Egyptian researcher justifies terrorist’s murder of 7 Israeli civilians because they were “on occupied land”

Egyptian Israel studies researcher Sa’id Okasha: “Don’t say that the settler is unarmed, or that he isn’t a soldier. It could be that he’s unarmed, but he is sitting on stolen land... When the operation took place in Jerusalem yesterday (i.e., murder of 7 Jews outside a synagogue), the Israeli media tells the West that they were people who prayed and worshipped God, and people came and killed them. Tell them: Where did they worship God? On occupied land.”

[Official PA TV, From Cairo, Jan. 30, 2023]

Sa’id Okasha is an Egyptian Israel studies researcher at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Egypt

“The operation” refers to a murderous terror attack carried out byKhairy Alqam - 21-year-old Arab terrorist and resident of Jerusalem who shot and murdered 6 Israelis and 1 Ukrainian national - Asher Natan, 14, Ilya Sosansky, 26, Natali Ziskin Mizrahi, 45, Eli Mizrahi, 48, Rafael Ben Eliyahu, 56, Irina Korolyova, 60, and Shaul Chai, 68 - and wounded 5 others outside of the Ateret Avraham Synagogue in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Neve Yaakov on Sabbath eve, Jan. 27, 2023, as some of them were coming out from prayers in the synagogue. Alqam fled the scene in a car and then opened fire on Israeli police officers, who shot and killed him. The attack took place on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.