Earlier this year, a senior official in the UK Ministry of Defense met with the governor of Ramallah for a briefing, even though the governor had frequent meetings in recent years with Palestinian terrorists responsible for killing and wounding Israelis, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
V.-Adm. Edward Ahlgren, the ministry’s senior adviser for the Middle East and North Africa, met Ramallah Governor Laila Ghannam, a senior Palestinian Authority official, for what was described as an “update and briefing on the security situation in the region.”
In response to the Post’s request for comment, a British Embassy spokesperson said: “We are not aware of the specific allegations concerning who Governor Ghannam meets with. The UK Government regularly engages with the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian governors. Vice-Admiral Edward Ahlgren met Governor Ghannam in January as part of that ongoing engagement.”
In recent months, Ghannam has been documented holding meetings and expressing support for dozens of released terrorists, many of whom were freed in recent prisoner-exchange deals after involvement in attacks that caused Israeli casualties.
Over the past month, she met with Mohammad Dalaisha, a senior Fatah member who was one of the main planners of a terrorist attack in which two children were shot and seriously wounded at Halamish junction in the Binyamin region of Samaria in 2005. In addition to planning terrorist attacks, Dalaisha was convicted of serious weapons offenses.
Ramallah mayor meets with terrorists released from Israeli prisons
Ghannam also met with another group of terrorists released in recent deals, including those responsible for numerous attacks and who had served prison sentences of 20 years or more in Israeli prisons.
She also met with: Mazen Qadi, who drove the terrorist in the 2002 Seafood Market attack in Tel Aviv, in which three people were killed and 35 wounded; senior Tanzim terrorist Abd al-Baset Shawabka, who was involved in multiple shootings without casualties and manufactured a mortar bomb; and Fatah terrorist Mohammad Nahla, who was involved in carrying out a shooting in which two Jews were wounded.
“A British general meeting with a woman who criticizes yet also praises terrorists is extremely serious,” the Yesha Council said in response to the Post’s report. “It is unacceptable for a senior official from the British Defense Ministry to meet with someone who encourages incitement to terrorism and to rely on such a one-sided briefing. This reflects a grave gap between the reality on the ground and how it is being portrayed to international actors.”