Monday, May 17, 2010

The PA’s Policy Of Naming Schools, Summer Camps, Sporting Events, Streets And Ceremonies After Terrorists

The following report was presented to Congress on May 6 Below is the summary.

The entire report is available online.
From Terrorists to Role Models:
The Palestinian Authority's
Institutionalization of Incitement
The PA’s policy of naming schools, summer camps,
sporting events, streets and ceremonies after terrorists
fundamentally undermines the chance for peace

by Itamar Marcus, Nan Jacques Zilberdik, Barbara Crook and PMW staff

Executive Summary

The Palestinian Authority has named numerous locations and events after Palestinian terrorists
responsible for killing Israeli civilians. In this special report, Palestinian Media Watch
investigates the breadth of this phenomenon and to what extent it continues in 2010.
Furthermore, PMW will assess whether this represents activities of a fringe group within society, or represents Palestinian Authority policy.


Findings

The Palestinian Authority’s recent naming of a square in Ramallah after the terrorist Dalal
Mughrabi, who led a terror attack that killed 37 civilians, was not an isolated incident. It is one example among many of how the PA has institutionalized incitement by systematically turning
terrorists into role models.

In this report, Palestinian Media Watch documents the ongoing Palestinian Authority policy of
glorifying terrorists through the naming of places and events after them, especially after those
responsible for the most murderous attacks. Dalal Mughrabi, whose bus hijacking killed more
Israelis than any other Palestinian terror attack, has been immortalized through the naming of
numerous places and events, including: Two elementary schools, a kindergarten, a computer
center, summer camps, football tournaments, a community center, a sports team, a public
square, a street, an election course, an adult education course, a university club, a dance
troupe, a military unit, a dormitory in a youth center, a TV series, a TV quiz team and a
graduation ceremony. And Mughrabi is just one example among many.

For this report, PMW has chosen 100 examples of places and events named after 46 different
terrorists in order to show the scope of the phenomenon. Twenty six of the examples have been
reported in the Palestinian media in 2010.

Terror glorification is highly visible in Palestinian society. A Palestinian child can walk to school along a street named after the terrorist Abu Jihad, who planned a bus hijacking that killed 37, spend the day learning in a school named after Hamas founder Ahmad Yassin, in the afternoon play football in a tournament named after suicide terrorist Abdel Baset Odeh who killed 31, and end his day at a youth center named after terrorist Abu Iyad, responsible for the killing of the 11 Olympic athletes in Munich. A young woman can join a university women’s club named Sisters of Dalal, after Dalal Mughrabi, attend a week at Al-Quds University honoring suicide bomb builder Yahya Ayyash, and participate in university rallies named after numerous terrorists. Honoring terrorists envelops and plays a significant part in defining the Palestinian world.

Two types of incitement: Direct calls to kill vs. honoring terrorists who killed

The PA practice of honoring terrorists is a very dangerous form of incitement, because it praises the killer and the act of killing after the actual murder has taken place. When an Imam on PA TV calls to kill Jews, the murder is at that point a possibility. No one has yet been killed. Honoring a suicide terrorist does not refer to a possibility, but glorifies an actual murder.

When PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas funded a computer center named after Mughrabi, he was
telling Palestinian society that killing Rebecca Hochman and her sons, 6-year-old Roi and 3-
year-old Ilan, along with 34 other civilians in a bus hijacking, was not merely acceptable, but an act worthy of honor. When the PA Ministry of Education held a football tournament named after
suicide terrorist Odeh who killed 31, it was saying that the act of murder is what turns
Palestinians into heroes. The PA’s message that terrorists are role models is as damaging to peace as it is disturbing. Honoring a murderer is incitement to murder.

PA leaders honor terrorists

The terror veneration that this report documents is not of a fringe group but is policy of the PA, the Fatah party and the Palestinian leaders. PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in April 2010
sponsored a sports event named after Abu Jihad, who orchestrated Dalal Mughrabi’s bus
hijacking and many other terror attacks. And Abbas, in addition to funding the computer center
named after Dalal Mughrabi in 2009, also publicly supported the naming of the square in her
name in 2010.

