August 2, 2018
Family Of Palestinian Who Killed Israeli Father Expected To Receive $1,600 Grant, Monthly Salary As Reward
A Palestinian terrorist who murdered a 31-year-old Israeli man near Jerusalem last week has been designated as a “martyr” by the Palestinian Authority, suggesting that his family will be financially rewarded for the killing.
Muhammad Tareq Dar Yusuf, 17, snuck into the West Bank community of Adam on Thursday evening (7/26) before fatally stabbing Yotam Ovadia, a father of two young children. A 58-year-old man was also seriously wounded during the attack, as was a third victim who sustained light injuries before fatally shooting Yusuf.
The day following the attack, an article in the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida claimed Yusuf “died as a martyr,” according to a translation by Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli research and advocacy organization. The same description was used in a Facebook post published that day by the Bethlehem branch of Fatah, the party of PA leader Mahmoud Abbas.
Under PA policy, the families of Palestinians who die as “martyrs” – a designation largely given to those killed while attacking Israeli targets – are entitled to a one-time payment of about $1,600, as well as monthly salaries starting at about $380. The monthly allowance increases based on several variables, including number of wives and children a “martyr” had, as well as whether he was a resident of Jerusalem and/or Israel.
The PA also pays salaries to Palestinians who are incarcerated in israel, with monthly allowances – which range from $380 for sentences under three years, to about $3,300 for sentences over 30 years – affording the greatest financial reward to those convicted of the most severe crimes.
Many Palestinian families in the West Bank, where the average monthly salary is less than $600, have benefited from what critics have dubbed the PA’s “pay-to-slay” policy. Among them are Omar Al-Abed al-Jalil from Kobar – the same town Yusuf resided in – who massacred three members of the Solomon family last July as they were celebrating the birth of a new grandson. Al-Jalil received four life sentences for the crime, making him eligible for the PA’s highest monthly salary.
In total, the PA allocated more than $327 million to payments for Palestinian prisoners and the families of “martyrs” in its 2017 budget, according to a report by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs think tank.
The US Congress, formerly one of the largest donors to the PA, sought to address the practice by passing the Taylor Force Act in March. The legislation which cuts US aid to the PA until Ramallah stops paying salaries to terrorists and their families, was named after a US Army veteran and Vanderbilt University Graduate student killed by a Palestinian in Tel Aviv in 2016.
While a similar bill was passed in the Israeli Knesset earlier this month, PA leaders have rebuffed efforts to stop the practice, with Abbas saying last week, “Even if we only have a penny left, we are going to first put it toward these payments.”
(algemeiner.com)
Video: What Are Palestinian Terrorists Thinking? – Pierre Rehov
Here are testimonies from a video of Palestinian terrorists who tried to blow themselves up in terrorist attacks, or even succeeded and survived:
“I will not feel sorry for any Israeli child, and I will not regret even if it is a nursery full of kids. It is enough that I will be a martyr and I will go in front of God representing my family – 70 people, my wife, my children, my sisters and all my friends – 70 people will go to Paradise on my merit. This is a big honor for me.”
“It is written in the Koran: when a martyr blows himself up it’s beautiful, it feels so good, there is no feeling of pain, only pleasure.”
“Those who blow themselves up get a good bonus from God. They marry 72 virgins. When I put on a belt I was not afraid, on the contrary, I was excited. I felt I was the most powerful person on earth.”
“I advise my fighting brothers to continue killing the Jews to the last one.”
The video can be seen on matzav.com.
(matzav.com)
Syrian Activists: ‘Ahed Tamimi Lucky Not To Be Imprisoned By Assad Regime’
Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi, 17, was released on Sunday (7/29) after serving 8 months in an Israeli prison for attacking an Israeli soldier.
“Israel released Ahed Tamimi full of health and without a scratch,” wrote Syrian activist and photographer Yasser Wardh, contrasting her leaving prison “while thousands of Palestinians are killed in prisons of the Assad regime.”
Nedal al-Amari, a journalist from Deraa, also contrasted the brutality of the Syrian regime with Tamimi’s treatment. “There is a big difference between Israel and Bashar al-Assad. Ahed Tamimi was a lucky girl to be in an Israeli prison and not in Assad’s prison.
