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Amnesty International Eulogizes 'Palestinian Writer' Who Ordered Murder of Tortured Israeli Soldier

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  April 09, 2024 6:45 PM

The so-called "human rights" group Amnesty International has been pretty horrific when it comes to their take on the Israel-Hamas conflict. A post of theirs from Monday speaking out against Israel really was beyond the pale, though. In light of the the death of Walid Daqqa, dubbed a "Palestinian writer." While the post claimed his imprisonment was "a cruel reminder of Israel’s disregard for Palestinians' right to life," it was he who showed such a "disregard," given he was tried and convicted for his role in the brutal kidnapping, torture, and death of a 19-year-old Israeli soldier, Moshe Tamam. 

The post linked to a press release, which contained language throughout meant to guilt the reader into feeling sympathy for the convicted criminal. "Sanaa Salameh, Walid Daqqah’s wife who tirelessly campaigned for his release, could not embrace her dying husband one last time before he passed. Israeli authorities must now return Walid Daqqah’s body to his family without delay so that they that they could give him a peaceful and dignified burial and allow them to mourn his death without intimidation," Amnesty's Erika Guevara-Rosas said, going so far as to be issuing demands.

The post also leaves out how he died of cancer, as was mentioned in a CNN report, which also referenced how Israel will investigate his death:

A spokesperson for Israel Prison Service on Monday confirmed Daqqa’s death and said in a statement that his death will be investigated “like any event of this nature.”

In Israel, Daqqa was seen as a terrorist after he was convicted in connection with the killing of a soldier. But to many Palestinians, he was a symbol of their struggle for liberation from Israel.

He was arrested in March 1986 and sentenced to life in prison after an Israeli court convicted him of commanding the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) militant group, which abducted and killed 19-year-old Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984. Daqqa was not convicted of carrying out the murder but of commanding the group, which he denied, Amnesty said. Tamam’s niece Ortal said on X that her uncle was subjected to torture before being killed.

In 2012, Israel reduced his sentence to 37 years, which he completed in 2023. He was then charged by an Israeli court with smuggling mobile phones to prisoners, and was given an added sentence of two years, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainee Affairs. He died before his scheduled release date of March 24, 2025.

What the CNN report only glossed over, though, is how Tamam was brutally tortured before being shot point black in the chest.

Here's how the Jewish Chronicle described the tragic situation:

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Daqqah was handed a life sentence in 1986 after being convicted of commanding members of the terror cell the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), to abduct and kill 19-year-old Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984.

The kidnap, a ransom bid that failed, turned into murder on Daqqah’s orders.

Tamam, who was on leave from the military when he was murdered, vanished after accompanying his girlfriend to her home in the city of Tiberias and returning by bus to Tel Aviv.

His body was found four days later near the entrance to the town of Mevo Dotan in the West.

Tamam’s killers gouged out his eyes, mutilated his body and castrated him before taking him to an olive grove and shooting him dead, according to reports at the time.

The Jerusalem Post also noted that "Daqqah ordered Tamam’s kidnapping for ransoming purposes. He ordered his murder in case the transfer process became complicated." 

Amnesty had actually tried to spin that detail by pointing out how "Daqqah was not convicted of carrying out the murder himself, but of commanding the group..."

For how oppressive the Israelis imprisoning him supposedly were, he managed to get his degrees while behind bars. "During his detention, Daqqa wrote a number of books, and earned two degrees in 2010 and 2016," that CNN report also mentioned.

Even Amnesty International acknowledged what he was able to achieve for all of their lamentations, though they also spun that to the benefit of Daqqah. As they concluded their press release:

During his time in prison, Walid Daqqah wrote extensively about the Palestinian lived experience in Israeli prisons. He acted as a mentor and educator for generations of young Palestinian prisoners, including children. His writings, which included letters, essays, a celebrated play and a novel for young adults, were an act of resistance against the dehumanization of Palestinian prisoners. “Love is my modest and only victory against my jailer,” he once wrote.

Walid Daqqah’s writings behind bars are a testament to a spirit never broken by decades of incarceration and oppression.

In just over 24 hours since the post has been up and last edited, it's received approximately 9,000 replies and 2,400 quoted reposts taking issue with such a revisionist take on eulogizing a convicted criminal who was paying for his gruesome crimes with a jail sentence. 

Many of them called out what Amnesty failed to acknowledge about the cruel fate Tamam faced.