Palestinian Authority defends policy of honoring terrorists

In response to PMW’s exposing the plans to name a square near Ramallah after Dalal
Mughrabi, the Palestinian Authority defended this practice at the highest levels, acknowledging
that this terror veneration is part of PA policy:

Mahmoud Abbas, PA Chairman, on naming square after Mughrabi:
"Of course I did not go myself, but I do not deny [the naming]. Of course we want to name a square after her.” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 17, 2010]

Siham Barghouti, PA Minister of Culture, on naming square after Mughrabi:
"Honoring them in this way [by naming public places after them] is the least we can give them, and this is our right." [Al-Ayyam, Jan. 11, 2010]

Mahmoud Al-Aloul, member of Fatah Central Committee, defending immortalizing terrorists:
"It is important to continue commemorating the memory of the Shahids (Martyrs) and the Palestinian acts of heroism, and most importantly the anniversary of the Martyrdom of Dalal Mughrabi, heroine of the Coastal Road operation [attack that killed 37], which falls on March 11th… Al-Aloul said that Fatah has acted and continues to act to immortalize its Shahids (Martyrs) and heroes… He added: 'It is our right and our duty to take pride in all of the Shahids (Martyrs), and it is our duty to convey this message in the most direct manner to the generations to come.’" [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 25, 2010]

Speaking on behalf of Mahmoud Abbas, about street named after Abu Jihad:
“In his speech on behalf of the President [Abbas], Tayeb Al-Rahim said: ‘Today we are celebrating the inauguration of a street named after the leader Abu Jihad, Prince of the Shahids… He had the honor of introducing the idea of the armed Palestinian struggle… We say that the entire [Palestinian] nation has become Abu Jihad, and that our people are proud of him. His name has been given to hospitals and schools and centers and streets. Abu Jihad did not die; he lives on in our midst. Abu Jihad is the engineer of the revolution; the first bullet.” [Emphasis added] [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 21, 2010]
Defining a terrorist for this report

In this report, a terrorist is defined as a person who carried out, planned, organized or assisted in attacks that deliberately targeted civilians for the strategic goal of killing civilians and/or terrorizing a civilian population. It does not include as a terrorist act the attacking of military or terrorist targets for the purpose of eliminating a real or perceived threat, even though civilians may have been killed. The strategic purpose is critical in the definition of terror. Attacks intentionally directed at civilian targets are terror. Attacks targeting military targets are not terror, even if civilians were also killed.

Furthermore, this report does not include individuals who participated in terror activities but later turned to political activity. The many places and events named after Yasser Arafat are not
included, even though he planned numerous terror attacks whose sole purpose was the killing
of civilians, because he later received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Non-Palestinians included in this report

It is not only Palestinians involved in violence who are honored in this way by the PA. Iraqi
insurgent Ali Al-Naamani committed the first suicide bombing attack in Iraq, killing four
American soldiers. The Palestinians named a central area in Jenin Refugee Camp after him.
Likewise, Saddam Hussein has a Palestinian school and a road named after him. While these
two do not fit the strict definition of terrorists, they have been included in the report because they are important for showing the range of people involved in violence who have been honored within the PA.

Methodology - general terrorist glorification not included in this report

This report is documenting only the naming of places and events in honor of terrorists that have
been cited in the PA media. PMW has not investigated all the PA schools or all street names
and therefore the full extent of the phenomenon is certainly greater. In addition this report does not include the PA practice of glorifying terrorists directly through events in their honor, such as, assemblies, rallies, or TV specials on anniversaries of terror attacks. For example, on the annual anniversary of Dalal Mughrabi’s bus hijacking, PA TV has broadcast many special reports, interviews and programs about her and the attack. While all this greatly compounds the problem, it is beyond the scope of this report.

Conclusion

The explicit and unmitigated rejection of terror on moral grounds is a basic condition for a
sincere and lasting peace. Whereas the PA leadership has publicly committed to fight violence,
this message can only be seen as insincere by their own people, when numerous terrorists who
murdered Israelis are repeatedly glorified by the PA leadership even in 2010.
Indeed, there is no more fundamental statement of support for violence and terror than when the
single act of intentionally targeting and killing Israeli civilians is enough to immortalize the name of the killer.

