Seventeen years after the suicide bombing in Sbarro’s restaurant in Jerusalem left 15 people dead and over 130 injured, the terrorists who took part in the attack and their families have received a total of $294,332 from the Palestinian Authority. One of the terrorists, sentenced to 16 life sentences, was set free seven years ago.
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), a watchdog NGO that reports on incitement in the Arab media, reported on the subject on Thursday, precisely 17 years since the attack. On August 9, 2001, Ahlam Tamimi entered the Sbarro restaurant on the corner of King George and Jaffa Road, one of the busiest pedestrian intersections in Jerusalem. Tamimi was scouting for the location that would have the most casualties. She directed Izz al-Din Shuheil al-Masri into the restaurant where al-Masri detonated an explosive belt weighing 15-20 pounds, containing explosives, nails, nuts, and bolts. 13 Israelis, one pregnant American, and one Brazilian, were killed and 130 were injured. One victim remains hospitalized, in a permanent vegetative state. Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
Ahlam Tamimi, a 20-year-old female university student and part-time journalist at the time, is a relative of Ahed Tamimi, a 17-year-old girl who was recently released from an Israeli jail after serving eight months for slapping an IDF soldier. Ahlam was sentenced to 16 life sentences for her role in the bombing but was released in October 2011 in exchange for the release of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
PMW reported that al-Masri’s family has received $50,124 from the Palestinian Authority as a reward for his suicide bombing.
Tamimi was paid at least $52,681 during her ten years in jail.
Abdallah Barghouti, who built the explosive belt, was arrested in May 2003, and received 67 life sentences. He has received salary payments from the PA of at least $191,526.
By September 2018, the PA will have cumulatively rewarded Barghouti, Tamimi, and the family of Al-Masri with at least $294,332.
“PA law mandates that every terrorist imprisoned by Israel receive a monthly salary for the full duration of his/her time in prison and often even after his/her release,” PMW wrote. “The PA also pays monthly allowances to the families of terrorist so-called ‘Martyrs.’ By declaring a murderer as a ‘Martyr’, the PA is saying that he did an exemplary act according to Islam, for which he will be rewarded in the afterlife by Allah.”
“PA law conditions any peace agreement with Israel on the release of all the terrorist prisoners, among them the bomb-maker of the Sbarro bombing, Abdallah Barghouti, who in total murdered 67 people.”
