The family of Omar al-Abed, the knife-wielding Palestinian terrorist who brutally murdered three members of the Salomon family at Shabbat dinner on Friday, will enjoy a generous payment from the Palestinian Authority (PA) for the killing of Jews.
As a result of the PA’s program to pay Palestinians who commit terror attacks—sometimes termed the “Pay-for-Slay-Program”—the al-Abed family is expected to receive a monthly lifetime salary of $3,120, Liel Leibovitz reported Sunday for Tablet Magazine. This sum is typically given to terrorists who serve 30 years or more in prison.
The Palestinian Authority “uses the money it receives from, among other sources, American tax payers to handsomely compensate the killers of Jews. Because the payment is commensurate with the length of the terrorist’s jail sentence, and because the sentence grows heftier the more Jews the terrorist kills, the al-Abeds will be richly rewarded for Omar’s murderous spree,” Leibovitz observed. “Just for comparison, an average Palestinian engineer earns about $1,300 per month.”
Leibovitz’s assessment follows reports that the PA increased its spending on salaries to terrorists and their families in 2017. Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported Wednesday that payments to jailed terrorists increased 13%, from 488 million shekels ($135 million) in 2016 to 550 million shekels ($158 million) this year. The overall 2017 budget for payments to terrorists and their families amounts to 1.237 billion shekels ($355 million).
The PA’s latest budget also shows that payments to the families of “martyrs,” often terrorists who have killed Israelis, increased by 4% from 660 million shekels ($183 million) in 2016 to 687 million shekels ($197 million) in 2017.
This revelation comes as Israel deals with rising tension over the placement of metal detectors on Temple Mount following a July 14 terrorist attack there that killed two Israeli police officers. The crisis has already claimed the lives of the Salomons and wounded numerous others, including an Israeli Arab bus driver who was mistaken for a Jew and a member of the Israeli embassy staff in Jordan.
The crisis at the Temple Mount—the holiest site in Judaism and one of the holiest in Islam—has been fueled by incitement from Palestinian leaders, who have strongly objected to the installation of metal detectors at the complex. Notably, metal detectors were already present at the Mughrabi gate—the only entrance to the Temple Mount that non-Muslims are permitted to use–and at sensitive religious sites from Mecca to the Vatican. At all of the four entrances to the Western Wall Plaza, worshipers and visitors are also required to walk through metal detectors.
The new outbreak over the Temple Mount controversy is only the latest in a long series of incitement by Palestinian leaders and officials associated with the Waqf, the Islamic authority that administers the complex. Mahmoud Abbas vowed in 2015 that Palestinians would not allow Jews’ “filthy feet” on Temple Mount, while a teacher at the Al-Aqsa Mosque school said Jews who visit the Temple Mount are “monkeys and pigs.” One Temple Mount preacher called “to annihilate the Jews,” and another implored his followers to “slaughter Jews.” Palestinian officials have also frequently denied the well-documented Jewish connection to the Temple Mount.
This narrative feeds into a wider problem of incitement among Palestinian leaders and society as a whole. This year, Norway demanded that Palestinians return funding for a women’s youth center named after a terrorist that killed 37 Israelis, 13 of whom were children.
Jew hatred is frequently promoted in Palestinian schools, whether through class plays or textbooks, including those sponsored by the international community. Moreover, PA television regularly airs interviews with children who aspire to become “martyrs,” or terrorists killed while carrying out attacks against Jews. Following the brutal murder of the Solomon family, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip took to the streets and celebrated the bloodshed.
While Israelis mourn the death of 3 Israelis killed in last night's massacre, Palestinians in Gaza took to the streets to celebrate. pic.twitter.com/2y8dYXlC8i
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 22, 2017
[Photo: Facebook]