If there is to be any chance for peace, the Palestinian leadership must convince their own
people that terror is rejected -- not merely because it is damaging to Palestinian interests in
2010, but because it is immoral and wrong at all times. For peace to have a chance, terrorists
must be ostracized as immoral outcasts, not immortalized as heroes and role models.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

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14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps they're not terrorists for them. By the way, do you think that Irgun members (that were behind The King David Hotel bombing) are called terrorists in Israel? Or better - do you see them as terrorists?

Daled Amos said...

"Perhaps they're not terrorists for them."

If people who go around killing civilians and children are not considered terrorists by them, then by all means Israel should immediately refuse to negotiate peace with them.

As far as claiming a parallel with Irgun, see LEHI Members Refute Comparison To Hamas

Your comparison with the King David Hotel bombing conveniently leaves out all context--such as the phone call warning them to evacuate the building.

Anonymous said...

Sure, Israel can refuse to negotiate with them. But would it bring anything good? It won't change Palestinian way of thinking, it won't stop the attacks and finally, it won't bring peace to Israel (nor the Palestinians). Isolating them won't solve anything. In my opinion it'd be much better to stop fooling around and try to solve the problems. I'm talking about the occupation, about the illegal settletments and about grabing land. I hope you don't think Palestinian are attacking Israel or killing civilians just for fun. Of course Palestinian side has its own issues and obligations that need to be adressed as well.

As for King David Hotel bombing, I'd like to remind you that (no matter what your opinion is) there were still 91 innocent people killed. I call it terrorism and I'm not the only one. The bombing has appeared in literature about the practice and history of terrorism. It has been called one of the most lethal terrorist attacks of the 20th century.

Security analyst Bruce Hoffman wrote: "Indeed, whatever nonlethal intentions the Irgun might or might not have had, the fact remains that a tragedy of almost unparalleled magnitude was inflicted... so that to this day the bombing remains one of the world's single most lethal terrorist incidents of the twentieth century." (from wikipedia)

British Prime Minister (then) Clement Attlee said:
"... By this insane act of terrorism 93 innocent people have been killed or are missing in the ruins. The latest figures of casualties are 41 dead, 52 missing and 53 injured." (wikipedia)

Israel celebrates Irgun hotel bombers and call them "resistance".

At the same time they don't see Hezbollah or Hamas as resistance movements. Double standards? Perhaps.

Daled Amos said...

I'm talking about the occupation, about the illegal settletments and about grabing land.

And what exactly is their right to that land, since there has never been a sovereign Arab state there?

I call it terrorism
The difference between the Irgun and Palestinian terrorists being that the latter specifically target civilian targets and celebrate the successful murder of civilians--much as schools are targeted by Hamas Kassams.

But according to you--killing civilians makes Arabs into resistance.

Double standard? More like a lack of one.

Anonymous said...

So what if there was no sovereign Arab state there? They still lived there. What had the Palestinians done to lose their space?

I agree there are differences between the Irgun and Palestinian radical militant groups (called terrorists by some countries). But at the end of the day, more than 90 innocent civilians were killed in the hotel bombing. So, with that in mind, do you think that those Irgun members were terrorists or not?

As for double standards, I think perhaps it'd be fair to say that Irgun and Hamas are either both terrorists or both resistance movememnts that used some kind of terrorist methods. The problem is that Israel sees Irgun as heros, while it calls Hamas 'terrorists'. See my point now?

Daled Amos said...

So what if there was no sovereign Arab state there? They still lived there. What had the Palestinians done to lose their space?

o Many left
o Arabs declared war

The problem is that Israel sees Irgun as heros, while it calls Hamas 'terrorists'. See my point now?

Not at all. You are ignoring the condemnations of the Irgun at the time by fellow Jews--something you never see today among Arabs in response to the terrorist attacks.

Anonymous said...

Still, the land was NOT empty. There were people who were born in this land long before Israel was created in 1948. You should also ask yourself why did "many" of them leave and why did Arabs declared war. Surely not out of pure boredom.

"You are ignoring the condemnations of the Irgun at the time by fellow Jews--something you never see today among Arabs in response to the terrorist attacks."

