Abbas Aide, Fatah Praise Jerusalem Hit-and-Run Terrorist as "Heroic Martyr"

Praise was heaped Thursday on terrorist Abdel Rahman Al-Shaludi, who killed three-month-old American Chaya Zissel Braun and injured eight other Israelis in a hit-and-run car attack in Jerusalem Wednesday. Both a senior aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Abbas’s Fatah movement celebrated Al-Shaludi and his intentional act of driving into a crowd of people waiting for a train.

In a Facebook post translated by Palestinian Media Watch and reported by Israel National News, Sultan Abu-Einen hailed “the heroic martyr, Abed El-Rahman Idriss al-Shaludi.” Abu-Einen is a member of Fatah’s Central Committee and heads the PA office dealing with NGOs.

The senior PA official’s post also claims that the terrorist was killed “in cold blood.” In fact, Al-Shaludi was shot and wounded by police as he fled the scene of the attack, dying shortly afterwards in the hospital.

The Times of Israel reported that Abbas’s Fatah movement published a poster Thursday celebrating Al-Shaludi. “The Silwan branch of Fatah honors the heroic martyr Abdel Rahman Al-Shaludi, who executed the Jerusalem operation which led to the running over of settlers in the occupied city of Jerusalem. Rest in peace! We are loyal to you,” read the notice, posted on Fatah’s official Facebook page.

Based on his family and his own militant Facebook posts, Al-Shaludi was believed to be a Hamas supporter. He was the nephew of a slain Hamas explosives expert, Mohiyedine Sharif. But the new Fatah poster may indicate that he was also affiliated with the rival Fatah organization.

According to the assailant’s mother, Al-Shaludi had spent the past two years in and out of Israeli prisons, and his mental state had deteriorated following his release after three weeks in Jerusalem’s Russian Compound prison. Just hours before the attack, she had taken him to a doctor, who referred him to a psychiatrist.

Following the attack on Wednesday night, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu blamed Abbas and the Palestinian Authority for the attack, asserting that ongoing violence was the direct result of the constant flow of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement coming from the PA and from Abbas himself.

“This is how Abu Mazen’s [Mahmoud Abbas’s] partners in government act, the same Abu Mazen who – only a few days ago – incited toward a terrorist attack in Jerusalem,” the Prime Minister said.