This is pretty mind-numbing:
The head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has approved a new law, providing monetary grants to the families of suicide bombers.
Abbas gave his approval just six days ago, a day before a suicide bomber struck the HaSharon Mall in Netanya, killing five Israelis and wounding scores of others.
The legislation refers to the suicide terrorists as shahids (martyrs), a term generally applied to a person who dies in an operation fighting against Israel.
Under the new law, the terrorist’s family will be paid a base sum of $250 per month. The law takes into account extended family arrangements commonplace in Arab societies. The families of married terrorists are entitled to an additional $50 per month, and $15 are added for each child, $25 for each parent, and $15 for each brother who lived with the terrorist prior to his death.
The monies, to be paid out of the general budget of the Palestinian Authority, are significant sums for average Arab families living in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.
Both Israel and the United States have taken legal action in recent years to shut down organizations that distribute money to the families of terrorists, especially suicide bombers.
I hope this report is wrong. (h/t Memeorandum)
*** Update ***
Apparently the link I provided is to some wingnut hate site, and as such, might be wholly unreliable. Here is another site that says pretty much the same thing, and Israpundit has another link.
At any rate, reader beware.
Ozymandius
Good to see you’re still alive. I thought you might have been eaten by a gru. So that’s good.
And yeah, this makes me want to punch Abbas in the face. Not hard, just enough to let him understand my displeasure.
srv
I’ll have to look up how much we gave the PA this year. But why shouldn’t we pay for both sides of this war?
Geek, Esq.
That’s a Kahanist site, JC. It’s like citing the Klan for reports on Zionism.
Geek, Esq.
A sample from the hate site you’re citing:
It has been fifteen years since an Arab assassin’s bullet stilled the voice of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the truest and most noble Jewish leader of our generation.
Lines
This is just more fuel for the war against Islamofascism and its byproduct, terrorism.
Steve S
Can we get confirmation of this from a more independent source?
Zifnab
So then is Abbas cutting checks to bombers’ families or isn’t he? Seriously, I don’t care if the opinions on the site lean to making Hitler the Pope or calling for the mass slaughter of adorable four legged animals – is this his public policy or not?
Steve S
I’m doing google.com searches and everything keeps linking back to FrontPageMagazine and other wingnut sources. Is this how the vast rightwing conspiracy operates? No true sourcing? You just believe what you’re told?
No wonder we ended up in Iraq on a pack of lies.
Steve S
That’s what I want to know. But you can’t tell that from these sources. They just make the claim, they don’t link to any sources. They don’t provide the full translated text of the bill, nothing…
Davebo
It’s hard to believe that the old MSM is repressing this huge story!
Unless of course, as I strongly suspect, this huge story is total BS.
neil
The legislation refers to the suicide terrorists as shahids
Translation: The legislation refers to _shahids_, and we say that really means suicide bombers. We don’t say what they say it means, or explain why it could only mean suicide bombers.
It seems like a normal death benefits law. Can ‘shahid’ refer to, for instance, a police officer killed on duty?
neil
Here, it appears, is the original source of the story — an email newsletter by David Frankfurter:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/dfrankfurter/68701.html
This article appears to be where FrontPageMag, as well as some lesser blogs, picked up their story:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20445
Which then proceeded to shed some more facts and nuance and become the articles linked to here.
I’m not saying not to believe this story, but it seems quite hard to believe that Israel’s active reputable English-language press hasn’t touched it if it’s real. At any rate, you should read the first-linked article there: it is much weaker brew than the later stuff, since it implies that some of the money may go to the families of people who are not terrorists. Who knew?
Steve S
Even if it is true. Is it any surprise?
Last I checked the US gave death benefits to our soldiers.
Stormy70
Please clarify this statement. Are you saying that suicide bomber’s families deserve a death benefit for blowing up shopping malls and restaurants?
Are you saying our soldiers engage in this behavior?
I need some clarification, seriously.
The Disenfranchised Voter
I hope this isn’t true.
I’ll take it with a huge grain of salt…
Stormy70
If it is, it would go down in history as one of the stupidest things Abbas could do right now.
neil
That’s very true, Stormy70, and that’s why the absence of any sourcing makes this seem very suspicious. Especially since Abbas supposedly signed this law on the same day that he issued a condemnation of the last suicide bombing.
The first, somewhat sourced article I found did say that there would be _more_ people eligible than just the families of suicide bombers, which essentially proves that the articles John links to are disingenuous. What isn’t clear is whether families of people who _are_ suicide bombers are eligible, and more to the point, whether this eligibility is the purpose of the law.
The Disenfranchised Voter
I couldn’t agree more Stormy. And from what I know of him, this doesn’t seem in Abbas character to do this. I could very well be wrong, but I really think he wants peace for the region.
BIRDZILLA
You have relitives there who kill themselves dont worry the goverment of SYRIA will gaive you lots of dough