I'm sure some Jews condemned the hotel bombing. Some of them condemned Deir Yassin massacre as well. But what does it change? Innocent people had still been killed. Some experts deny that the British had been warned; but even if they had been, this does NOT absolve those who planted the bomb from responsibility for the deaths, does it? BTW, I never heard Abbas actually praising Hamas for killing Israeli civilians. On the other hand, in 2006 some Israeli politicians - including Binyamin Netanyahu - commemorated the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Needless to say, Britains were not pleased to hear that.

Daled Amos said...

You should also ask yourself why did "many" of them leave and why did Arabs declared war.

You should too.

Here, let me help:

Appendix: Quotes confirming that Arab leaders told Arabs to flee:

1. “The first group of our fifth column consist of those who abandon their homes…At the first sign of trouble they take to their heels to escape sharing the burden of struggle” -- Ash-Sha’ab, Jaffa, 1.30.48

2. “(the fleeing villagers)…are bringing down disgrace on us all… by abandoning their villages” -- As-Sarih, Jaffa, 3.30.48

3. "Every effort is being made by the Jews to persuade the Arab populace to stay and carry on with their normal lives, to get their shops and businesses open and to be assured that their lives and interests will be safe." -- Haifa District HQ of the British Police, April 26, 1948, (quoted in
Battleground by Samuel Katz).

4. "The mass evacuation, prompted partly by fear, partly by order of Arab leaders, left the Arab quarter of Haifa a ghost city.... By withdrawing Arab workers their leaders hoped to paralyze Haifa." -- Time Magazine, May 3, 1948, page 25

5. “The Arab streets (of Palestine) are curiously deserted (because)…following the poor example of the moneyed class, there has been an exodus from Jerusalem, but not to the same extent as from Jaffa and Haifa”. -- London Times, 5.5.48

6. "The Arab civilians panicked and fled ignominiously. Villages were frequently abandoned before they were threatened by the progress of war." -- General John Glubb "Pasha," The London Daily Mail, August 12, 1948

7. “The fact that there are these refugees is the direct consequence of the act of the Arab states in opposing partition and the Jewish state. The Arab states agreed upon this policy unanimously and they must share in the solution of the problem." – Emile Ghoury, secretary of the Palestinian Arab Higher Committee, in an interview with the Beirut Telegraph 9/6/1948. (same appeared in The London Telegraph, 8.48)

8. The most potent factor [in the flight of Palestinians] was the announcements made over the air by the Arab-Palestinian Higher Executive, urging all Haifa Arabs to quit... It was clearly intimated that Arabs who remained in Haifa and accepted Jewish protection would be regarded as renegades."
-- London Economist Oct. 2, 1948)

9. “It must not be forgotten that the Arab Higher Committee encouraged the refugees’ flight from their homes in Jaffa, Haifa, and Jerusalem”. -- Near East Arabic Broadcasting Station, Cyprus, 4.3.49

10. "[The Arabs of Haifa] fled in spite of the fact that the Jewish authorities guaranteed their safety and rights as citizens of Israel." -- Monsignor George Hakim, Greek Catholic Bishop of Galilee, New York Herald Tribune, June 30, 1949

(continued in next comment)

Daled Amos said...

11. “The military and civil (Israeli) authorities expressed their profound regret at this grave decision (taken by the Arab military delegates of Haifa and the Acting Chair of the Palestine Arab Higher Committee to evacuate Haifa despite the Israeli offer of a truce). The Jewish mayor of Haifa made a passionate appeal to the delegation (of Arab military leaders) to reconsider its decision”.
-- Memorandum of the Arab National Committee of Haifa, 1950, to the governments of the Arab League, quoted in J. B. Schechtman, The Refugees in the World, NY 1963, pp. 192f.

12. Sir John Troutbeck, British Middle East Office in Cairo, noted in cables to superiors (1948-49) that the refugees (in Gaza) have no bitterness against Jews, but harbor intense hatred toward Egyptians: “ They say ‘we know who our enemies are (referring to the Egyptians)’, declaring that their Arab brethren persuaded them unnecessarily to leave their homes…I even heard it said that many of the refugees would give a welcome to the Israelis if they were to come in and take the district over”.

13. "The Arab states which had encouraged the Palestine Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies, have failed to keep their promise to help these refugees." – The Jordanian daily newspaper Falastin, Feb. 19, 1949.

