Palestinian Authority Unveils Memorial To 9/11 Hijackers

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Ramallah, September 11 – Thirteen years after nearly 3,000 people were killed in Islamic terrorist attacks on US soil, a Palestinian monument has finally been set up to commemorate the event and to honor those who died piloting the aircraft involved.

A forty-foot statue of a Boeing 767-200ER crashing into a skyscraper was unveiled this morning in Ramallah’s central square amid fanfare and speeches by political and cultural figures calling for continued resistance to Western “colonialism.” A military band played nationalist songs in praise of martyrdom while sweets were distributed to children, and attendees held aloft banners in tribute to the 19 men, mostly Saudi nationals, who hijacked four airplanes and crashed three of them into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. A fourth attempt was thwarted by passengers and that plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all aboard.

The base of the statue features a plaque with the names of the nineteen hijackers, after whom numerous children have been named in the Muslim world. When news of the attacks and resulting destruction reached the Palestinian territories in 2001, residents reacted jubilantly, as they saw the attacks as punishment for American policies in the Middle East. But in the intervening years Palestinian frustration has grown, as even such a fearsome blow to prominent symbols of American economic and military might produced no reduction in American support for Israel and no progress toward the defeat and destruction of Israel.

The rush of satisfaction from the attacks, however, has served as a rallying point. Support for violent opposition to Israel, which many see as an extension of the US or vice versa, has remained high even as Palestinian leaders have oscillated between openly supporting terrorism and maintaining an official position opposed to violence but nevertheless tolerating it.

While Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas officially eschews a military approach, his Fatah movement includes numerous armed factions that trumpet their participation in the launching of thousands of rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip in July and August. Abbas has said that despite the current reliance on non-militant methods, the Palestinians reserve the right to resort to violence once again, either out of a genuine realization that a violent approach has yielded little, or out of a desire to use both violence and the pretense of avoiding it as diplomatic weapons against Israel. Celebration of the 9/11 hijackers serves to shore up support for Fatah in the face of more militant factions such as Hamas, which has never relinquished terrorism even tactically.

“Essentially, this monument serves the same purpose as streets and squares named after Palestinians who died killing Israelis,” explains political commentator Greta Blowhard. “It’s a way of trying to eat their knaffeh and have it to,” she said, referring to the baked local delicacy that was given out to children at the unveiling and whenever misfortune befalls Israel: it expresses support for terrorist activities without the smoking gun of planning or approving specific acts.

Gracing the proceedings with their presence were dignitaries from Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria, but notably absent were representative of rival faction Hamas and of the US. A Hamas spokesman said it was in poor taste to hold an event commemorating the nineteen when everyone knows the entire series of events was an Israeli operation meant to spark US military involvement in the Middle East.