Islamic law forbids the killing of non-combatants “” women and children “” unless they are deemed to be aiding in the war effort. I provide abundant citations for this from Islamic legal sources in Onward Muslim Soldiers.
Perhaps remembering the caveat that women and children are fair game if they are somehow aiding the warriors, the Palestinian Authority has held “a rally . . . in Tulkarem on Friday in honor of Sirhan Sirhan, the Fatah gunman who last year carried out the attack in Kibbutz Metzer, killing five people, including a mother and her two children. Sirhan, a resident of the Tulkarem refugee camp, cold-bloodedly murdered Revital Ohayon, 34, and her two sons, Matan, five, and Noam, four inside their home. He also killed Tirza Damari, 42, and Yitzhak Dori, 44, the kibbutz secretary before escaping back to the West Bank.” (This from the Jerusalem Post, via LGF.)
This is a hero? Evidently.
The rally, organized by Fatah to mark the passing of 40 days since the killing of Sirhan, was attended by hundreds of residents, political activists, gunmen from different groups, and senior Palestinian Authority officials.
Tulkarem governor Izz al-Din al-Sharif, who represented PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, delivered a speech before the crowd in which he heaped praise on Sirhan and described him as a ‘struggler and martyr.’ He also conveyed the condolences of Arafat and the Palestinian leadership to Sirhan’s family.
‘The Palestinian people will continue the resistance and struggle until we achieve our freedom and independent state,’ Sharif added. He condemned Israel’s refusal to hand over Sirhan’s body to his family as a ‘violation of international conventions.’
A spokesman for Fatah’s armed wing, al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, vowed to continue the fight against Israel until it ends its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He described Sirhan as ‘a hero who managed to infiltrate the Zionist settlement of Metzer.’ He urged young Palestinians to follow the example of Sirhan and launch more attacks against Israel.
Bassam Mirai, a senior Fatah leader in the Tulkarem area, also praised Sirhan’s ‘contribution and sacrifice’ for the Palestinian cause, saying all Palestinians will follow suit ‘until the homeland is liberated.’
This is how people who would otherwise be quite sympathetic to the cause of Palestinian statehood become, to put it mildly, disenchanted.