Palestinian television aired an interview with the relatives of the Fogel family murderers, praising the two cousins convicted with the brutal attack as “heroes.”

The broadcast was aired as part of a weekly show on the Palestinian state-run station called “For You,” which focuses on Palestinian prisoners incarcerated in Israel.

The show featured the aunt and mother of Hakim Awad, who along with his cousin Amjad was convicted of brutally stabbing to death five Fogel family members in an attack on their home in the West Bank settlement of Itamar on the night of March 11, 2011.

Hakim Awad’s mother sent her regards to her son, proudly describing him as the perpetrator of the Itamar attack and that he was sentenced to 5 consecutive life sentences.

Awad’s aunt then proceeded to describe her nephew as a “hero and a legend.”

The unusual broadcast was reported by the Israel-based media watchdog organization Palestinian Media Watch.

Late last year, Amjad Awad was convicted of the murdering of Ehud and Ruth Fogel, along with three of their young children, Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and Hadas, 3 months old, before fleeing the scene. His cousin Hakim was convicted a month earlier. Both men were sentenced to five consecutive life sentences by an IDF court.

-haaretz.com, 29 January 2012




It is a tradition to praise soldiers who are duty-bound by their respective government to fight real or perceived enemies; that’s one thing. It’s quite another to permit a television station to blatantly praise cold-blooded murderers of children as young as three months old. That is a diabolical exhibition of brutality!

This is not an isolated event. There are several organizations in Israel that document such atrocities and bring it to the public’s attention. While Arab Palestinians are often subject to extreme security checks, sometimes followed by interrogation, it is known that this serves to avoid terrorist infiltration in Israel with subsequent loss of life and property. But what this shows is that a public news media organization legitimizes cold-blooded murder. Such behavior makes it all but impossible for there to be a peaceful solution between Arab Palestinians and Jewish Israelis.  

Based on information available to us, there was no public apology by the Palestinian Authority.

(For more on the world’s bias against Israel, read Judgment Day!, Item 2211, $21.99.)

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