Cold-Blooded Murderer Is Praised as a Hero By Palestinian Leaders and Media

By Itamar Marcus

Israeli Arab terrorist Maher Yunes and his cousin Karim Younes kidnapped Israeli soldier Avraham Bromberg while he was on leave in 1980, cold-bloodedly shot him in the head, and left him for dead on the side of the road.

Both terrorist murderers were released in 2023 after serving 40 years in prison. Maher died last week, and has been lionized since then throughout the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah.

Senior PA and Fatah officials have presented the murderer as a “great national leader,” a “symbol,” a “fighter,” and a model for future Palestinian generations while also portraying him as a victim of Israel.

Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub said: “As I bid farewell to this great national figure, I recall with pride and great appreciation his honorable path of struggle.”

Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki likewise glorified Younes, calling him “the late great” and “an exemplary figure of extraordinary struggle in modern Palestinian revolutionary history,” saying he had provided “an eternal model of sacrifice and giving.”

Palestinian National Council Chairman Rawhi Fattouh called Younes “the fighter, leader, rebel, and released prisoner” and said his “sacrifice will remain a source of inspiration for Palestinian generations.”

Ramallah District Governor Laila Ghannam likewise turned Younes into a national role model, saying that “Palestine loses one of the prominent symbols of its prisoners’ movement.” According to Ghannam, Younes “embodied in his steadfastness the meanings of willpower and loyalty to the homeland” and his name would remain “an eternal national symbol.”

The official PA daily also published emotional praise of Younes.

In an article headlined “40 years waiting for life,” Al-Hayat Al-Jadida portrayed his prison sentence not as punishment for murder, but as stolen life.

The paper wrote that Younes had only truly lived the four years after his release, while the previous 40 years were “suspended in a prison cell.”

Maher Younes’ lifespan was actually just four years. Everything that preceded them was not life as we know it, but a long wait that took the form of life.

For 40 years, he sat behind bars, until it seemed that time had forgotten him…

When Maher Younes passed away, it was not a man who had lived 65 years who died, but a man who had lived only the last four years of his life. The rest of his years were suspended in a prison cell, stored in the jailer’s files and hanging on the gates of the prisons…

Karim Younes, his cellmate and life companion, did not need to give a long eulogy; the 40 years he spent with Maher were more eloquent than any sermon. He sufficed with writing the following words: “The knight has dismounted. A companion for life, a companion in chains. 40 years of steadfastness. You left in body, but your biography will remain an indelible symbol.

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 7, 2026]

In another report, the official PA daily quoted Fatah’s eulogy, which called Younes a “national leader” and “a historical model of struggle” who would continue to inspire Palestinian generations. Fatah said his death was “a great loss to the Palestinian national movement and the prisoners’ movement.”

“Since [Maher’s] release, he has maintained a special status in the hearts of the Palestinian people as one of the symbols of the prisoners’ movement… The Fatah movement said in a eulogy… that the national leader, Younes, served as a historic model of struggle, who will continue to be a source of inspiration for Palestinian generations. It emphasized that his death constitutes a great loss to the Palestinian national movement and the prisoners’ movement, in which he played a historic role in its founding.

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 6, 2026]

Official PA TV joined the glorification at Younes’ funeral. Qadri Abu Wasel, head of the Defense of Liberties Committee under the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, said Palestinians had lost “one of the stalwarts of the prisoners.”

A funeral attendee said “the fighter Maher Younes will remain commemorated with every story of struggle,” and PA TV reporter Salam Mashraqi, who is an Israeli citizen trained in journalism by Israel’s own public broadcasting network, said his “legacy of struggle” would remain “present in the Palestinian heart.”

Qadri Abu Wasel, head of the Defense of Liberties Committee under the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel: “We express condolences to the entire Palestinian people and its leadership and all its factions. This is very painful for us as Palestinians… We lost one of the stalwarts of the prisoners in prison and this [is painful] for the entire Palestinian people.”

A funeral attendee: “These years and this honorable history will remain etched in generational memory. The fighter Maher Younes will remain commemorated with every story of struggle, with every epic of the Palestinian people’s struggle.”

PA TV reporter Salam Mashraqi, Israeli citizen: “His legacy of struggle will continue to be present in the Palestinian heart as a testament to four decades of endurance and steadfastness.”

[Official PA TV, July 6, 2026]

PA TV further broadcast DFLP official Mahmoud Khalaf saying Younes’ death was “martyrdom” and saluting “the spirit of the heroic Martyr, Maher Younes.” PA-funded Prisoners’ Club Director Amjad Al-Najjar called him “the late resistance fighter” and “a symbol for all our heroic prisoners.”

Director of the PA-funded Prisoners’ Club in Jericho Eid Barahmeh sent condolences over “heroic prisoner Maher Younes,” while PA TV’s Mashraqi stated that Younes “truly lived as a hero and sacrificed 40 years of his life for the Palestinian cause.”

Director of PA-funded Prisoners’ Club in Jericho Eid Barahmeh: “Allow me to send – on behalf of the family of the Prisoners’ Club in Jericho and all corners of the homeland and on behalf of the prisoners inside the prisons of the occupation (i.e., Israel) and the released prisoners – the deepest condolences to the family of heroic prisoner Maher Younes, who spent 40 years in the occupation’s prisons.”

PA TV reporter Salam Mashraqi, Israeli citizen: “He truly lived as a hero and sacrificed 40 years of his life for the Palestinian cause.”

[Official PA TV, July 5, 2026]

The breadth of the praise is the point. The PA’s consistent policy is to glorify terrorist murderers of Israelis as “heroes,” “Martyrs,” and role models, while the West continues to present the same PA as a moderate partner.

The author is the Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.