Palestinian terrorist Arafat Irfaiya raped and murdered an Israeli teen. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The rape and murder of a 19-year-old Israeli by a Palestinian terrorist presents the PA with an absurd “ethical” dilemma.

By Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, Palestinian Media Watch

It sounds absurd, right? The current “ethical” dilemma facing the Palestinian Authority is this:

A Palestinian man, Arafat Irfaiya, murdered 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher last week. Israeli reports stated that Irfaiya had not only murdered Ansbacher but raped her as well.

This possible rape presents the Palestinian Authority with an absurd “ethical” dilemma. The PA supports and pays a salary to anyone who is imprisoned for “fighting the occupation.” This means that the PA pays a salary to anyone who murders an Israeli in a terror attack, and that the PA-funded Prisoners’ Club provides legal representation to the terrorist in the Israeli court system.

However, rape is considered by the PA a “criminal act” and not a “nationalistic act” opposing “the occupation,” and therefore a rapist is not entitled to any support – legally or financially.

Thus, according to PA “ethics,” it is fine and even heroic to stab and kill a 19-year-old Israeli woman for “Palestine,” but it is unacceptable to rape her. So when a Palestinian rapes and murders, like Arfiah did to an Israeli 19-year-old last week, what is the PA to do?

The chairman of the PA-funded Prisoners’ Club Qadura Fares explained the twisted PA values and the resulting dilemma. As Ha’aretz reported on Wednesday:

“The director of the prisoners club, Qadura Fares, told Ha’aretz that Irfaiya’s family has not asked his group for any legal aid. ‘If there will be such a request, we will consider it and send a defense lawyer to review his claims,’ Fares, said. ‘If it turns out there really was a sexual assault, we will pass on representation. That would make the case a criminal one, as far as we’re concerned, and we object to anyone committing a criminal offense trying to pass it off as a nationalist act.’”

Palestinian Authority’s Terror-funding Policy

Should the PA recognize the murderer as having acted out of nationalistic motivation, they will be paying him at least 1,400 shekels/month (approx. USD380) from the day of his arrest and his salary will eventually reach 12,000/month – about three times the average Palestinian salary.

Official PA TV’s so-called “expert on Israeli affairs,” Fayez Abbas, also discussed the difference between “nationalistically motivated killing,” which the PA would support, and “criminal rape and murder”:

“We will begin with the [Israeli] newspaper Yediot Aharonot, the main headline: ‘The Israeli Security Agency: The nationalistically motivated killing of the female settler near Jerusalem.’ Of course, I want to comment. Until yesterday evening [Feb. 10, 2019] the Israeli Security Agency had no decision on this matter, but pressure from families- the family of the killed woman and also some of the politicians from the right-wing – it could be that they pressured the Israeli Security Agency to publish something like this, as the operation (i.e., terror attack) – There is also a gag order on details about this topic – it is not only a killing [operation], but there was also the rape of the same settler girl, and afterwards she was murdered. In other words, there are those who think that it is of a criminal nature and not nationalistically motivated, but the Israeli Security Agency decided; and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu – who visited the family yesterday [Feb. 10, 2019] in the settlement of Tekoa – updated the family about this.” [Official PA TV, Feb. 11, 2019]

Ha’aretz also quoted an unnamed “imprisoned senior Fatah official” who expressed views that are diametrically opposite to PA views and policy as documented by Palestinian Media Watch. The unnamed source was quoted as saying that murderer Irfaiyah  is “not a human being” and that the murder was “unacceptable” even without the rape because “the murder victim was no soldier, and it didn’t happen during wartime.” However, this presentation of PA and Fatah as having these moral values is completely false. PMW has documented numerous PA and Fatah statements glorifying terrorist murderers who killed Israeli civilians.

Honoring and Glorifying All Terrorist Murderers

Two examples are enough to show that official PA policy is to honor and glorify all terrorist murderers – including murderers of young Israelis hiking in forests. Mahmoud Abbas himself honored as “heroic brother” terrorist murderer Issa Abd Rabbo who killed two Israeli university students, Ron Levi and Revital Seri when they were hiking south of Jerusalem in October 1984. Abd Rabbo tied them up at gun point, put bags over their heads, and then shot and murdered them both. At the event celebrating murderer Abd Rabbo’s and other terrorists’ release in 2013, Abbas held up Abd Rabbo’s hand in front of the cheering crowd and Abd Rabbo made the sign of victory.

Terrorist Kifah Ghneimat attacked two female hikers with a machete and murdered Kristine Luken and severely injured Kay Wilson, who miraculously survived 13 stab wounds by pretending to be dead. Official PA TV referred to the murderer as “heroic,” and invited his mother to tell viewers what his favorite food is during the Ramadan.

It is not surprising that the source Ha’aretz claimed to be citing as criticizing the murder of an Israeli civilian was not named, because as PMW has shown, PA-Fatah policy is to honor all murderers of Israeli civilians, be they suicide bombers or drive-by shooters, or stabbers in the forest. Murderers of Israelis are the ultimate Palestinian Authority heroes. As Mahmoud Abbas recently said about Palestinian terrorist prisoners – among them many murderers – and “Martyrs” – including all suicide bombers:

“We view the Martyrs and prisoners as stars in the sky of the Palestinian people they have priority in everything…” [Official PA TV, July 24, 2018

PMW’s recent report on Fatah use of Facebook in 2018 documents current Fatah glorification of murderers of hundreds of civilians murdered not in “wartime.”