14. "The Secretary General of the Arab League, Azzam Pasha, assured the Arab peoples that the occupation of Palestine and of Tel Aviv would be as simple as a military promenade...Brotherly advice was given to the Arabs of Palestine to leave their land, homes, and property to stay temporarily In neighboring fraternal states, lest the guns of invading Arab armies mow them down." --Al Hoda (a New York-based Lebanese daily) June 8, 1951.

15. "Who brought the Palestinians to Lebanon as refugees, suffering now from the malign attitude of newspapers and communal leaders, who have neither honor nor conscience? Who brought them over in dire straits and penniless, after they lost their honor? The Arab states, and Lebanon amongst them, did it." -- The Beirut Muslim weekly Kul-Shay, Aug. 19, 1951.

(continued in next comment)

Daled Amos said...

16. "We will smash the country with our guns and obliterate every place the Jews seek shelter in. The Arabs should conduct their wives and children to safe areas until the fighting has died down."
-- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Said, quoted in “Sir An-Nakbah” (The Secret Behind the Disaster) by Nimr el-Hawari, Nazareth, 1952

16. "The Arab Exodus …was not caused by the actual battle, but by the exaggerated description spread by the Arab leaders to incite them to fight the Jews. …For the flight and fall of the other villages it is our leaders who are responsible because of their dissemination of rumors exaggerating Jewish crimes and describing them as atrocities in order to inflame the Arabs ... By spreading rumors of Jewish atrocities, killings of women and children etc., they instilled fear and terror in the hearts of the Arabs in Palestine, until they fled leaving their homes and properties to the enemy."
– The Jordanian daily newspaper Al Urdun, April 9, 1953.

17. The Arab governments told us: Get out so that we can get in. So we got out, but they did not get in. (Quoting a refugee) -- Al Difaa (Jordan) Sept. 6, 1954.

18. “The wholesale exodus was due partly to the belief of the Arabs, encouraged by the boasting of an unrealistic press and the irresponsible utterances of some of the Arab leaders that it could be only a matter of some weeks before the Jews were defeated by the armies of the Arab states, and the Palestinian Arabs enabled to re-enter and re-take possession of their country”. -- Edward Atiyah (Secretary of the Arab League, London, The Arabs, 1955, p. 183)

19. “The Arab states do not want to solve the refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore, as an affront to the UN and as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders do not give a damn whether Arab refugees live or die”, -- Ralph Galloway, former head of UNWRA, 1956

20. "As early as the first months of 1948, the Arab League issued orders exhorting the people to seek a temporary refuge in neighboring countries, later to return to their abodes ... and obtain their share of abandoned Jewish property." -- Bulletin of The Research Group for European Migration Problems, 1957.

21. "Israelis argue that the Arab states encouraged the Palestinians to flee. And, in fact, Arabs still living in Israel recall being urged to evacuate Haifa by Arab military commanders who wanted to bomb the city." -- Newsweek, January 20, 1963.

22. "The 15th May, 1948, arrived ... On that day the mufti of Jerusalem appealed to the Arabs of Palestine to leave the country, because the Arab armies were about to enter and fight in their stead." -- The Cairo daily Akhbar el Yom, Oct. 12, 1963.

(continued in next comment)

Daled Amos said...

23. In listing the reasons for the Arab failure in 1948, Khaled al-Azm (Syrian Prime Minister) notes that “…the fifth factor was the call by the Arab governments to the inhabitants of Palestine to evacuate it (Palestine) and leave for the bordering Arab countries. Since 1948, it is we who have demanded the return of the refugees, while it is we who made them leave. We brought disaster upon a million Arab refugees by inviting them and bringing pressure on them to leave. We have accustomed them to begging...we have participated in lowering their morale and social level...Then we exploited them in executing crimes of murder, arson and throwing stones upon men, women and children...all this in the service of political purposes...” -- Khaled el-Azm, Syrian prime minister after the 1948 War, in his 1972 memoirs, published in 1973.

24. "The Arab states succeeded in scattering the Palestinian people and in destroying their unity. They did not recognize them as a unified people until the states of the world did so, and this is regrettable." -- Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), from the official journal of the PLO, Falastin
el-Thawra (“What We Have Learned and What We Should Do”), Beirut, March 1976.

