Sbarro bombers and families got almost $300k from PA, watchdog group says

Palestinians who were involved with the 2001 Sbarro’s pizza shop 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 press release, timed to the 17th anniversary of the attack on August 1st, 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/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.

15 people were murdered in the 2001 bombing, including 7 children. 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.

Barghouti was given 67 life sentences and is still in Israeli prison.

In July, the Knesset passed a law that will withhold the amount that the PA gives to terrorists and families of terrorists from taxes and tariffs Israel gathers on its behalf.

 The PA paid terrorists over a billion shekels ($280 million) in 2017, upping the amount to over NIS 1.4 billion ($390 million) in its 2018 budget, according to a Defense Ministry report based on the PA’s budget.

The average income of a working Palestinian in the West Bank is $580 (about NIS 2,100) per month, according to the Defense Ministry, which is what the PA pays terrorists who are sentenced to three to five years in prison. Terrorists sentenced to 20 years or more – those who committed more severe crimes, and likely were involved in killing Israelis – receive five times that amount each month, for the rest of their lives.

Terrorists who are Israeli citizens receive a $145 bonus which, when added to the amount the PA pays for the most severe crimes, comes to over $3,000 a month, more than the average Israeli income of around $2,700. There are also increases in pay for being married and for each child a terrorist has.

If terrorists are released from prison early or die in prison, they or their families continue to receive a monthly salary – without a time limit.