NABLUS, May 30, 2017 (WAFA) – In spite of campaigns to stop funding for a woman community center in the West Bank village of Burqa because it was named after a Palestinian resistance fighter killed by Israel, the center has no intention of caving in to the pressure and change its name, the head of village’s council, Sami Daghlas, said on Tuesday.
The center, Dalal Mughrabi Women Community Center, was established four months ago with partial funding from Norway and was officially inaugurated three weeks ago.
Israel apparently objected to Norway for funding a center named after a Palestinian resistance fighter killed during a military operation in Israel in 1978.
Norway succumbed to the Israeli pressure and said it does not want its name put on a plaque at the center and asked for its money back.
The United Nations, which apparently funds some programs by the center, has also decided to stop funding projects planned by the center also following Israeli pressure.
Daghlas told WAFA that the center was built to serve and empower young women in the village and to help them develop themselves and become active members in society.
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 expressed surprise at the UN and Norway moves saying that they have done this to satisfy Israel.
“Instead of fighting a community center that does not exceed 50 square meters in area and works on serving young women in the community, they should be objecting to regular attacks by (Israeli) settlers against the village and its people and to allow farmers to reach their land that was taken away from them in spite of an Israeli Supreme Court ruling to return this land to its rightful owners,” he said in a post on his Facebook page.
He said the people of Burqa do not object to return the money to Norway, which he said was only few thousand dollars used to repair and refurbish the building, and would never capitulate to pressure and blackmail.
Speaking earlier on this matter, Ahmad Majdalani, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said that Israel glorifies Jewish terrorists and pays them money and no one objects to that.
He gave the example of the assassin of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and other Jewish terrorists convicted of attacking and killing Palestinians and Israelis who still receive Israeli government stipends through the national insurance plan.
M.K.
