E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Mohammed Ballas / AP
Members of the Palestinian security forces arrange Palestinian flags on coffins containing the remains of bodies of 91 militants transferred from Israel to the Palestinian Authority, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on May 31. Israel transferred the bodies in an effort to induce Palestinian President Mehmoud Abbas to renew negotiations. Palestinian officials said all were killed either while carrying out suicide bombings or other attacks on Israeli targets.
Abbas Momani / AFP - Getty Images
Palestinian women mourn during the funeral of 91 Palestinians whose remains were returned by Israel at the Palestinian headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah on May 31. Israel handed over the remains of scores of Palestinian militants killed in attacks against Israel, a Palestinian official said.
Reuters reports -- The remains of 91 Palestinian militants whose attacks killed hundreds of Israelis over the past 35 years were returned to the West Bank and Gaza on Thursday in a gesture Israel said it hoped could help revive peace efforts. Palestinian leaders, however, signaled no shift in their refusal to negotiate as long as Israel continues building settlements on land where they hope to establish a state.
The boxed remains of 80 militants were transferred to coffins draped in the Palestinian flag for a solemn ceremony at the official compound in Ramallah of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Read the full story: Palestinians honor dead returned by Israel.
Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters
Palestinians carry a flag-covered coffin containing the remains of a Palestinian militant outside a hospital morgue in Gaza City on May 31. The remains of 91 Palestinian militants whose attacks killed hundreds of Israelis were returned to the West Bank and Gaza on Thursday in a gesture Israel said it hoped could help revive peace efforts.
Ilia Yefimovich / Getty Images
A Palestinian flag is draped over one of the coffins as Israel returns the corpses of 91 militants, in the Police camp on May 31, in Ramallah, West Bank. The militants, killed during anti-Israeli attacks, were returned despite objections raised by Almagor, a group representing Israeli victims of Palestinian attack. According to officials, some of the militants were killed over 40 years ago. Twelve of the bodies were returned to Gaza.
Leave a Comment:
"The remains of 91 Palestinian militants whose attacks killed hundreds of Israelis over the past 35 years were returned to the West Bank and Gaza on Thursday in a gesture Israel said it hoped could help revive peace efforts. "
File under: FAT CHANCE!
Oh that explains why they're given state honors, coffins draped in their flag and are treated as heroes.
In Syria, al-Qaida, MB militants and Syrian rebels are regarded as heros too!
When everyone is doing the countings in Syria and Iran, what is the new side counts of Palestinian militants?
Why did Israel waste their land to bury them? The bodies should be cremated and used as a fertilizer on some farms!
The mass murderer returns the remains of his victims.
This does not absolve any of his crime. Once a mass murderer always remain a mass murderer.
Um.... Did you not read? Maybe you should read it again or take the time to read it before you comment.
Yeah Clue in . Should have used them ass bike stands and buried them ass up. If you murder children and women and attack another county you get the stick.
Far from displacing the Arabs, as they claimed, the Jews were the very reason the Arabs chose to settle in the Land of Israel. Jobs provided by newly established Zionist industry and agriculture lured them there, just as Israeli construction and industry provides most Arabs in the Land of Israel with their main source of income today. Malcolm MacDonald, one of the principal authors of the British White Paper of 1939, which restricted Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel, admitted (conservatively) that were it not for a Jewish presence the Arab population would have been little more than half of what it actually was. Today, when due to the latest "intifada" Arabs from the territories under 35 are no longer allowed into pre-1967 Israel to work, unemployment has skyrocketed to over 40% and most rely on European aid packages to survive.
Not only pre-state Arabs lied about being indigenous. Even today, many prominent so-called Palestinians, it turns out, are foreign born. Edward Said, an Ivy League Professor of Literature and a major Palestinian propagandist, long claimed to have been raised in Jerusalem. However, in an article in the September 1999 issue of Commentary Magazine Justus Reid Weiner revealed that Said actually grew up in Cairo, Egypt, a fact which Said himself was later forced to admit. But why bother with Said? PLO chief Yasir Arafat himself, self declared "leader of the Palestinian people", has always claimed to have been born and raised in "Palestine". In fact, according to his official biographer Richard Hart, as well as the BBC, Arafat was born in Cairo on August 24, 1929 and that's where he grew up.
To maintain the charade of being an indigenous population, Arab propagandists have had to do more than a little rewriting of history. A major part of this rewriting involves the renaming of geography. For two thousand years the central mountainous region of Israel was known as Judea and Samaria, as any medieval map of the area testifies. However, the state of Jordan occupied the area in 1948 and renamed it the West Bank. This is a funny name for a region that actually lies in the eastern portion of the land and can only be called "West" in reference to Jordan. This does not seem to bother the majority of news outlets covering the region, which universally refer to the region by its recent Jordanian name.