25. “Since 1948, the Arab leaders have approached the Palestinian problem in an irresponsible manner. They have used to Palestinian people for political purposes; this is ridiculous, I might even say criminal...” -- KING HUSSSEIN, Hashemite kingdom of Jordan, 1996.

26. “Abu Mazen Charges that the Arab States Are the Cause of the Palestinian Refugee Problem” (Wall Street Journal; June 5, 2003):

· Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) penned an article in March 1976 in Falastin al-Thawra (cf. supra), the official journal of the PLO in Beirut: "The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny, but instead they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and to leave their homeland, imposed upon them a political and ideological blockade and threw them into prisons similar to the ghettos in which the Jews used to live in Eastern Europe" (emphasis added).

· As Abu Mazen alluded, it was in large part due to threats and fear-mongering from Arab leaders that some 700,000 Arabs fled Israel in 1948 when the new state was invaded by Arab armies. Ever since, the growing refugee population, now around 4 million by UN estimates, has been corralled into squalid camps scattered across the Middle East - in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank.

· In 1950, the UN set up the United Nations Relief and Works Agency as a "temporary" relief effort for Palestinian refugees. Former UNRWA director Ralph Galloway stated eight years later that, "the Arab states do not want to solve the refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore, as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders do not give a damn whether Arab refugees live or die." The only thing that has changed since then is the number of Palestinians cooped up in these prison camps.”

Daled Amos said...

BTW, I never heard Abbas actually praising Hamas for killing Israeli civilians.

So let's get this straight:
1. Dalal Mughrabi murders Israeli civilians

2. Abbas commemorates Dalal Mughrabi

3. But that does not mean Abbas commemorates what she did?

Daled Amos said...

2006 some Israeli politicians - including Binyamin Netanyahu - commemorated the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.

Among the facts you leave out is that the King David Hotel was the headquarters of British Rule--it was a military target. And it is in that context that Netanyahu spoke:

“It’s very important to make the distinction between terror groups and freedom fighters, and between terror action and legitimate military action,” he said. “Imagine that Hamas or Hezbollah would call the military headquarters in Tel Aviv and say, ‘We have placed a bomb and we are asking you to evacuate the area’.”

Arab terrorists don't target military targets--they target civilians.

That is why they are terrorists.

Anonymous said...

1.) Ok, so you provided some sources claiming that Arab leaders told Arabs to flee. All right. But I think the situation was more complex. The Palestinians left their homes (in 1947-48) for a variety of reasons. Some (mostly wealthy) Arabs left in anticipation of a war, thousands more responded to Arab leaders' calls to get out of the way of the advancing armies. Some were expelled. Many also simply fled to avoid being caught in the cross-fire of a war. The next question we should ask ourselves is why did Arabs declared war.

2.) You mentioned Dalal Mughrabi and Coastal Road massacre. I think there are some similarities between it and King David Hotel bombing. Key words for both cases would be: "attack", "occupation", "freedom fighters", "terrorism", "deaths of innocent people".

Let me try to explain. Dalal's sister Rashida said, "The objective was not to kill civilians, but to reach the Knesset and demand the release of Palestinian prisoners." (source: wikipedia). If that's true, their goal was a military target (as you claim it was in Irgun's King David Hotel case). But in the end there were many innocent civilians killed (like in King David Hotel bombing). What's more, Rashida al-Mughrabi, interviewed about her sister's participation in the attack, also said: "The Israelis are the ones who forced her to carry out the attack because they expelled us and stole our lands. They caused us a great injustice by turning us into a nation of refugees, and, if it weren't for the occupation, Dalal would never have carried out the attack. ..." (source: wikipedia). So for Palestinians Dalal was not a terrorist, but "a fighter who fought for the liberation of her own land." (source: wikipedia)

Sounds similar to Netanyahu's words when he spoke about Irgun and their actions. He praises them as heros. Now ask Britains about Irgun. They'll tell you a different story.

I'm sorry but I have to repeat myself: even if Britains had been warned, this does NOT absolve those who planted the bomb from responsibility for the deaths. Remember, Irgun and the Stern gang were regarded as terrorists and yet their terrorism resulted in the creation of the state of Israel. Which leads us to the old saying "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter". So true.