Ten Months On, Palestinian School Built With Belgian Aid Still Named After Terrorist Who Massacred 38 People
A Palestinian school built with support from Brussels still bears the name of a mass-murdering terrorist and continues to display a plaque with the Belgian flag.
The elementary school in the West Bank was gifted to the Palestinian Authority in 2013 and subsequently renamed in honor of Dalal Mughrabi — a Palestinian nationalist who in 1978 helped massacre 38 people, including 13 children, near Tel Aviv.
A plaque displayed near the entrance of the school — whose logo includes a map erasing Israel — features the Belgian flag and identifies the Belgian government and the Belgian Development Agency as its backers.
After the monitoring group Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) brought the institute to public attention last October, a spokesperson for the Belgian Foreign Ministry told The Algemeiner that the country would “not allow itself to be associated with the names of terrorists in any way” and has “immediately” raised the issue with the PA.
Belgian values “should be reflected in curricula taught at schools funded abroad by Belgian taxpayer’s contributions as well as in the names and logos of such schools,” the spokesperson said.
The ministry also announced that it would suspend two projects related to the construction of Palestinian schools, amounting to 3.3 million euros.