Dozens of similar tweets in Arabic mentioned her alleged “9 kilos” weight gain (19.8 lbs). “She was not tortured. She was not raped. Her weight increased. Her hair and face are more beautiful,” wrote Mahdi Majeed.
Oman Kais, who has 100,000 followers on Twitter, also contrasted Tamimi’s experience with Arab prisons. “She said she learned to love life, whereas those imprisoned in our Arab countries can reach a stage where they wish their mother didn’t give birth to them.”
Many tweeted photos of Tamimi next to a dead Syrian woman, trying to draw attention to the difference. One person wrote about the recently released list of names of prisoners in Assad’s prisons who have disappeared or been killed over the past seven years.
(jpost.com)
Amid Assad Offensive, Israel Said To Close Border To Syrians Seeking Treatment
Israel has reportedly halted its massive multi-faceted humanitarian relief operation providing Syrians with life-saving services, closing its borders to fleeing civilians seeking medical care, as Syrian government forces complete their takeover of the area bordering Israel’s Golan Heights from rebel groups.
The decision represents the first time that the border will be completely closed to any Syrian civilians since Operation Good Neighbor was initiated five years ago, Channel 10 news reported Monday night (7/30).
Officials stressed, however, that the program has not been permanently shuttered and rather only “frozen” until the outcome of the Syrian government offensive is clear.
The Jewish State has treated thousands of people in field hospitals on the border and in public hospitals, mostly in northern Israel, since 2013. Since 2016, as part of Operation Good Neighbor, more than 600 Syrian children, accompanied by their mothers, have come to Israel for treatment. Hundreds of tons of food, medical equipment and clothing have also been sent across the border to Syria.
On Monday (7/30), the Syrian government regained control of the frontier with the Israeli Golan Heights for the first time in seven years, after Islamic State-linked militants gave up their last pocket of territory in the area.
(timesofisrael.com)
“The U.S. Has No Moral Duty To Be Neutral Between Right And Wrong” – UN Ambassador Nikki Haley
UN Ambassador Nikki Haley told the Christians United for Israel Summit on July 23:
“We respect everyone’s right to peacefully protest. But no one should be fooled about the role of Hamas. Many of the protesters in Gaza are anything but peaceful. If they were peaceful, there would be no burning tires, there would be no Molotov cocktails, there would be no flaming swastika kites flying into Israel burning thousands of acres of land. And of course, if this was a peaceful movement, there would not be hundreds of rockets fired from Gaza into Israel.”
“Like any country would do, Israel has responded to the violence at its border. What is so stunning is the international reaction to all of this. Think about it. If there were tens of thousands of people looking to attack your border fence, and you had a terrorist group providing guidance on how best to kill innocent civilians inside your country once the border fence was broken, what would you do? What would the United States do? What would any country do?…Israel has acted with more restraint than just about any other country would under those same conditions. It’s true”
“The United States has no moral duty to be neutral between right and wrong. On the contrary, we have a moral duty to take sides, even when that means standing alone. Being silent has never been something I was good at….The top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat – bless his heart – recently had some advice for me. He told me I just needed to ‘shut up.’ I responded by saying, ‘Mr. Erekat, I will always be respectful, but I will not shut up.’”
“[At the UN] our approach on Israel is tied together by one major idea. The idea that runs through all of it is the simple concept that Israel must be treated like any other normal country. We demand that Israel not be treated like some sort of temporary provisional entity or pariah. It cannot be the case that only one country in the world doesn’t get to choose its capital city.”
“It cannot be the case that the Human Rights Council has a standing agenda item for only one country. It cannot be the case that only one set of refugees throughout the world is counted in a way that causes the number to grow literally forever. It cannot be the case that in an organization with 193 countries, the United Nations spends half of its time attacking only one country.”
“Our demand for fairness for Israel is actually a demand for peace. The UN’s bias against Israel has long undermined peace, by encouraging an illusion that Israel will go away. Israel is not going to go away. When the world recognizes that, then peace becomes possible. It becomes possible because all sides will be dealing with realities, not fantasies. Fantasies encourage absolutist demands. When realities are accepted, then compromise becomes possible. When the reality of Israel’s existence is accepted, both sides will become freed to achieve a durable peace.”
