A regularly repeated libel by the Palestinian Authority that Israel medically neglects, and even experiments on terrorist prisoners in its care was behind the brutal murder of mother-of-six Esther Horgan last month. 

Horgan’s murderer told Israeli interrogators he decided to carry out a terrorist attack after he was influenced – inter alia – by the death of a security prisoner he knew, Kamal Abu Wa’er.

Wa’er, who was serving six life sentences for involvement in the murder of at least four Israelis, recently died of cancer in prison. During his illness, the official Palestinian media launched an incitement campaign citing top PA officials who falsely claimed Israel was denying him proper treatment. Once Abu Wa’er had died, they intensified the libel that his death was caused by “deliberate medical neglect.” 

Apparently believing this to be true, terrorist Muhammad Kabha decided to kill an Israeli in revenge. Finding a secluded spot in Samaria, he “identified a Jewish woman walking alone,” according to his admission, took a rock and bludgeoned Horgan to death.  

Kabha’s admission is timely as it highlights the gross double standard awarded to the PA: at a time when US President Donald Trump is being accused of incitement to violence for a speech he gave at a rally on Wednesday, following which a number of supporters broke into the Capitol building, here is a clear example of PA propaganda being the direct cause of terrorism against innocent Israeli citizens – as admitted by the terrorist himself – and yet the world stays silent. 

The Palestinian Authority does everything it can to demonize Israel and create hate among Palestinians, including spreading a number of libels against the Jewish state. Among them is the libel that Israel treats prisoners inhumanely by failing to give them adequate medical treatment, by giving them experimental drugs, and even by conducting Nazi-like medical experiments on them

In the last six months alone Palestinian Media Watch has identified at least ten examples of this sort of libel. 

These include Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr alleging that Palestinian prisoners have died of “deliberate medical neglect,” that Israel has a policy of “deliberate medical murder against the prisoners,” and that, under orders from Israeli politicians, Israel’s Prison Service deliberately commits medical crimes against the prisoners.

Similarly, Fatah has alleged that the prisoners are being medically “assassinated,” while a released prisoner added to the libel by claiming that Israel never treats sick prisoners, but uses them for testing experimental drugs.

“This is deliberate and calculated neglect. There is no diagnosis for a prisoner. You go to the clinic, or to the so-called “clinic,” [and the doctor] doesn’t diagnose your illness… He gives you experiments,” the prisoner told an official PA TV program.

These claims were again rolled out in the case of Abu Wa’er. 

Top PLO official Hanan Ashrawi claimed Wa’er’s death “a result of deliberate medical neglect” was “proof of the severity of the situation in the occupation’s prisons, the severity of the conditions of the Israeli detention centers, the various types of torture from which the prisoners are suffering, and the fact that they are receiving barbaric and cruel treatment from those responsible for the prisons.” 

Meanwhile, Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr accused Israel of murdering Wa’er. According to the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Abu Bakr “held the occupation government fully responsible for this crime, which was committed premeditatedly by the [Israeli] Prison Service that knew well the severity of prisoner Abu Wa’er’s health condition, which necessitated his immediate release.” 

Bizarrely, the PA made this claim even while admitting that Israel did treat Wa’er’s cancer. 

A separate report in the PA daily noted: “He [Wa’er] underwent radiation therapy at the Rambam Hospital in Haifa, which is in the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel), after deliberate medical neglect by the occupation’s [Israeli] Prison Service… The prisoner is expected to undergo additional radiation therapy. He is also anticipated to undergo an additional surgery to insert a permanent plastic tube into his throat.” 

Needless to say, therefore, the claims that Israel neglects the health of Palestinian prisoners are baseless. International Red Cross regularly visits the Palestinian terrorist prisoners and has not documented or accused Israel of any “medical neglect,” “premeditated murder,” or “medical experiments.” 

On the contrary, a report from the US State Department states that Israeli prison conditions “generally met international standards, according to the International Commission of the Red Cross”

Last year, the International Red Cross visited 90% of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons and did not report any medical neglect or improper medical treatment. 

In addition, Israeli media has reported that Palestinian terrorist prisoners in fact receive medication that is not even part of the medical service insurance coverage for Israeli citizens to receive for free, and for which Israelis have to pay.

Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch said: “It is unconscionable that the global community allows the Palestinian Authority to spread these libels and slanders against the Jewish State without condemnation. As evidenced by the heinous murder of Esther Horgan, which has left six children without a mother, these lies have devastating consequences for Israeli families. 

“Until the PA ceases its policy of hate indoctrination, there can be no hope of coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians.”