TEL AVIV – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement has nominated the convicted murderer of six Israelis in a 1980 terror attack to run for Hebron’s municipal council, hailing the terrorist as a “hero” who carried out a “courageous operation.”
On May 2, 1980, Tayseer Abu Sneineh and three other Palestinian terrorists attacked a group of Israelis in Hebron with firearms and grenades, killing six and wounding 20 more.
All four terrorists were given life sentences but were later released in prisoner exchanges.
On Thursday, Palestinian Media Watch reported that Abu Sneineh was named as number two on Fatah’s electoral list in the Hebron municipal elections.
The elections, originally due to be held in October, have been postponed until December by the Palestinian Authority High Court following concerns over Hamas’ candidate lists.
According to PMW, Fatah posted on its official Facebook page, “Four young people met on one of the cold days of March 1980 in a cave in the Hebron hills … on that very day the four were unknown.”
“After a few months, the four carried out one of the most courageous self-sacrifice operations in the occupied areas, if not the most courageous, and it is the attack against the Jewish settlers in Hebron.”
The post also depicted the terrorists as mild-mannered men who were left with no choice but to kill Israelis in cold blood.
“The four heroes were not murderers, who feel a sense of enjoyment and satisfaction from the sight of blood, but rather [men] of delicate emotions, who the extremist Zionist occupiers denied the rights of their Palestinian people, and they did not find any other means besides weapons in order to restore them.”