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© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

A Palestinian soccer tournament has been named after the suicide bomber who killed 29 people and injured 140 last year during a Passover seder, according to the official Palestinian Authority daily Al Hayat Al Jadida.

Hamas member Abed Al-Basset Odeh walked into the dining room of the Park Hotel in the coastal city of Netanya on March 27 and detonated an explosive device amid 250 guests participating in the holiday meal.

The soccer tournament's seven team also have been named after "shahids," or "martyrs," according to a translation of the newspaper story by Palestinian Media Watch.

The paper reported today that the "Tulkarm Shahids Memorial soccer championship tournament of the Shahid Abed Al-Basset Odeh began with the participation of seven top teams, named after shahids who gave their lives to redeem the homeland."

Odeh was from the West Bank town of Tulkarm.
The report said that Odeh's brother Isam "will distribute the trophies."

Palestinian Media Watch said the article did not specify whether children or adults are participating in the championship event.

One of the teams in the tournament also bears Odeh's name. The other teams are Raed Carmi, named for the slain Tulkarm Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade commander; Wajdi Al Hatab, for the Palestinian youth who requested cake be distributed after his martyrdom; Tarek Abu Safaka, who killed three Israelis in a Feb. 10, 2002 attack; Tarek Alqato, an Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade operative killed in a clash with Israeli troops; Mahmud Marmash, a suicide bomber who killed five Israelis in a May 2001 attack in Netanya; and Husam Al Hamshari, a youth killed in a clash with Israeli troops.

In a report last year, Palestinian Media Watch said that under the Palestinian Authority, numerous schools, summer camps and sports teams are named for terrorists, and symbols of violence continue to be used in education and sports.

PMW said in an August report that U.S. funds, through USAID, helped renovate the Dalal Al- Mughrabi school, named for the female terrorist who participated in the bus hijacking and murder of 36 Israelis and an American, Gail Rubin, in 1978.

A summer camp was named for Ayyat al-Akhras, a woman who blew herself up in a supermarket in Jerusalem, and another camp honored Jihad al-Amarin, commander of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, responsible for the murder of numerous Israelis.