Arabs Demand Freedom For Terrorist Murderers

Hillel Fendel - Arutz7 News - February 18, 2007

Pollard: "Israel's dismal record since the signing of the Oslo Accords,"shows a clear pattern of favoring our enemies by releasing terrorists and murderers, always at the expense of their victims and the victims' families."

Fatah's new demand: Release Tair Hamad, the sniper who murdered ten five years ago. Jordan, too, wants its murderers freed. Pollard: Israel favors enemies by releasing terrorists and murderers.

The Fatah terrorist organization, which has long demanded the release of terrorists imprisoned in Israeli jails, has added another terrorist murderer to its list: Tair Hamad, who perpetrated what many feel was the most professional terrorist attack of the entire Oslo War period.

On March 3, 2002, Hamad stood atop a mountainside above the abandoned Haramiye police station, between Ofrah and Eli, and coolly fired towards soldiers and civilians over a period of 40 minutes, murdering ten and wounding another ten. He was not caught for over two years.

The ten victims of that attack were only a small portion of the 131 who were murdered by Palestinian terrorists that month. Just a few weeks later, Israel initiated Operation Defensive Shield, temporarily wiping out much of the terrorist infrastructure in Judea and Samaria.

Fatah spokesman Jamal Nazal said that on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the attack, activities will be held calling for Hamad's release. Nazal said that Israel should remember that Hamad "refrained from aiming his fire at an Israeli vehicle in which an Israeli woman and three children were traveling."

In fact, however, among the ten dead were three civilians.

The Fatah has long demanded the release of terrorist murderer Marwan Barhouti, who has been in prison since April 2002. The Fatah Tanzim leader, whose candidacy for PA leader has a fair measure of support within the Palestinian Authority, is serving five life sentences plus 40 years for organizing three terrorist attacks involving the deaths of five Israelis; he was acquitted of 33 other murders because the evidence in those cases only showed his indirect involvement.

Jordan, too, has been asking for the release of four murderers - terrorists who were convicted of the murder of Captain Yehuda Lifshitz, who stopped them on their way to a mass terrorist attack in Jerusalem. The deadly incident occurred in Nov. 1990. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has reportedly agreed to consider their release - with the condition that they serve the rest of their jail terms in Jordan - and told Jordan's King Abdullah that the Justice Ministry would review the case. This, despite former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's refusal to release them. One of the four is the brother of a Jordanian parliament member.

President Moshe Katzav has refused to pardon them, but Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik has assumed responsibility for pardons since Katzav's recent self-suspension. She has not yet commented on the case.

Jonathan Pollard, currently in his 22nd year in American prison, has registered his protest against the possibility of the release of the Jordanian terrorists. Pollard, who has said he would never want to be a part of prisoner release deal involving terrorists, wrote to the parents of Yehuda Lifshitz, "The State of Israel is absolutely obliged to bring all of her prisoners and captives home - but not by making deals with the devil to spill even more Jewish blood."

Capt. Lifshitz was killed when he led an IDF force against a terrorist group that had crossed the Jordan River and was on its way to carry out a mass terror attack in Jerusalem. In a battle shortly after dawn, Yehuda was killed, leaving behind his parents and two brothers.

"Israel's dismal record since the signing of the Oslo Accords," Pollard wrote, "shows a clear pattern of favoring our enemies by releasing terrorists and murderers, always at the expense of their victims and the victims' families. It is a blot on the honor of the Nation of Israel that the Government is far more concerned about appeasing the Americans (who demand these humiliating prisoner releases) and placating our enemies than it is about discharging its most basic responsibilities to those who serve the State. Olmert's intention to free Yehuda's murderers - without any moral or legal basis for doing so, proves that."

Pollard added that he has asked his wife Esther "to join a critical protest rally on Monday, Feb. 19 (organized by the Committee to Bring Jonathan Pollard Home at Paris Square in Jerusalem at 6 PM) to protest the dastardly deals that Olmert is making with Abbas (at the request of the Americans) to free yet more murderers and terrorists."