JERUSALEM, Israel – Israel recently returned the body of Bashar Masalha, 22, who was killed by Israel Police in March after stabbing to death American tourist Taylor Force, 28, and wounding at least 11 others. The day after the attack, Fatah praised the terrorist as an "heroic martyr" (shahid).
Force, a U.S. veteran who served two combat tours, was a first year MBA student at Vanderbilt University. A former Eagle Scout, he graduated from West Point and served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was an avid skier and guitar player who grew up in Texas and loved horses and ranch life, said his dad, Stuart Force, adding that it would be an understatement to say he was immensely proud of his son.
Reporting on Masalha's funeral, the Palestinian Authority television repeatedly called him a "shahid" showing posters of the "heroic martyr" and calling the funeral "a large national wedding befitting of martyrs," the Palestinian Media Watch reported.
"His family, friends and people of the region took it upon themselves to ensure that his (funeral) would be a large national wedding befitting of martyrs," the P.A. reporter said. "The martyr was accompanied to his last resting place in the cemetery of martyrs in Hajja."
The official P.A. daily, al-Hayat al-Jadida, wrote, "Masalha died as a martyr on March 8 after carrying out a stabbing operation in Jaffa in which he killed an American tourist.
There is no higher honor in Islam than to die a martyr. The funeral is thought of as a wedding to the 72 virgins awaiting him in paradise.
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