PMW: Sbarro’s bombers and families received almost $300,000 from PA
Palestinians who were involved with the 2001 Sbarro bombing, as well as the family of the perpetrator, have been given hundreds of thousands of dollars by the Palestinian Authority since the attack, according to watchdog and research institute Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).
In a statement, released for the 17th anniversary of the attack on August 1, 2001, PMW said that Ahlam Tamimi, who planned the bombing, and Abdallah Barghouti, who built the bomb and is affiliated with Hamas, as well as the family of Izz al-Din Al-Masri, who perpetrated the attack, will have received around $294,332 by September 2018.
“PA law mandates that every terrorist imprisoned by Israel receive a monthly salary for the full duration of his or her time in prison and often even after his/her release,” PMW said in the release. “The PA also pays monthly allowances to the families of terrorist so-called ‘Martyrs…’ saying that he did an exemplary act according to Islam, for which he will be rewarded in the afterlife by Allah [God].”
PMW said that “salary payments from the PA of at least $191,526” went to Barghouti, Tamimi has received “at least $52,681,” and al-Din Al-Masri’s family has received about $50,124.
Fifteen people were murdered in the 2001 bombing, including seven children, and 130 others were injured. The perpetrator himself was killed in the explosion.
Tamimi was given 16 life sentences, but was released from prison in the 2011 prisoner exchange that freed captive soldier Gilad Schalit. She now lives in Jordan, and according to PMW has been unapologetic about her role in the bombings. The US did request that Jordan extradite Tamimi to the US, but the request was denied. Today she is on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list.
Barghouti was given 67 life sentences and is still in Israeli prison.
In July, the Knesset passed a law to withhold the amount that the PA gives to terrorists and their families from taxes and tariffs Israel gathers on its behalf.