Mahmoud Abbas's official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper has honored the terrorist who gunned down eight Jewish high school students with the status of shahid, or holy Islamic martyr.
The official PA daily Al Hayat Al Jadida prominently placed a picture of the point blank killer on the front page, with the caption, "The Shahid Alaa Abu D'heim." In a page one article on the massacre at Mercaz HaRav Kook yeshiva, his crime is again defined as an act of martyrdom (shahada). 
Palestinian Media Watch says that in publishing the article, "the PA is sending its people a straightforward message of support for the terror murders and the murderer." According to the PA's interpretation of Islam, PMW explained, a human being can achieve no higher status than that of shahid.
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