JERUSALEM – Amid deafening silence from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who failed to condemn Sunday’s fatal terror attack in Jerusalem, the Palestinian Authority is preparing to reward the terrorist’s family with a monthly stipend of $760 for the murder of Israelis.
In accordance with PA policy, the widow of east Jerusalem resident Fadi al Qanbar, who was shot and killed while carrying out a truck-ramming attack on a crowd of soldiers in Jerusalem’s Armon HaNatziv neighborhood, will receive $760 a month for the rest of her life. She will also receive a one-time grant of more than $1500 in the next few months, Israeli NGO Palestinian Media Watch reported. Meanwhile, Qanbar’s sister praised her brother for his “most beautiful martyrdom.”
Qanbar, who was said to be have been inspired by Islamic State-style attacks, repeatedly drove his truck over a group of soldiers who were touring the area, killing four and wounding another 17.
While Abbas made no public statement condemning the attack, the PA’s official media – both print and television – repeatedly praised Qanbar as a “shahid,” or martyr. Palestinian terror organizations that are members of the PLO – the body that oversees the remunerations for terrorists and their families – openly extolled the attack.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said “the operation” was a “blessing” and proof that “the intifada of the young Palestinians continues, and is strengthening and improving” every day, independent Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported.
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) said that the attack constituted a “legal right” of the Palestinians “anchored in international law and all the resolutions of the international bodies” and was a “natural response” to the “despicable occupation” of Jerusalem and its holy sites.
Meanwhile, the Gaza-based Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades “blessed the heroic” attack as a “brave resistance act that emphasizes that there is no option that surpasses the option of the rifle and the armed struggle.”
“We call on our people in the West Bank and in Jerusalem to carry out more quality individual [operations] like this, and to aim the rifle’s muzzle at the occupation’s soldiers and the herds of its settlers.’ In addition, they emphasized that this “does not require a decision or approval by any party,” PMW, citing independent Palestinian news agency Amad, reported the group as saying.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Tuesday blasted Abbas for failing to denounce the attack, saying “the worrisome thing is that terrorism and incidents in the field are the result of orders from on high — direct orders from Abbas to imams in mosques to incite [to violence].”
Netanyahu on Tuesday slammed Abbas’s Fatah party for not only “fail[ing] to condemn the latest terrorist attack, but that there were even those in Fatah who praised it,” Army Radio reported.
According to a relative of Qanbar, the terrorist became enraged after hearing a sermon at his local mosque on Friday on President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to transfer the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. Israel Radio reported that the PA leadership had instructed mosques to deliver sermons on the issue.