Israel Glorifies Its Own Murderers

[Purveyor]

In their March 17 Times Op-Ed article, "Why glorify the murderers?" Ron Kehrmann, Yossi Mendelevich and Yossi Zur make a number of misleading statements and remove all historical context in their effort to demonize Palestinians as people who hate Israeli children more than they love their own.

To begin with, the Palestinian Authority did not "decide to honor" Dalal Mughrabi, as the authors claim; the decision was made by a lower-level municipal council. The Palestinian Authority, in fact, canceled the public ceremony that was planned. Moreover, the square in question has not been renamed after Mughrabi.

The personal pain Kehrmann, Mendelevich and Zur have suffered as parents who lost children in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be minimized or dismissed. But if Israelis are so concerned about the glorification of "terrorists," they should start cleaning up their own backyard.

To cite just one example of many, in July 2006 a plaque was unveiled in Jerusalem's King David Hotel honoring the men of the Irgun terrorist group who bombed the hotel in 1948, killing 92 people. In response, the British ambassador to Israel issued a statement declaring, "We do not think that it is right for an act of terrorism, which led to the loss of many lives, to be commemorated." Among those attending the ceremony honoring the mass murderers was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. One of the perpetrators of the crime was on hand to provide guided tours.

Irgun's leader, Menachem Begin, would go on to be elected prime minister of Israel, as would his fellow pre-1948 Zionist terrorist leader Yitzhak Shamir. Both men were responsible for the murder of far more innocents than Mughrabi, both men were unrepentant, and both men are honored in myriad ways in Israel today.

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LATIMES: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-oew-hazou26-2010mar26,0,5069413.story