JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Palestinian town in the West Bank has refused to change the name of a women’s center that was named for a female Palestinian terrorist.
The center in the village of Buraq was named for Dalal Mughrabi, who led the 1978 massacre on a highway near Tel Aviv that killed 37 civilians, many of them children, and injured dozens. It opened last week.
The center has no intention of caving in to the pressure and change its name, the head of the village’s council, Sami Daghlas, told the official PA news agency WAFA. He said the name Dalal Mughrabi was chosen by the villagers “to commemorate a Palestinian hero who sacrificed herself for her country and therefore they have no intention to change its name regardless of the price.”
Daghlas also told WAFA that the people of Buraq do not object to returning the money to Norway, which he said amounts to “only a few thousand dollars,” and that the town “would never capitulate to pressure and blackmail.”
Norway’s government earlier this week withdrew its financial support for the center, saying it would not be associated with the glorification of terrorism. The United Nations this week also withdrew its funding and asked that its name be removed from the building.
The naming of the building was first reported by Palestinian Media Watch.
