The two Palestinian terrorists who murdered Israelis Oren Ben-Yiftah, Yonatan Habakuk and Boaz Gol in Elad on May 5 were arrested on Sunday. This means that the Palestinian Authority will now adopt the murderers as employees and start paying them a monthly salary.
Assuming they live to be 80 years old (they are currently aged 19 and 20), over their lifetimes the P.A. will pay them no less than 6,530,400 shekels ($1,919,909), simply as a reward for murdering Jews and being arrested by Israel.
The terrorists’ P.A. salaries will start at 1,400 shekels ($450)/month and will increase with time spent in prison to 12,000 shekels ($3,859)/month.
While the P.A. continues to incentivize and reward terrorists, P.A. chairman Mahmoud Abbas issued another of his mealy-mouthed condemnations “of the killing of Israeli civilians” following Thursday’s murders.
Incapable of simply condemning the brutal murder of Israelis, Abbas repeated his “warnings” about Israeli/Jewish “settlers” using the Palestinian attack to carry out revenge attacks against Palestinians. Abbas then condemned what he referred to as the “ongoing attacks against our people and its Islamic and Christian holy sites,” which he argued have created an “atmosphere of tension and instability”:
“[P.A.] President Mahmoud Abbas expressed his condemnation of the killing of Israeli civilians two evenings ago. He emphasized that killing Palestinian and Israeli civilians will only bring about an additional deterioration in the situation, at a time when we all are striving to achieve stability and prevent an escalation.
“President Abbas warned against the settlers and others exploiting this condemnable event to carry out attacks and retaliations against our Palestinian people. He emphasized his condemnation of the ongoing attacks against our people and its Islamic and Christian holy sites, which have created an atmosphere of tension and instability.
“He noted that the cycle of violence emphasizes that a comprehensive and just permanent peace is the shortest and safest path to achieving security and stability for the Palestinian people, the Israeli people, and the peoples of the region” (official P.A. daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 7, 2022).
The mild language of Abbas’s “condemnation,” which was almost identical to his condemnation of the terror attack in Bnei Brak on March 29 and of the terror attack in Tel Aviv on April 7, also reflects just how meaningless these condemnations are to both Abbas and the Palestinians.
On each of the three occasions, Abbas was incapable of simply condemning the attacks, but had to include the “warning” about the “settlers” ostensibly using the attack as an excuse to attack Palestinians, thereby making his condemnation not about Israeli civilians being murdered, but about alleged attacks of Israelis against Palestinians.
While the P.A., controlled by Abbas, continues to implement its policy of paying substantial financial rewards to terrorists, Abbas’s condemnations should be seen for what they are: Empty words that mean nothing, uttered only to satisfy the demands of the international community.
Were Abbas’s words sincere, he would announce to all that the Palestinian murderers will not be receiving any salaries or other benefits from the P.A.
IDF Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch is the director of Legal Strategies for Palestinian Media Watch. He served for 19 years in the IDF Military Advocate General Corps. In his last position, he served as director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria.
This article was first published by Palestinian Media Watch.