JERUSALEM– The Palestinian Authority’s official television network broadcast a special edition of a TV show from the family home of a terrorist who murdered his Israeli employer 15 years ago, referring to him as a “hero” and a “source of pride for Palestine.”
In 2002 As’ad Zo’rob shot and killed his Israeli boss while the latter was giving him a ride in his car. Zo’rob is serving a life sentence in an Israeli jail for the murder. PA TV, for a show called I Call You, visited the terrorist’s family’s birthday celebrations in Zo’rob’s honor.
“Dear viewers, we are transmitting to you from the home of heroic prisoner As’ad Zo’rob,” the TV host reported, before turning to the brother of the murderer.
“He is a hero, and is everything to us. He has made us proud,” Zo’rob’s brother said according to a translation by Israeli NGO Palestinian Media Watch.
“Of course, this prisoner is a [source of] pride for your family and all of Palestine,” the reporter responded.
In 2013, PA TV visited a similar birthday party honoring Abbas Al-Sayid, a terrorist who is serving 35 life sentences for planning two suicide bombings. The first, in 2001, claimed the lives of 30 Israelis and wounded a further 100. The second occurred during the Passover seder in 2002 at the Park Hotel in Netanya and was one of the biggest bombs of the Second Intifada claiming the lives of 30 people.
The same year PA TV visited the families Ibrahim Hamed and Abdullah Barghouti, between them serving 121 life sentences.
PA TV has several television shows specifically dedicated to honoring terrorists. One is the aforementioned “I Call You,” the other is “For You” and the third is a weekly show called “Giants of Endurance.” Each week, the show honors “heroes” responsible for the murder of Israelis by inviting their relatives as guests in the studio or visiting them in their homes to speak about their murderous loved ones.