As a deterrent against future terror attacks, Israel this week demolished the house of terrorist Qassam Barghouti. Barghouti was one of the terrorists who murdered the 17-year-old Israeli girl Rina Shnerb. The terrorists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) used a remote detonator to activate a bomb next to the Shnerb Family as they visited the Danny Spring near the town of Dolev north of Ramallah on Aug. 23, 2019. Rina was killed and her father and brother were injured.
Now the murderer’s mother says her greatest achievement in life as a mother was giving birth to a hero:
Mother of terrorist murderer Qassam Barghouti: “I say to [my son Qassam], to all of them [prisoners], that we are proud of you. If we want to talk about our achievements as mothers, then the most important achievement that we have made in our lives is that we gave birth to heroes such as these.”
[Twitter account of Quds News Network, May 11, 2020]
Palestinian Media Watch has documented similar expressions of pride by other murderers’ parents.
PA and PLO officials condemned Israel’s demolition of the house of murderer Barghouti.
PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh called the demolition “a war crime” [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 12, 2020] and condemned it in the name of the entire PA government, claiming that “the world” will object to it. [Facebook page of PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh, May 11, 2020]
Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr said Israel is “waging a real war against our brave prisoners” and that the house demolition is one of Israel’s “dirty methods of oppression” whose aim is to “criminalize the Palestinian struggle and label it as terror.” [WAFA, official PA news agency, May 11, 2020]
Another PA official, Ramallah and El-Bireh District Governor Laila Ghannam, even appeared at the site of the terrorist murderer’s house to comfort his mother. Whereas Ghannam described Israel’s demolition of the murderer’s home as “a crime,” she apparently doesn’t view the murder of an Israeli civilian – a 17-year-old girl – as a crime. Instead she described the demolition as an “attack” against Palestinian civilians:
Posted text: “Ghannam emphasized that the occupation’s destruction of the Barghouti family’s home is a new crime that is added to the crimes that it is committing every day against our defenseless people. She noted that the house destructions are a blatant violation of human rights and of all the international conventions and norms…
She noted that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s right-wing government is ignoring all of the international conventions by attacking civilians and destroying their homes on baseless excuses.”
[Facebook page of Ramallah and El-Bireh District Governor Laila Ghannam, May 11, 2020]
The following are longer excerpts of the statements cited above:
Video and text tweeted from the Twitter account of Quds News Network:
Posted text: “‘The most important achievement in our lives as mothers is that we gave birth to these heroes’ – moving words from Dr. Widad Barghouti, the mother of prisoner Qassam [Barghouti], while the occupation destroyed her home in Ramallah”
Visual: Widad Barghouti, the mother of terrorist Qassam Barghouti, is heard speaking while images are shown on screen. The first image shows her standing next to her home that was demolished by Israel as a deterrent step on May 11, 2020; Palestinian flags and red Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) flags are flying over the ruins. The second image shows her standing next to her son Qassam Barghouti. The third image shows Qassam Barghouti standing with other prisoners wearing prisoner uniforms.
Widad Barghouti: “Yes, I said that the occupation is drawing strength from its [military] vehicles, and drawing strength from the forces of tyranny in the world, from the forces of evil in the world, while we are drawing strength from our people. All the strength that the occupation exerts, all its power, its state, its army, and its [military] vehicles, and everyone who supports it in the world – from my point of view as a mother they are not worth Qassam’s shoe or a shoe of the Palestinian young people. We are drawing this willpower first of all from our right, our natural faith in our right and the justice of our cause… We are strong thanks to our humanity, strong thanks to our feeling that this homeland belongs to us, that it is our right. We are strong thanks to our people, strong thanks to our people. If they would destroy our home, even before they destroyed it… we found many homes that are willing to adopt us, and indeed we have not slept and will not sleep one night without a roof [over our heads], regardless of what the occupation does….
I say to [my son Qassam], to all of them [the prisoners], that we are proud of you. If we want to talk about our achievements as mothers, then the most important achievement that we have made in our lives is that we gave birth to heroes such as these.”
[Twitter account of Quds News Network, May 11, 2020]
PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh: “The [PA] government condemns the destruction of the home of prisoner Qassam Barghouti in the village of Kubar, and says that the world will not agree to this step because it is tantamount to collective punishment of our people.”
[Facebook page of PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh, May 11, 2020]
“During the weekly [PA] government meeting… Shtayyeh condemned the occupation forces’ destruction of the home of the family of prisoner Qassam Barghouti (i.e., terrorist, murdered 1 together with accomplices) in the town of Kubar. He said that the destruction constitutes a war crime, which will be added to the series of crimes that Israel has committed and that have been raised before the International Criminal Court (ICC).”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 12, 2020]
Headline: “Abu Bakr: The occupation is continuing its war against the prisoners and punishing their family members in all ways”
“Director of [PLO] Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr said that the occupation authorities are waging a real war against our brave prisoners and their families in all the terrorist and racist ways.
Abu Bakr said today, Monday [May 11, 2020], after the occupation’s bulldozers destroyed the home of prisoner Qassam Barghouti in the town of Kubar, that the occupation authorities – with all their legislative, executive, and judicial elements – are continuing the series of dirty methods of oppression whose goal is to criminalize the Palestinian struggle and label it as terror…
He emphasized that the cause of the prisoners, released prisoners, and their families is a sacred cause from the point of view of every Palestinian and every free person in the world, and that we will not abandon them, regardless of the Israeli pressures and acts of terror against them and against us.”
[WAFA, official PA news agency, May 11, 2020]
Images and text posted on the Facebook page of Ramallah and El-Bireh District Governor Laila Ghannam
Posted text: “Ramallah and El-Bireh District Governor Laila Ghannam and the [Palestinian] National and Islamic Forces in the district visited the family of prisoner Qassam Barghouti (i.e., terrorist, murdered 1 together with accomplices), whose home in the village of Kubar was demolished by the occupation’s bulldozers early this morning, Monday [May 11, 2020].
Ghannam emphasized that the occupation’s destruction of the Barghouti family’s home is a new crime that is added to the crimes that it is committing every day against our defenseless people. She noted that the house destructions are a blatant violation of human rights and of all the international conventions and norms.
Ghannam demanded that the international community intervene immediately and pressure the occupation government in order to stop the series of these recurring crimes against our people. She noted that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s right-wing government is ignoring all of the international conventions by attacking civilians and destroying their homes on baseless excuses.
District Governor Ghannam blessed the mother of prisoner Qassam Barghouti and his family. She explained that the policy of house destruction and collective punishment that the occupation government is implementing will not break our people’s willpower.”
[Facebook page of Ramallah and El-Bireh District Governor Laila Ghannam, May 11, 2020]
