Father of terrorist murderer who killed 3: “I’m proud of what he did”

Official PA TV program Good Morning Jerusalem, interview with Muhammad Alyan, father of Palestinian terrorist Baha Alyan who killed 3 together with an accomplice, about the terrorists’ bodies that had not yet been transferred to their families at the time of the interview.

Father of murderer Baha Alyan, Muhammad Alyan, on official PA TV program Good Morning Jerusalem: "If the struggle [over the Martyrs’ bodies] was a matter concerning only Baha (i.e., murderer of 3), I would say from the beginning that the whole land of Palestine is the grave of my son and I would never demand him [returned] because I am proud of what he did, and every part of Palestine is his land and the place of his grave."

Baha Alyan and Bilal Ghanem – 22 and 23-year-old Palestinian terrorists who on Oct. 13, 2015, boarded a bus in Jerusalem's Armon Hanatziv
neighborhood with a gun and a knife and attacked passengers, killing Israelis Haviv Haim (78) and Alon Govberg (51), and Richard Lakin (76), and wounding 3 Israelis. Alyan was shot and killed by an Israeli security guard at the scene and Ghanem, a Hamas terrorist who served time in Israeli prison in 2013-2014, was wounded. Ghanem is serving 3 life sentences and an additional 60 years for these murders.

On July 2, 2016, the Israeli government announced the reestablishment of a cemetery for enemy casualties and stated that terrorists’ bodies would not be returned to their families. The step was intended to deter terror attacks.

The Cemeteries for Enemy Casualties are two burial sites maintained by the Israeli army for burying the bodies of enemy soldiers as well as terrorists. They are fenced and well-marked. Graves have markers instead of gravestones. Burial is temporary, on the assumption that the bodies will eventually be returned to their countries of origin. No funeral is held. The bodies are buried in numbered caskets, after their identities have been documented.