Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the Sbarro pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem—one of the second intifada’s most brutal acts of terror, which left fifteen dead and 130 wounded. While the attack—like the scores of other such bombings in those years—did nothing to improve the lot of the Palestinians, or to aid in the creation of a Palestinian state, it proved quite lucrative for the attackers. Maurice Hirsch explains:
By now, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has paid Abdullah Barghouti, the terrorist who built the bomb and is responsible for the murder of 67 people in various attacks, a cumulative sum of $285,571. Every month, the PA pays him a salary of $2,255. In addition, the PA has paid the family of the suicide bomber $68,498. Every month the PA continues to pay his family an allowance of $432. The minimum wage in the PA is $44 a month.
The monthly PA salary payments to the imprisoned terrorists are not just a whim. Rather, they are codified in the PA Law of Prisoners and Released Prisoners, No. 19 of 2004 and regulations promulgated pursuant to the law.
As for Ahlam Tamimi, who planned the bombing, she lives in Jordan where she hosts a television program. In March, Interpol revoked the warrant for her arrest. She remains unrepentant:
[In 2011], Tamimi was interviewed on Israeli Channel 1. . . . After explaining that she was the one who chose the target of the attack, Tamimi was asked if she knew how many children had been killed in the attack. When she heard that eight children had been murdered, Tamimi broke into a huge smile.
In a subsequent interview, she told a Jordanian journalist:
I don’t regret what happened, absolutely not. That is the path; I give myself for the sake of Allah, to jihad for Allah. I carried out [my mission] and Allah made me successful. You know the number of victims who were killed. All that was thanks to the success from Allah.
Read more on Palestinian Media Watch: https://palwatch.org/page/26053