A Democratic senator called on President Obama today to publicly condemn the Palestinian Authority’s celebratory festivities upon receiving the remains of 91 suicide bombers.
In a gesture aimed at restarting the peace process, the Israeli government voluntarily returned the remains, unearthed from a West Bank cemetery for enemy combatants, of the killers responsible for hundreds of deaths.
In his letter to Obama today, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) noted that the Palestinian Authority held a national rally to glorify the “martyrs” and buried them with full military honors at President Mahmoud Abbas’ presidential compound in Ramallah, with the families of the dead treated as honored guests. Palestinian Authority Minister of Defense Issa Qaraqe called on Palestinians to consider the day “a national day of celebration,” the senator added.
“I write to ask that you make a statement condemning the Palestinian Authority’s celebration and glorification of suicide bombers,” said Menendez’s letter.
“The celebration of suicide bombers and terrorists who took the lives of innocent civilians, particularly when combined with the teaching of distorted rhetoric in Palestinian schools, can only serve to perpetuate hatred and postpone peace,” he added.
“I strongly urge you to make a statement condemning the actions of the Palestinian Authority and clearly expressing the view of the United States that such celebrations of terror are offensive, immoral and an obstacle to peace.”
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