Israeli officials have asked the Biden administration to pressure the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to cut the “pay-for-slay” scheme and refuse payments to the father of the terrorist who carried out Thursday’s attack in Tel Aviv, Israeli media reported.
Raad Hazem killed three people and critically wounded eight more in a shooting spree outside a bar in downtown Tel Aviv on Thursday evening. After a nine hour manhunt, Hazem was killed in a fire fight with security forces while hiding out near a mosque in the adjacent city of Jaffa.
His father, Fathi, is a retired Colonel who served in the past as a senior official of the Palestinian Authority’s national security apparatus. He also served a prison sentence in an Israeli security prison. As such, he receives a stipend from the Palestinian Authority and will now receive more thanks to the PA’s pay for slay policy paying convicted terrorists and their families.
On Friday, Fathi greeted throngs of Palestinians who had gathered at his home to mourn for his son, telling them to keep fighting Israel and “victory will come soon.”
“In the coming days you will see the change. You will be free and independent. God, free the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the hands of the occupation,” Fathi said.
Addressing his dead son, he said: “Many died in God’s path before you were even born. Years ago, they gave everything for God and for Palestine…now, we pass the flag to those after us,” said Fathi. “The sword of Mohammad is in your hands.”
Encouraging the young men around him, Hazem went on: “We grow old and weaken, we hand the banner to those after us, now the banner is in your hands, so do not drop it.”
Palestinians marched from the city of Jenin and nearby villages to the Hazem family home, chanting, “Allah’s victory is achieved in blood” and vowed that “the army of Mohammad” was coming to vanquish Israel and the Jews.
According to Israel’s Channel 12, officials from Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office reached out to the White House to pressure Abbas to cut payments over his remarks. Israel hopes the Biden administration will let Abbas know that his condemnation of the attack, which was weak and discussed Israeli settlers in the same breath as terrorists, is not enough and needs to be followed by concrete action.
The report also said that Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz has raised the issue of payments to relatives of terrorists in all of his recent meetings and calls with Abbas.
Under the Trump administration, Congress passed the Taylor Force Act in 2018, which banned the U.S. from giving aid to the PA until it ended the practice. However, the Biden administration reinstated aid to the PA last year.
Abbas has repeatedly vowed he would never stop rewarding terrorists, even if it was to the last penny.
Thursday’s attack was the fourth one in two weeks, bringing the death toll to 14.
The deadliest occurred in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak, claiming five lives. Palestinians in multiple cities also came out in droves to celebrate that attack, handing out sweets to passersby.
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