Nadia Matar: Gov’t - not Assassins - Must Put Abbas to Death
Women-in-Green Cofounder Nadia Matar said that a remark she made after a New York speech last week, was a plea to the judicial system.

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, Arutz Sheva
March 22, 2009

Nadia Matar
 

Women-in-Green Cofounder Nadia Matar said Sunday that a remark that she made after a New York speech last week in which she called for death to Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas was a plea to the judicial system and the IDF, and not a call for people to take the law in their own hands.

Matar said that this was her clear intent and how the audience, which responded with applause, understood her remarks.

The speech was quoted by the Jewish Telegraph Agency, which relied on blogger Philip Weiss, a blogger who often tries to portray nationalists as dangerous extremists and who has taken a consistent stand against what he calls “illegal settlements in Judea and Samaria."

Weiss also alleged that tax-deductible donations for a charity fund promoted by Matar “supports Jewish militias.” But Weiss himself admits in another posting that the civilian first-response teams to which he was referring were formed by and receive training from the Israel Defense Forces. These counterterror civilian units are manned by reserve IDF soldiers who live in the Jewish towns of Judea and Samaria and provide an immediate, local response to contain Arab terrorist attacks until the IDF's special forces arrive at the scene.

Weiss links to a letter of recommendation from an IDF regional commander who on IDF stationery writes regarding an organization that funds the civilian first-response teams, "I highly endorse their activities and wish them success in their mission of helping to save lives in Israel."

Letter of Recommendation from an IDF regional commander
 

The charity, the Central Fund for Israel, by Weiss’s own admission also gives money to humanitarian causes to Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

The quote concerning bringing Abbas to justice was in response to a question following speeches by Matar and other nationalists for nearly two hours. They detailed how individual efforts helped communities in Hevron, Gush Etzion and other areas grow from a few individuals to thousands of Jewish families.

Replying to a questioner asking what Israel should do in light of the current security and political situation, Matar said, “We must kill all the terrorist leaders, starting with Mahmoud Abbas.”

The Gush Etzion-based nationalist leader stated, “Clearly I was talking about the need to bring Abbas and other terrorists to justice for crimes against the Jewish People and humanity as the job of the government of Israel and not of any private individual as some malicious e-mails are trying to claim through distortion and defamation."

“As the past 16 years have proven, Women in Green is a non-violent grass roots organization that promotes, through education, the love of the Land of Israel and our Jewish Heritage.”

Although there was no implication in her speech that individuals should take the law in their own hands, Weiss reported she “called for the assassination of Mahmoud Abbas…as a way of bringing peace to Israel."

Matar said that Israel should not differentiate between Hamas, which the United States has outlawed as a terrorist organization, and Fatah (headed by Abbas), which the United States, the Olmert government and most media call a “moderate.”

“Must we remind our public that Mahmoud Abbas was the financier of the Munich massacre of the Israeli athletes; a man whose doctorate from Moscow University consisted of outright Holocaust denial; a man who has for decades been a close aid to the mass murderer Yasser Arafat and an active figure in the terrorist PLO hierarchy.”

Noting that Abbas frequently has called for violence if diplomacy does not work for his conditions for a new Arab state within Israel’s current borders, she said Abbas and other terrorists leaders should be brought to trial or targeted by the IDF.