Iran plans to incentivize and reward terror in Israel by giving financial support in the form of thousands of dollars to the families of Palestinian terrorists killed while carrying out violent attacks against Israelis and Jews, announced an Iranian official on Wednesday.
Mohammad Fathali, Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, made the remarks at a press conference in Beirut, saying that the aid was a continuation of “Iran’s support for the oppressed Palestinian people”.
The money will to go to “families of Palestinian martyrs who were killed in the ‘Jerusalem intifada,’” said Fathali. These “martyrs”, to date, have killed 32 people and injured over 350, mostly Jews, with brutal stabbings, shootings, and car rammings since the current wave of terror began in October.
Iran’s pay scale for Palestinian terrorism starts at $7,000 for a basic martyrdom and rises to $30,000 if the terrorist’s family home was demolished by the IDF.
Fathali called for the Arab Muslim nation to unite around the Palestinian issue and threw in some incitement as well, encouraging the continuance of terrorist acts against Israel by saying, “The martyrs’ blood will release the entire Palestine, from the river to the sea.”
Osama Hamdan, Foreign Relations Chief for Hamas, expressed appreciation for the Iranian gesture at the press conference, which was also attended by several other leaders of Palestinian factions.
The friendly relations between Iran and Hamas represent an about-face from recent weeks. Earlier in the month, Moussa Abu Marzouk, Deputy Chairman of Hamas, accused Iran of lying for years about its support for the terrorist organization and claimed that no money from Iran had reached Gaza since 2009.
However, with the warming of Iran-Hamas relations and the announcement of the financial aid plan, it seems that John Kerry’s uncomfortable premonitions are coming true. In January, the American Secretary of State admitted that “some” of the billions of dollars’ worth of sanctions relief which poured into Iran after the implementation of the P1+5 nuclear deal would probably go to fund terrorist entities.
“You know, to some degree, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that every component of that can be prevented,” Kerry told CNBC, though he said the US was “not seeing the early delivery of funds going to that kind of endeavor at this point in time.”
It took precisely one month for Iran to made good on this prediction – one which was also made repeatedly and vehemently by numerous opponents of the nuclear deal months before it was signed, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. For them, however, it was less of a possibility than a guaranteed certainty.
A statement released by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned Iran’s announcement and pointed out that the move was proof of Iran’s intention of supporting terror, reading, “This is further proof of Iran’s deep involvement in encouraging terrorism against Israel. Following the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with the world powers, Iran is allowing itself to be once again a central player in global terror.”
While the prospect of Iran and Hamas teaming up against Israel to incentivize the murder of Jews is horrifying, many see it as a fulfillment of Zechariah 12:3, in which the prophet warns that at the End of Days, “all the nations of the earth will be gathered against [Jerusalem].”
