In October 2000, two Israeli reserve soldiers, Vadim Nurzhitz and Yossi Avrahami, accidentally entered Ramallah. They were lynched by a Palestinian mob who brutally murdered them and mutilated their bodies. Many remember the following photo of one of the Palestinian murderers joyously displaying his bloody hands to the frenzied Palestinian mob. Three of the Palestinians who participated in the murders and are imprisoned in Israel were recently honored by official Palestinian Authority TV in an episode of Giants of Endurance—a program about terrorist prisoners. While visiting the families of murderers Habbes Bayyoud, Muhammad Nawarah and Jawad Abu Qara, the P.A. TV reporter referred to each of them as “heroic.” A sister of one of the murderers also emphasized how her brother makes the family “raise their heads and feel proud”: Sister of terrorist Muhammad Nawarah: “Muhammad is a handsome guy and makes one proud. I am proud that I have a brother like Muhammad. ... Thanks to him, we raise our heads and feel proud ... ” Official PA TV host: “I’m with the family of heroic prisoner Habbes Bayyoud. ... We are now at the home of heroic prisoner Muhammad Nawarah ... ” P.A. TV host: “We have now arrived at the house of heroic prisoner Jawad Abu Qara ... ” [Official P.A. TV, Giants of Endurance, June 16, 2018] As Palestinian Media Watch has documented, these murderers are not only honored by the P.A. in words. Since their arrests, the P.A. has generously rewarded them each with a salary as is stipulated by P.A. law. Their salaries, as of June 2018, have reached a combined total of 2,023,600 shekels ($583,606).
The P.A. policy of honoring terrorists, as well as the ongoing P.A. practice of rewarding them with salaries, are two of the many ways the P.A. supports terror.
Earlier this week, PMW’s findings and documentation played a central role in the creation and passing of the Israeli law to deduct from P.A. tax money a sum equivalent to what the P.A. pays in terrorist salaries.
View the full report at PMW here.
