PA raises salary of suicide belt makers who murdered 16 in Café Hillel and Tzrifin attacks in 2003

• PA has paid the 6 terrorist prisoners and the families of the two suicide bombers responsible for the Tzrifin and Café Hillel attacks, cumulatively, no less than 3,248,900 shekels.
• The PA just raised the salaries of the two terrorists who prepared the suicide belts to 7,000 shekels/month

The Palestinian Authority has paid 3,248,900 shekels in financial rewards to the Hamas terrorists who carried out two consecutive suicide attacks on Sept. 9, 2003 (16 years ago tomorrow). The first attack at a bus stop near the Assaf Harofeh Hospital and the Tzrifin military base resulted in the murder of 9 people and the injury of 18. The second attack in Jerusalem's Café Hillel resulted in the murder of 7 people and the injury of 57.

Among the victims of the Café Hillel attack were Dr. David Applebaum and his daughter Nava, who was to be married the day after the attack. American-born Dr. Applebaum was chief of the emergency room and trauma services of Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Medical Center and a specialist in emergency medicine. Before the attack he had just participated in a symposium where he taught terror-trauma procedures to medical professionals.

Alon Mizrachi, the security guard of the café who was killed when he identified the suicide bomber and shoved him out as he exploded, thereby saving many other lives, was the uncle of Ziv Mizrachi, an IDF soldier who was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in November 2015.

According to the calculations of Palestinian Media Watch following the PA's own pay scale, the PA has, to date, paid the six terrorists who were arrested and imprisoned for their roles in the attacks, a total of 2,892,500 shekels. The PA has also paid the families of the two suicide bombers - so-called "Martyrs" - a total of 356,400 shekels since the attacks.

While the PA will continue to pay monthly salaries to all of the terrorists, it is noteworthy that the PA just raised the salaries of the two terrorists who prepared the suicide belts to 7,000 shekels/month. Similar to an employee of any company that receives a raise after a certain period of employment, the PA - following PA law - just raised the salaries of these two terrorists as they completed 15 years in prison (they were arrested in July and August 2004). For the last five years the PA paid them 6,000 shekels/month.

In 18 months, the PA will also raise the salary of mass murderer Ibrahim Hamed, who is serving 54 life sentences for planning different terror attacks in which 54 people were murdered.

In addition to the monthly salaries it pays to the imprisoned terrorists, the PA also pays monthly allowances to the families of the two suicide bombers. Simply because the terrorists blew themselves up to kill Jews, the PA has paid their families 356,400 shekels (178,200 shekels per family).

The law guaranteeing the terrorist prisoners a monthly salary was adopted by the PA in 2004. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has twice approved considerable salary hikes for the terrorist prisoners. In 2006, Abbas approved the regulations that codified the monthly salary payments paid by the PA, and also a rise in the salaries paid. In 2010, he approved an additional salary hike for the terrorist prisoners, including a 300% rise, from 4,000 shekels/month to 12,000 shekels/month for prisoners having served more than 30 years in prison - i.e. murderers. In addition to granting the terrorist prisoners a monthly salary, the 2004 PA Law of Prisoners and Released Prisoners prohibits the PA from signing any peace agreement that does not include the release of all the Palestinian terrorists, including the murderers who carried out these attacks.