Palestinian Bar Association Honors Oct. 4th Terrorist Stabber, IAJLJ Urges EU Response

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Yesterday, the The International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (IAJLJ), a UN-accredited NGO, wrote a letter to the EU’s Ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Andersen, calling upon the EU to cease funding the Palestinian Bar Association (PBA) after its decision to honor the terrorist who stabbed to death two Israelis in the Old City on October 4th. The letter noted that the PBA did not post this decision on its English website, only on its Arabic webiste, but that the media watchgroup Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) found this information, translated it into English, and posted it on its website. The MEMRI report stated that

“The Palestinian Bar Association, whose heads are Fatah members and which receives funding from the European Union and the United Nations, announced yesterday that it would award an honorary law degree to Muhannad Al-Halabi, a Palestinian law student who was killed after he stabbed two Israelis to death in Jerusalem’s Old City on October 4, 2015. The association’s announcement said: ‘The Palestinian Bar Association decided in its meeting today [October 10] to award an honorary law degree to the martyred hero Muhannad Al-Halabi and to hold its next [bar] swearing-in ceremony in [his] honor.’ The announcement also noted that ‘the martyred hero Al-Halabi was an outstanding student at the faculty of law,’ and that the head of the association and members of its board had visited his family to convey their condolences and inform them of their decisions.”

In response to this information, IAJLJ President Irit Kohn wrote to EU Ambassador in response:

The Palestinian terrorist attacks that have taken place nearly every day this past week makes it even more imperative that all possible measures be taken by any entity that can do so, and especially a legal body such as the Palestinian Bar Association. We note the involvement and influence of the EU in Palestinian affairs, ostensibly intended, to bring peace to the region, and oppose terror in general and especially as a means to resolving the conflict. Giving an award posthumously to such a terrorist during this most difficult period of violence for all the inhabitants of the region can only be seen as encouraging others to follow in his footsteps. I call upon the EU to review its policy of supporting such an organization.

The PBA’s actions mirror classic terrorist incitement strategy employed by Palestinian terror groups including Hamas and Fatah to honor slain terrorists as “martyrs” through various symbols and gestures.