Palestinian demonstrators display a poster showing terrorist Dalal Mughrabi alongside the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat. Photo: File

Western policymakers tend to be impressed by moderate Palestinian diplomatic talk, directed at Western audiences.

At the same time, they ignore Palestinians talk directed at Arabic and internal audiences — where the Palestinian government celebrates terrorists and those who kill civilians.

The US and other countries ignore the critical significance of the litany of Hamas and Palestinian Authority (PA) terror monuments in Gaza and the West Bank.

These monuments highlight terrorists as role models for Palestinian youth, mirroring the core Palestinian vision and strategy of eliminating the State of Israel.

Moreover, the terror message conveyed by the monuments is underscored in the PLO and Hamas charters, school curriculum (praising jihad, self-sacrifice/shahada, and martyrdom), mosque sermons, official media, and the mega-billions of dollars “pay for slay” lifetime allowances (“Martyrs and Prisoners Fund”), extended since 2004 by the Palestinian Authority to families of terrorists.

Palestinian terror monuments are not an aberration, but a blueprint of institutional and doctrinarian culture and ideology that systematically glorifies and inspires terrorism (especially suicide bombing) and rejects the existence — not just the size — of “the infidel and illegal” Zionist entity.

Terrorists — contrary to freedom fighters — focus systematically, indiscriminately, and deliberately on targeting civilians.

Most cities, towns, and villages in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza feature monuments, town squares, streets, schools, commemorative landmarks, and sporting events honoring hundreds of terrorists, including the chief Palestinian Nazi collaborator, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who called for the extermination of all Jews, and Yasser Arafat, who was a role model for terror organizations in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

Here are some examples:

• Amin al-Husseini Elementary School in El-Bireh;
• Amin al-Husseini Multi-Purpose Hall in Jericho;
• Arafat Museum and Tomb in Ramallah, street statues and memorials in TulKarem, etc.
• Monuments, schools and squares idolizing Dalal Mughrabi, who led the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre of civilian passengers in a Haifa-Tel Aviv bus, murdering 37, including 12 children, and a US photographer on a nearby beach.
• Monuments and sites glorifying Abu Jihad (Khalil al-Wazir), the Head of Fatah’s terror wing, who orchestrated the murder of 125 Israeli civilians.
• Monuments revering Khaled Nazzal, who played a key role in the 1974 Ma’alot massacre of 22 children and 4 adult civilians.
• Monuments praising Ahmad Jabarah Abu Sukkar, who planned the 1976 murder of 15 Israeli civilians in Jerusalem.

Palestinian veneration of ordinary terrorists and suicide bombers (shahids) via physical monuments is not an isolated ritual. It directly intersects with intrinsic Palestinian cultural, political, and ideological doctrines, legal texts, school textbooks, and Palestinian Authority and Hamas official media.

The author is a commentator and former Israeli ambassador.