Terrorists receiving “military ranks” and officers being murdered – Expressions of the morally bankrupt PA reality
The contrast between how Palestinian terrorist Osama Al-Silawi and United States Army Captain Taylor Force received their military ranks provides a clear picture of the moral bankruptcy of the Palestinian Authority.
Speaking recently, released terrorist murderer Al-Silawi thanked PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas for the “military rank” he was given and “salaries” the PA pays him.
Released terrorist prisoner Osama Al-Silawi: “I greatly thank His Honor [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas for his generous inclusion of the prisoners from before [the 1993] Oslo [Accords]. When we were released, he honored us by giving us military ranks and salaries with which we are living dignified lives.”
[Official PA TV, In Spite of the Handcuffs, Jan. 15, 2022]
Terrorist Al-Silawi was arrested in February 1993. After his conviction for the murder of Israeli Mordechai Biton, the wounding of Biton’s wife and the torture and murder of three Palestinians he thought were cooperating with Israel’s security forces, he was sentenced to 4 life sentences.
In 2013, as a precondition to start peace talks with Israel, Abbas demanded, inter alia, that 104 terrorists who had been arrested before the Oslo peace process be released. Terrorist Al-Silawi, who was 19 when he murdered Biton and tortured and murdered the Palestinians, was among the terrorists Israel released.
Terrorist Al-Silawi received his military rank from the PA because he was a terrorist who murdered innocent people.
In contrast to terrorist Al-Silawi, Captain Taylor Force invested four years of hard work to graduate as an officer from the United States West Point Military Academy. He then led soldiers in the fight against terror in Iraq and Afghanistan.
While walking innocently along the promenade in Tel Aviv together with his classmates from Vanderbilt University, Taylor was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist, Bashar Masalha, who mistook him for a Jew. The terrorist was killed on the spot before he could murder other innocent people.
Capt. Taylor Force received his military rank in order to fight terrorists like Osama Al-Silawi and his own killer, who murder innocent people.
The “military rank” and “salaries” referred to by murderer Al-Silawi are not a random or arbitrary event. Rather they are part of the PA’s extensive terror reward program, often referred to as the PA’s “Pay-for-Slay” policy.
As part of this policy, the PA pays monthly salaries to terrorist prisoners and released terrorists, such as Al-Silawi. It also pays a monthly allowance to the families of dead terrorists such as the family of the terrorist who murdered Taylor.
Every year these payments cost the PA hundreds of millions of dollars.
When Al-Silawi and the other terrorists were released in 2013, PA Chairman Abbas greeted them, repeatedly praising them as “heroes”:
"[The release of our prisoners] is a day of joy for our nation, for our people, for our heroic prisoners... There will be more groups of heroes who will come to us... They [the Israelis] postponed these heroes' release by 24 hours... we congratulate you and ourselves for the [release] of these heroes.”
[Official PA TV, Dec. 31, 2013]
As Palestinian Media Watch has already noted, shortly after release of the terrorists, Fatah officials claimed to have “blackmailed” Israel into releasing them. These statements gave rise to serious questions as to whether the PA ever had any bonafide intention to conduct real peace negotiations or whether the entire so-called “round of peace talks,” was merely a charade to free the terrorists.
Whatever the true intentions of the Palestinian leadership were, there are a number of realities that reflect on the moral compass of the PA:
- For the PA, terrorist murderers are “heroes”
- For the PA, military ranks are not a badge of honor earned with hard work, but merely a gift to be handed out to released murderers
- For the PA, “Pay-for-Slay” salaries to terrorists and murderers and incentivizing more terror is a priority