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

While the Palestinian Authority (PA) most often glorifies terrorists who attacked and murdered Israelis as society’s heroes — and whereas the PA presents female terrorists and murderers as role models for women — an unusual report recently appeared in the official PA daily.

The paper told the “success story” of Norhan Al-Atiyat, who has joined the PA Civil Defense and is involved in “rescue operations in case of disasters,” as “a story of a dream and defiance, which paves its path with willpower and determination”:

Norhan Al-Atiyat, a young 23-year-old woman from Bethlehem, recorded a success story. Through it she dealt with the challenges and barriers from society when she decided to join the [PA] Civil Defense. Thus she began an unusual career, after undergoing training that focused on quick intervention during rescue operations in case of disasters or large incidents — something unusual in our Palestinian society.

While the missions of the female workers of the Civil Defense are reduced to the point of civil services, Norhan shattered the barrier of anxiety and fear, changed the method and path, and became a role model…” [emphasis added]

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 3, 2023]

Al-Atiyat explained that she succeeded due to support from her family and her social environment, and not least from the PA forces. She succeeded, she said, “despite the uniqueness of the goal and dream, and despite it being far from the fields that women and young women of my age are generally interested in.”

Al-Atiyat went from having an administrative role to joining the men in “putting out dangerous fires.”

What surprised Al-Atiyat was the “large echo and commotion around me joining the forces”:

From my perspective, this is a dream that I have realized, but what caused the commotion is the fact that our society believes that work in the Civil Defense Forces is for men only…

There are those who tell me that my love for work in the Civil Defense Forces is a temporary love that will end [when I stop] being single and with the transition to married life. I always hear, “You’re a girl, how will you be able to withstand work like this?,” and I tell them, “Even if I get married I’ll continue my work. The Palestinian women throughout the various stages of the national and historical struggle were at the front of the confrontation.” [emphasis added]

So is a new female role model emerging in Palestinian society to replace the female terrorist as role model?

Hopefully. But not very likely.

First, Al-Atiyat herself is a living product of PA terror education, and her justification for joining the Civil Defense was that “Palestinian women throughout the various stages of the national and historical struggle were at the front of the confrontation” — i.e., with Israel. “

The struggle” is the PA euphemism for fighting Israel — including with terror — and Al-Atiyat seems to be indicating that female terrorists served as her own role models.

What is more, a recent interview with another woman, former PLO diplomat and engineer Raqiya Al-Ali, indicated that female terrorists are still being highlighted as role models.

Al-Ali stressed that Palestinian women are “among the strongest women in the world” because, in addition to the traditional roles, they are also “comrades in arms” and participate in terror attacks — “military operations and hijackings”:

Former PLO diplomat and engineer Raqiya Al-Ali: “The Palestinian women are among the strongest women in the world. Why? Because the yoke borne by the Palestinian women is heavier than that borne by any other women … [The Palestinian women] are also comrades in arms. Let us not forget that there are female Palestinian pioneers who led military operations and hijacked planes.” [emphasis added]

[Official PA TV, Female Palestinian Expatriates, Aug. 28, 2023]

Should a new role model gain popularity in the shape of fire fighter Norhan Al-Atiyat, it will still take perhaps decades to compete with the brainwashing of the Palestinian public that female terrorists are the pinnacle of Palestinian women.

These terrorists include murderer Dalal Mughrabi, who led the most lethal terror attack against Israel, in which 37 were murdered including 12 children, and female plane hijackers like Teresa Halsa and Laila Khaled. Palestinian Media Watch exposed that on Palestinian Women’s Day 2022, then Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr singled out these female terrorists, terrorist murderers, and airplane hijackers as role models:

Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr: “We have many examples of Palestinian women — Fatima Barnawi [i.e., terrorist, placed bomb in movie theater], the first female Palestinian prisoner. We have Dalal Mughrabi [i.e., terrorist who led murder of 37], the commander of the coastal squad. We have Zakariya [sic., Zakiya] Shammout [i.e., terrorist, involved in murder of one person]. We have Lina Al-Nabulsi. We have Theresa Halsa [i.e., terrorist hijacker, involved in killing of one person]. We have Laila Khaled [i.e., terrorist hijacker], and many other female prisoners and Martyrs throughout the homeland.”

[Facebook page of the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Oct. 24, 2022]

On the same occasion, Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party stressed that the achievements of two murderers and a bomber is proof of the equal opportunities for women in the PA.

The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.