On November 14, 2018, following the latest round of fighting between Israel and the Palestinian factions in Gaza, during which over 450 rockets and mortars were fired from Gaza into Israel, Jordanian journalist 'Abd Al-Hadi Raji Al-Majali glorified these rocket attacks in his column in the government daily Al-Rai. In his column he expressed a burning wish to come to Gaza bearing a rifle, and added that millions of young people wish they could join the fight in Gaza and be martyred there.
It should be noted that this is not the first time Al-Majali has praised terror against Israel and glorified its perpetrators. In May 2018 he wrote a column expressing admiration and love for Palestinian terrorist Dalal Al-Mughrabi, who led the 1978 Coastal Road attack on an Israeli bus, and said that he yearned to roll in the dust of her grave.[1] In February 2018 he wrote in praise of terrorist Ahmad Nasr Jarrar, who had killed an Israeli civilian in several weeks earlier,[2] and in October 2015, during the wave of Palestinian stabbing attacks against Israelis, he addressed the late PA president Yasser Arafat and said to him that his revolution was bearing fruit, since the Palestinian youths were leading the "knife revolution" and burying their blades in the heads of Israelis.[3]
The following are excerpts from 'Abd Al-Hadi Raji Al-Majali's recent column:
Abd Al-Hadi Raji Al-Majali (Source: https://www.facebook.com/a.raji.almajali, May 1, 2017)
"I want to go to Gaza, where I shall be called Abu Ikrama the Gazan. They will find me a job there, perhaps as a fisherman in the Gaza sea, as a fighter in [Hamas's military wing, the 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam] Brigades, or as a host in [Hamas's] Al-Aqsa television channel... In Gaza there are young people who anticipate death and accept it as a divine decree so that Gaza may live.
"I want to go to Gaza... [In Gaza,] at least, they have no groups of liberal who spend their nights talking about freedom and a civil state. [Instead] they have fighting bands that spend their nights watching for [enemy] planes and transferring ammunition. If they have some time to spare, perhaps they eat a little Gazan salad before resuming their vigil. Each one of them expects the treacherous missile to find him [at any moment], and has left a will with the mother of his family, not knowing when she will open it...
"Gaza produces resistance, love and homeland, while Israeli technology produces nothing but fear and more fear. I want to go to Gaza... where they will value me only based on my death, my martyrdom and the refugee camp [in which I live]. Perhaps it will be Al-Maghazi, Al-Nusairat or Al-Shati, and perhaps Dir Al-Balah or Beit Lahiya, which are just part of the pan-Arab and Islamic lexicon of honor...
"I shall go to Gaza carrying... a rifle that does not need a license. [Acquiring] a license is very simple there, for Palestine in itself grants one a license to become a martyr, a fighter and a hero...
"Oh people of Gaza. I spent last night following the rockets you [were firing into Israel]. Believe me, millions of young people spent last night following the sparks of your rockets and wishing for a moment that they could be with you in the thick of the fighting, their blood being shed with yours, standing shoulder to shoulder with you and with your great steadfastness. You not only triumphed, you caused every Muslim, Arab and free and honorable person in this world to wish he had been born in Gaza and that Gaza could be his final resting place and the soil on which he would die as a martyr. [You are] the best of people and the first martyrs, may Allah protect you."[4]
[1] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 7497, Columnist In Jordanian Government Daily Expresses Love And Admiration For Palestinian Terrorist Dalal Al-Mughrabi: I Would Roll In The Dust Of Your Grave, May 30, 2018.
[2] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 7329, Palestinian Authority, Fatah, Jordanian Press Extol Perpetrators Of Recent Terror Attacks In Israel, February 12, 2018.
[3] See mMMRI Special Dispatch No. 6190, Jordanian Writer: Arafat, The Knives Stabbed Into The Israelis' Heads Are The Fruit Of Your Revolution, October 16, 2015.
[4] Al-Rai (Jordan), November 14, 2018.
