Belgium suspends funding for Palestinian schools
After discovering a school it backed was later renamed after woman who led '78 attack that killed 38 Israelis, Belgian government will halt $ 3.9 million in funding to 2 Palestinian projects.
The Belgian government is suspending funding for two school construction projects in the Palestinian territories after it emerged that a school it backed was later renamed after a woman it considers a terrorist.
Belgium said it backed a school in the south of Hebron only to find out in 2013 that local authorities changed its name to "Dalal Mughrabi Elementary School."
Mughrabi was a member of an Fatah cell that left Lebanon and carried out the attack on the coastal road in 1978 on the Egged bus on its way to Haifa. The attack, known as the "Coastal Road Massacre" in English and the "Bloody Bus" in Hebrew, is considered one of the most gruesome in Israel's history. 38 people were killed in the attack, including 13 children. Mughrabi was killed by Israeli fire during the attack.
Upon her death, Mughrabi is a well-known symbol of Palestinian resistence and one of the most canonic terrorists to be sanctified by the Palestinian Authority (PA), with the PA dedicating several sites to her memory.
Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders called Mughrabi "a Palestinian terrorist.
"Belgium will not allow itself to be associated with the names of terrorists in any way," a statement from Reynders' office said. Two projects totaling $3.9 million have been put on hold.
