JERUSALEM – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party this week marked the 40th anniversary of the Coastal Road Massacre – the most lethal terror attack in Israel’s history in which 37 Israelis, including 13 children, were murdered – by honoring the “thunderous souls” of the Palestinian murderers and asserting that the infamous Dalal Mughrabi, who orchestrated the attack, died in a “most spectacular way” by first killing as many Israelis as possible.
“We stand in honor and appreciation of these thunderous souls, who ascended and hovered in Heaven to dwell by their Lord, cast their shadow and entered the heart, soul and memory of every Palestinian and of every Arab who belongs to Palestine,” a video posted on Fatah’s official Facebook page declared.
Palestinian Media Watch, which first exposed the video, explained that since the attack happened in 1978, Palestinians have referred to the hijacked bus in which most of the Israelis were murdered as “the first Palestinian Republic,” since the bus was under the terrorists’ control for a few hours as they drove from the north of the country to the center, shooting at passing cars on the way.
The video credits Mughrabi with being “the president of the first republic” and continues with a warped nod to the feminist movement by saying “heroism has no gender.”
“Arab men must understand that they don’t have a monopoly on the glory of life or the glory of death, and women can love much more nobly than the way they love, and die in a much more spectacular way than they die,” the Fatah video said.
It also describes the attack as “the bravest victory” before going on to describe the Palestinian version of events.
Twelve men under the command of a woman named Dalal Mughrabi.
They succeeded in establishing Palestine after the world refused to recognize their right to establish it.
They boarded a bus from Haifa to Tel Aviv and turned it into the temporary capital of the State of Palestine.
And raised the flag of the white-green-red-black colors at the front of the bus, and sang, called out and danced as school students do on trips.
When the Zionist forces surrounded them and helicopters chased them in order to overtake the bus with weapons, [Dalal and her men] blew it up and were blown up together with it.
For the first time in the history of revolutions a public bus turned into a fully sovereign independent republic for four hours.
The name of the president of the first republic was Dalal Mughrabi.
An image of Dalal Mughrabi posted March 10 on the Facebook page of the Fatah Movement – Bethlehem Branch alongside the text: “The legend that doesn’t die. Self-sacrificing fighter (Fida’iya) Dalal Mughrabi.”
Separately, Fatah’s women’s committee at the Palestinian universities, called the “Sisters of Dalal” after Mughrabi, celebrated International Women’s Day by handing out cards to women at An-Najah University with a short message praising Mughrabi and encouraging women to believe in themselves.
An image of Dalal Mughrabi in military gear posted on the Facebook page of the Fatah Movement – Bethlehem Branch alongside a quote from “the heroine”: “My enemy, I will not compromise, I will resist until my last heartbeat.”
The Jerusalem branch of Fatah sent a greeting to Palestinian women on International Women’s Day, telling them that they are “partners in the struggle” and that historically, women in Palestinian society have “carried out the most prominent acts of heroism,” like the “praiseworthy Martyr Dalal Mughrabi,” independent Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported last week.
PMW recently reported on a video released by Fatah in which it tried to hide the fact that children were murdered in the Coastal Road Massacre, instead claiming that everyone on the bus were “soldier passengers.” Below are photos of the Israeli children murdered in the attack.