The term "Palestinian" is itself a masterful twisting of history. To portray themselves as indigenous, Arab settlers adopted the name of an ancient Canaanite tribe, the Phillistines, that died out almost 3000 years ago. The connection between this tribe and modern day Arabs is nil. Who is to know the difference? Given the absence of any historical record, one can understand why Yasser Arafat claims that Jesus Christ, a Jewish carpenter from the Galilee, was a Palestinian. Every year, at Christmas time, Arafat goes to Bethlehem and tells worshippers that Jesus was in fact "the first Palestinian".
If the Palestinians are indeed a myth, then the real question becomes "Why?" Why invent a fictitious people? The answer is that the myth of the Palestinian People serves as the justification for Arab occupation of the Land of Israel. While the Arabs already possess 21 sovereign countries of their own (more than any other single people on earth) and control a land mass 800 times the size of the Land of Israel, this is apparently not enough for them. They therefore feel the need to rob the Jews of their one and only country, one of the smallest on the planet. Unfortunately, many people ignorant of the history of the region, including much of the world media, are only too willing to help.
It is interesting to note that the Bible makes reference to a fictitious nation confronting Israel. "They have provoked me to jealously by worshipping a non-god, angered me with their vanities. I will provoke them with a non-nation; anger them with a foolish nation (Deuteronomy 32:21)."
On second thought, it may be unfair to compare Palestine to Disneyland. After all, Disneyland really exists.
ckbry
Don't waste your time. Heinrich VD is either a troll looking to rile up people with absurd commentary, or if he really believes his comments, a troll.
This story demonstrates that Israel's respect for life is impeccable. They respect the remains of even their Palestinian enemies who have targeted and killed Israeli citizens. If the Palestinians could only remove their terrorist leaders, recognize Israel's right to exist, stop terrorism and accept the borders presented in the fair deal by Israel, there could be peace in the Middle East. They would benefit by having Israel as a neighbor who wants nothing but peace and would provide economic support to the Palestinian people.
Lar 3 you are obviously a zionist troll to rife up righteous peole with absurb israeli propaganda commentary.
If the israelis could only remove nittyahoo and his clique of terrorists, recognize Palestinian's right to live alongside with israel instead of having their land stolen, stop the siege in Gaza and return to 1967 border, there could be peace in the Middle East/
HVD
You are right if Israel retreated to the 67 Border there would be peace (Heavy sarcasm) Your understanding of history is obvious, read about the buildup to the 67 war, how 5 countries amassed armies on all 3 fronts, and tell me what peace looks like. For political reason LBJ did not offer help, but winked to the Israelis to proceed.
So the Israelis, defending their homes and land-illegally gained land and homes on Palestinian '68 UN resolution land, executed 91 people who fought for their land and homes on '68 UN Resolution land. On balance, the justification must be based on the rule of law, or it will be biased and unbalanced. Justice is the reason the UN was formed to avoid war and work for justice.
On the other hand, Israel is and will be. The idea that one state or government can declare, threaten, or practice the belief that Israel does not exist, have the right to exist, or that the '68 borders are not acceptable, also defeats justice and the UN's mission of peace and avoiding war.
Both parties have to agree to International Law, even if idiots and war criminals, such as G.W. Bush with his invasion of Iraq, without UN sanctions breaking International Law, has set precedent for stupidity and corruption of the rule of law, by the country that used to at least try to support and follow International Law. Meaning, precedents to breaking the law are the first place to demand accountability before any country breaking International Law could expect any other country to follow International Law.
Corporate profits from perpetual war, energy or fossil fuel resource control, and political and economic control of populations and labor are motives for the continued corruption, lack of accountability, and failure to follow International Law. Materialism trumps humanitarianism or wealth is more important than human life and peace between different cultures, religions, and countries.
The Jews have a tiny plot of land in the middle east. They worship in synogogues and it is illegal to build a synogogue in almost all muslim countries. Those who claim Isreal is apartheid seem ignorant of this fact. The muslims can find a mosque anywhere on 10,000,000 square miles of muslim lands. They simply can't let the Jews have their tiny plot of land in the sand without terrorizing them. These returned bodies are evidence of this fact.
1500 years ago there were thriving Jewish communities in Medina Saudi Arabia. These communities were anhilated becasue Islam wouldn't tolerate them. The same holds true today.
Opstokker
So the Jews were kicked out of Medina for the descision by a select few? And the vendetta has lasted 1500 years?!?!?! What a slander against reason and justice.
What if the rest of the world should follow suit and kick out the Muslims?