Top PA official Jibril Rajoub has asserted that Fatah is a champion of equal rights for women. The proof is that the PA/Fatah also sends women, just as it sends men, to carry out murderous terror attacks:

“If we didn’t have a culture like this [of equal rights for women], would we have wanted Dalal Mughrabi to lead an operation like this (i.e., the most lethal attack in Israel’s history in which 37 Israelis were murdered) and Fatima Barnawi (i.e., who placed a bomb in a movie theatre)?”

Palestinian Media Watch recently reported that on International Women’s Day official PA TV News also singled out these same female terrorists as “role models of honorable and fighting women”.

In the same interview, Rajoub defended the PA’s policy of glorifying terrorists and murderers who have killed Israelis. Rajoub’s defense was probably triggered by Palestinian Media Watch’s numerous exposures of PA and Fatah officials honoring terrorists and murderers. Rajoub indignantly opened his defense saying “Someone said: ‘They are praising the Martyrs.’

Arguing for the legitimacy of this ideology, Rajoub explained “Sure” they should be honored. He then singled out for “praise” some of Fatah’s most notorious arch-terrorists: Abu Jihad who orchestrated attacks in which at least 125 Israelis were murdered; Abu Iyad who headed the terror organization Black September that carried out the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972; and Yasser Arafat, who – among other terror – orchestrated the PA’s 4-year terror campaign “the Al-Aqsa Intifada” in which over 1,100 Israelis were murdered mostly by suicide bombers.

“Rajoub further emphasized that today’s Palestinians are “their (i.e., the arch-terrorists) followers and soldiers” who were “educated in their schools”:

Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “Someone said [about us]: ‘They are praising the Martyrs.’ Okay, sure! We are their followers. We are their soldiers. We were educated in their schools… Sure, I praise Abu Jihad, Abu Iyad, Yasser Arafat, and all these stars who are the ones who destroyed all the obstacles, broke through all the barriers, and created Palestinian nationalism for us. Why should we not praise them? …

We are the ones who gave the women their rights… Dalal Mughrabi (i.e., terrorist who led murder of 37), Fatima Barnawi (i.e., terrorist who placed a bomb in a movie theater). If we didn’t have a culture like this, would we have wanted Dalal Mughrabi to lead an operation like this, and Fatima Barnawi?…

The [Legislative] Council (i.e., the Palestinian Parliament) should be a beacon. A beacon for the entire world that will reflect the power of the Martyrs, prisoners, and all the fighters – and every Palestinian is a fighter.”

[Official Fatah Facebook page, Feb. 21, 2021]

Abu Jihad (Khalil Al-Wazir) – was a founder of Fatah and deputy to Yasser Arafat. He headed the PLO terror organization’s military wing and also planned many deadly Fatah terror attacks in the 1960’s – 1980’s. These attacks, in which a total of 125 Israelis were murdered, included the most lethal in Israeli history – the hijacking of a bus and murder of 37 civilians, 12 of them children.

Abu Iyad (Salah Khalaf) – PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat’s deputy, one of the founders of Fatah, and head of the terror organization Black September, a secret branch of Fatah. Attacks he planned include the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics (Sept. 5, 1972) and the murder of two American diplomats in Sudan (March 1, 1973). It is commonly assumed that his assassin, a former Fatah bodyguard, was sent by the Abu Nidal Organization, a rival Palestinian faction.

Yasser Arafat – Founder of Fatah and former chairman of the PLO and PA. During the 1960s, 70s and 80s Arafat was behind numerous terror attacks against Israelis. Although he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 together with then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and then Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Shimon Peres “for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East” after signing the Oslo Accords peace agreement, Arafat launched a 5-year terror campaign – the second Intifada (2000-2005) – in which more than 1,000 Israelis were murdered. Arafat died of an illness in 2004.

Dalal Mughrabi – female Palestinian terrorist who led the most lethal terror attack in Israel’s history, known as the Coastal Road massacre, in 1978, when she and other Fatah terrorists hijacked a bus on Israel’s Coastal Highway, murdering 37 civilians, 12 of them children, and wounding over 70.

Fatima Barnawi – Palestinian female terrorist who placed a bomb in a movie theater in Jerusalem in 1967. The bomb failed to explode. She was sentenced to life in prison but was released in 1977 after serving 10 years. In 2015, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas honored Barnawi with the Military Star of Honor.

Jibril Rajoub also serves as Head of the PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, Chairman of the Palestinian Football Association, Chairman of the Palestine Olympic Committee, and Chairman of the Palestinian Scout Association (PSA).