JERUSALEM – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling Fatah movement praised the terrorist who shot and killed three Israelis on Tuesday as a martyr who was willing to die for his stolen homeland.
Fatah posted a picture of the terrorist on its official Facebook page alongside the text, “The one who carried out the operation in Jerusalem (sic, Har Adar) is Martyr (Shahid) Nimr Mahmoud Ahmed Al-Jamal,” Israeli monitoring group Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported.
The post blamed Israel for Jamal’s actions. “Israel alone bears responsibility for the Palestinian responses to the occupation’s crimes against the members of our people,” Fatah stated.
Fatah official Munir al-Jaghoub further threatened, “If it [Israel] continues its incessant aggression against the Palestinian people, it can only expect more violence.”
Former Israeli Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar noted that Jamal’s family will receive financial compensation from the PA, saying there “is no greater encouragement of terror than the Palestinian Authority’s generous policy of allowances for the terrorists and their families.”
Jamal’s family is set to receive an annual compensation of around $9,000 for the rest of their lives, PMW reported.
After the terror attack, Jamal was discovered to have left his estranged wife a note apologizing for being a “bad husband.” Ynet news reported that Jamal’s wife had fled the family home to Jordan after her husband beat her. In the message, he expressed hope that she would forgive him for mistreating her. Palestinian terrorists have left similar notes in the past to the families they left behind hoping that their act of martyrdom – and the resulting compensation from the PA – would console their families.
The U.S. Congress is gearing up to vote on the Taylor Force Act – named after a U.S. Army veteran who was murdered last year in Tel Aviv by a Palestinian terrorist – that would condition U.S. aid to the PA on ending its “pay-for-slay” program.