Yesterday I wrote:

When the administration of a girls’ school chooses to rename it after a famous female terrorist (a monster who tossed a baby into a burning bus) one might ask whether the name is a symptom of a much deeper problem in that school and many others in the Palestinian Authority.

Today Joseph Lerner has a letter to the Jerusalem Post that tells the full story of the Dalal Mughrabi Girls’ High School—and it’s an indictment, not only of the Palestinian Authority, but of the NGOs that have allowed the death cult to take root and flourish on their watch. And I have to wonder: how many other Palestinian schools are already named after mass murderers?

Following is the complete text of Dr. Lerner’s letter.

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Sunday, August 11, 2002 9:12 PM

Sir:

Janine Zacharia’s story “Renaming after terrorist almost costs school US funding” (Aug.11) is a bit faulty.

It was not the school that renamed itself. The change from Haji Issa, donor of the original structure, to Dalal Al Moghrabi, the woman terrorist who in 1978 participated in the murder of 36 Israelis and American nature photographer Gail Raban [Gail Rubin — ed.], was ordered by the Palestinian Ministry of Education, clearly reflecting the Palestinian Authority’s ennoblement of terrorism.

The expansion of the school is being financed by USAID through ANERA(American Near East Refugee Aid), a non-government organization . When USAID became aware of the name change, it complained to ANERA. It contacted the Palestinian Ministry of Education which immediately committed itself, in writing, to restore the original name.

ANERA’s e-mail letter to the chief of USAID’s Tel Aviv office reported without comment that;” … the Ministry of Education decided to change the name to Dalal Al Moghrabi school simply because they wanted to give a woman’s name to a girls’ school.”

Choosing a terrorist’s name is consistent with the Palestinian practice of celebrating terrorist murders of Israelis. Recently, Palestinians joyously celebrated the disastrous Hebrew University cafeteria bombing with street dancing, showers of sweets for children and traditional random gunfire. Had the name change been retained, the school would have become a shrine to terrorism supportive of the PA’s official anti-Israel textbooks which inculcate the doctrine that Israel has no right to exist. Textbooks which will no doubt continue to be used in this institution.

ANERA raised no question in transmitting the funding. Besides raising funds on its own, ANERA, established in 1968, supervises USAID funding for projects in Gaza and the West Bank .

ANERA has an advocacy program consistently supportive of PA positions and deeply negative towards Israel. Its website’s list of NGOs is replete with anti- Israel organizations such as the Council for the National Interest (CNI) which seeks to have US aid to Israel reduced. ANERA is so cozy with the present Palestinian structure that USAID should evaluate their relationship. It is time for new eyes and hands in the reformation of Gaza and the West Bank.

Dr. Joseph Lerner
Co-Director IMRA-Independent Media Review “