Hebrew University terrorists received over $1.2 million in ‘pay-for-slay’ payments

2002 bombing was planned and perpetrated by members of a J’lem Hamas cell

Terrorists responsible for the 2002 Hebrew University of Jerusalem cafeteria bombing have thus far received $1,257,259 in “pay-for-slay” payments from the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) said in a report it released to mark the 17th anniversary of the attack

The bombing at the Mount Scopus campus, in which nine people were killed, including five Americans, and more than 80 wounded, was planned and perpetrated by members of a Jerusalem Hamas cell during the Second Intifada.

Six members of the cell are serving multiple life sentences in Israeli prisons for this attack and others.

Among them are: Adballah Barghouti, a commander in Hamas’ armed wing Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, who is serving 67 life sentences plus 5,200 years for his involvement in killing 66 Israelis and injuring some 500; and Ibrahim Hamed, who is serving 54 life sentences for killing 46 and being an accessory or attempting to kill eight more. As of June, the PA has cumulatively paid them NIS 1,271,000 ($364,000) and continues to pay them thousands of shekels per month, according to PMW.

The other four terrorists – Wael Qassem, Wassim Abbasi, Alla Aldin Abbasi and Muhammed Odeh – were residents of Jerusalem, entitling them to a salary supplement of 300 shekels a month. Each of them has been paid more than NIS 770,000 ($221,000) since their arrest in August 2002, and is currently receiving NIS 7,300 ($2,091) per month.

According to the media watchdog, these terrorists have received NIS 300,000 or $86,000 since the beginning of the year, despite the PA’s purported financial crisis.

The PA obligated itself to pay monthly salaries to imprisoned terrorists when it passed the Law of Prisoners and Released Prisoners in 2004, PMW said. The exact amount paid is set in regulations passed by the PA government.

This is not the first time PMW has reported on the payments of terrorists involved in sensitive cases.

Last month, five years after the July 11, 2014 arrest of Husam Al-Qawasmi – the terrorist mastermind behind the 2014 kidnapping and murder of Gilad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Frenkel – PMW reported that he began receiving a salary of NIS 4,000 a month, double the NIS 2,000 monthly salary, according to the PA’s standard pay scale.

In February, Israel implemented the “Pay-for-Slay” Law, which instructs the state to deduct and freeze the amount of money the PA pays in salaries to imprisoned terrorists and families of “martyrs” from the tax and customs revenue it collects for the authority. The law was passed in July of last year and was approved for implementation by Israel’s security cabinet this year.

In 2019, the cabinet is so far withholding approximately NIS 480 million.