media.” The original story, first exposed by Israeli NGO Palestinian Media Watch, was picked up, among others, by the Associated Press and Breitbart Jerusalem, and revealed that Fatah posted pictures of the surviving terrorist alongside a photo of the attack with the accompanying text:
“A thousand greetings to the Japanese fighter and comrade Kozo Okamoto, the hero of the Lod airport operation.”
In the new posts, Fatah again showers “blessings” on the Japanese “fighter,” “comrade,” and “hero.”
In 1972, three members of the Japanese Red Army were recruited by a Palestinian militant group to carry out a terror attack at Israel’s airport. Using hand grenades and guns, the terrorists killed 24 people and wounded 70 on May 30. Okamoto was the only terrorist to survive and served 13 years in Israeli prisons before being released as part of a negotiated release for three kidnapped IDF soldiers.
“The Fatah movement is proud of all who have joined its ranks and the ranks of the Palestinian revolution for the freedom of the Palestinian people. We are proud of every fighter who has joined our mighty revolution,” the post reads, adding that Okamoto suffered “all kinds of tortures” in the Israeli “slaughterhouse” of a prison.
The post also states that “if Israel wants peace it should get out of our land.”
“Our land” in Fatah and Palestinian Authority parlance usually means all of Israel and not just the disputed territories in the West Bank.