Will the ruling for the PA to compensate Sbarro victims help end "pay for slay?"

The Jerusalem Post reports:

The Jerusalem District Court ruled on Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority must compensate the victims of the 2001 Sbarro suicide attack in Jerusalem.

According to the report, the ruling is based on a 2022 Supreme Court ruling, which stipulates that the Palestinian Authority is a party to the crimes caused by terrorists since it financially supports both security prisoners and their families.  

The compensations to the Sbarro attack victims are set to amount to millions of shekels, and the ruling comes after two lawsuits the victims and their families filed over the last two decades. 

According to N12, the ruling may pave the way for other victims of terror attacks, including victims of the October 7 massacre, to request compensation of up to NIS 10 million for each person who was murdered. 

On August 9, 2001, a suicide bomber killed 15 civilians, including four children, and wounded 130 others at the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem.

The terror attack was done by Hamas, no the PLO. It is significant that the court finds the PA responsible to compensate victims - all because of its policy of "pay for slay." 

This means that Israel may withhold any tax revenues earmarked for the PA and pay the hundreds of terror victims instead. 

PA leader Mahmoud Abbas has said that the payments to prisoners and the families of "martyr" terrorists are sacred and will never be reduced. But this now means that they will have no money at all.

The Biden administration would pressure Israel to continue to pay the PA. The Trump administration is not likely to do that. 

Which means that things could play out a number of ways:

- Europe would make up the shortfall in funds.

- Europe might pressure Israel to pay anyway by threatening boycotts. 

- The PA will make a deal with Iran which would involve it turning into an Iranian proxy like Hamas in exchange for funding.

- The PA abandons pay for slay and makes a deal with Israel to regain its revenues.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

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By the way, there is a  pizza shop called "Sbaroo" in the Arab section of Jerusalem. Sbarro should sue  it is spelled the same way in Arabic.

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Haaretz really hates pro-settler NGOs

Last week, Haaretz published a supposed expose of Regavim, an NGO that insists that the Israeli government adhere to its own laws in Area C of Judea and Samaria.

The article didn't dig up any dirt. Regavim is quite open about its aims. But now the government has some former Regavim officials, and that is scary to Haaretz:

Haaretz is upset.

The article shows Regavim members documenting the huge amount of illegal Palestinian construction and painting their activities as being immoral. Yet they are doing exactly the same thing that Peace Now does with Jewish construction, something Haaretz heartily approves.

Given these facts, it seems Regavim’s operations are a factor in the government’s agenda. One example is a document entitled “The Plow Line – A Plan to Halt the Palestinian Takeover of the Open Territories in Judea and Samaria,” which was distributed to politicians ahead of the most recent election and outlined the organization’s strategy in the West Bank.

The document included a range of recommendations for the next government, some of which found their way into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition agreement with Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, such as launching “the campaign for the open areas,” a euphemism for Area C, the roughly 60 percent of the West Bank that contains Israel’s settlements and a large Palestinian rural population.

Area C was created to ensure the vast majority of Palestinians would remain under PLO political control. Since then, tens of thousands of Palestinians have illegally moved into Area C, with the cooperation of the EU, specifically to frustrate any Jewish building there. This isn't natural growth of the Palestinians who lived in Area C - this is having them move deliberately into areas they weren't supposed to be. 

Regavim attempts to combat that. And it uses the law to do that. I don't have statistics, but usually the Supreme Court rules in Regavim's favor, and the "right wing" government under Netanyahu attempts to avoid implementing the Supreme Court rulings.

For example, just today, the Supreme Court heard arguments concerning Regavim's petition to implement demolition orders at the illegal Khan al-Ahmar outpost  -which the court had ruled must be evacuated back in 2009! The state has been dragging its feet for 14 years, and is now claiming that it really wants to demolish the illegal outpost but it wants to choose an unspecified time to do it. 

This one case shows that things in Israel are not the simplistic black and white that Haaretz and other media claim. Here, the very government that Haaretz is worried is overrun by Regavim veterans is arguing against Regavim, and the Supreme Court that the media says is the only opposition to the right-wing government is taking the right wing position while the government is arguing against it. 

There seems to be a distinct unease that a right-wing NGO is doing what hundreds of left-wing NGOs are doing - and it is being effective. 

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The "extreme right wing Israeli government, left wing Supreme Court" narrative has been upended

Something happened this week that completely contradicts everything you've been reading about the current Israeli government - and the High Court.

From Haaretz

:The Supreme Court should reject a petition demanding the eviction of residents of the Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar, because the eviction involves “diplomatic and security considerations” that should be made by the Israeli government, according to a brief filed on Monday by Israel.

The government explained that it does eventually plan to carry out the demolition orders issued against the village, but wants to decide for itself when and how to do so.

Hold on.  Isn't this the "most right wing government in Israeli history"? Isn't the Supreme Court the last liberal holdout against total right-wing dictatorship?

As far as I can tell, over the years the Supreme Court has upheld the legality and importance of evacuating the illegal squatters on Area C land that was part of a military firing zone. And the governments of Israel have been trying to avoid that evacuation.

In other words, the exact opposite of what the narrative is. Not once since this whole thing went to court over the past ten years has the Supreme Court ruled that the residents have the legal right to remain there or that the State of Israel does not have the right to evict them from their illegally built homes. 

And the State of Israel has always petitioned to delay the demolition, at least until a plan is agreed to for the residents to move  - knowing quite well that the illegal squatters will never agree to move anywhere.

Meaning that Netanyahu is more left wing than the Supreme Court, and those who support the Supreme Court's independence should be supporting the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar - if they are being consistent, that it. 

Reality is a lot different from the simplistic narratives in the media. And politics beats out supposed "principles" every time.

 

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The progressive Israeli High Court is to the right of the "fascist" Israeli government

From Times of Israel:

The High Court of Justice issued a sharp rebuke on Tuesday of the government’s recent request for yet another delay in the court’s order to evacuate the illegal Khan al-Ahmar Bedouin encampment in the West Bank.

Justice Noam Sohlberg rejected the government’s request for a four-month extension for the submission of its position on the issue, and instead set a hearing for a request by the right-wing Regavim organization that the court issue a final order requiring the hamlet’s immediate evacuation and demolition.

We've been inundated with articles from around the world about how fascist and theocratic the current Israeli government is, and how it is trying to eviscerate the only Israeli institution that is defending good old fashioned liberal values. But if that is true, why is the government trying to delay the demolition of Khan al Ahmar - and why is the High Court insisting that it be demolished immediately?

Why is the liberal High Court on the side of the right-wing Regavim NGO and the right-wing government on the side of the EU?

Because the memes are all wrong. Every biased assumption behind these articles is wrong. And this is the real outrage.

Clearly, the High Court insists the encampment is illegal. It always was illegal. Even though the Europeans and progressive Americans are saying that demolishing Khan al-Ahmar is a war crime or whatever, the Israeli courts see no validity in that argument. 

Equally clearly, the current "most right wing government in Israeli history" is not anxious to demolish Khan al-Ahmar. It is engaging in realpolitik, and it doesn't want to antagonize the Europeans. I'm sure that the government knows Khan al-Ahmar is illegal but instead of using the court as a shield to destroy the outpost, it is fighting it.  

Moreover, the "extremist Likud" prepared a site for the residents to move that would have a sewage system and electricity - all on the Israeli taxpayer's dime, essentially rewarding the lawless Bedouin. 

When you look past the headlines, none of the memes about Israel jive with the facts. Too bad most journalists prefer to parrot the memes and try to fit the facts to the narrative rather than point out the truth. 

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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