The Palestinian Authority forced a meeting with the families of terrorists on UN Secretary General António Guterres, and then lied about the chain of events.
According to a spokesperson for the UN chief, Guterres was not scheduled to meet with relatives of Palestinian terrorists and the quotes released by the PA’s official news agency of Guterres expressing sympathy with them were “fabricated,” The Times of Israel reported.
At the end of the meeting with Palestinian officials in Ramallah on Tuesday, a surprised UN chief was told that a group of Palestinian mothers of convicted terrorists wanted to meet with him to hand over a petition.
The PA’s official news agency WAFA, however, framed events differently. According to them “UN Secretary-General António Guterres met this evening [Aug. 29, 2017] in Ramallah with several families of Palestinian Martyrs (Shahids) and prisoners that are sitting in the Israeli occupation’s prisons… Present at the meeting were Latifa Abu Hmeid.”
Hmeid is the mother of five Palestinian terrorists. One of her sons was killed as what the PA calls a “martyr” and the other four are currently serving between them 17 life sentences in Israeli prisons.
The PA not only distorted the truth about Guterres’ intention of meeting with the families, but also outright lied about his reaction. “We understand the suffering of the Palestinian prisoners. We will work together with the authorized and relevant parties in order to put an end to their suffering,” the official PA news outlet quoted Guterres.
The statement was later dismissed by a UN spokesperson as a complete lie. “All of the quotes attributed to the Secretary-General are fabricated,” he confirmed.
In the past, Guterres has taken a tough line on Palestinian terror sponsorship and the glorification of acts of terror. Following reports that the PA had used UN and Norwegian money to build a women center named after Dalal Mughrabi—a terrorist who led the murder of 37 civilians including 12 children—Guterres disavowed the UN’s support for the center, in a statement that said, “the United Nations disassociated itself from the Centre once it learned the offensive name chosen for it and will take measures to ensure that such incidents do not take place in the future.” The statement added that “the glorification of terrorism, or the perpetrators of heinous terrorist acts, is unacceptable under any circumstances.”
In a scheduled meeting on Monday, Guterres met with the families of Israeli soldiers and civilians being held hostage by Gaza’s ruling Hamas terrorist organization
[Photo: euronews (in Italiano) / YouTube]