Expert: World Scout Organization Misled by Terrorist-Glorifying Palestinian Member
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by Rachel Frommer
Banner hanging at the June ceremony celebrating the full membership of the Palestinian Scout Association (PSA) in the WOSM. Photo: Screenshot / PMW.
The Palestinian branch of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) misled the international parent body when it denied ties to a group that offered a leadership-training course named after a terrorist, an Israel-based research organization reported Thursday.
According to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), the Jerusalem Scout Commission — the group that dedicated a class to Baha Alyah, who murdered three Israelis in October 2015 — is a branch of the WOSM-recognized Palestinian Scouts and Guides Association (PSA).
According to PMW, three of the instructors of the class, officially titled “Martyr Leader Baha Alyah,” were present at an official meeting of PSA scout course teachers, which included the WOSM-recognized PSA Secretary General Tawfeeq. The report also stated that a “senior WOSM official participated in an event organized and led by the Jerusalem Scout Commission.”
In addition, the research institute uncovered video footage — from the June ceremony at which the PSA received full WOSM membership — showing that attendees included both WOSM-recognized leaders and members of the Jerusalem Scout Commission.
PMW concluded: “These facts prove without a doubt that the Jerusalem Scout Commission is a branch of the same single organization, known…as the Palestinian Scouts and Guides Association (PSA), which is a member of WOSM.”
As The Algemeiner previously reported, Itamar Marcus, director of PMW, notified the WOSM that the PSA was offering a class glorifying a terrorist. In response, the WOSM issued a press release rejecting PMW’s charge, saying that, after seeking clarifications from the PSA, it concluded the class was led by a different, unaffiliated Palestinian scout organization.
In October, as The Algemeiner reported, the three people murdered by Baha Alyah — one of the terrorists who boarded a bus in Jerusalem’s Armon Hanatziv neighborhood and shot and stabbed passengers — were Haviv Haim, Alon Govberg and Richard Lakin, an American immigrant to Israel. Shortly before Lakin died of his wounds, his wife Keren sent out a message urging the Jewish and Israeli people to spurn revenge and hate.
Watch the video of the ceremony for the PSA’s membership in the WOSM below:
