There has been a change in Israel's attitude toward the Palestinian Authority in the past week. The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee voted, unanimously, for the first time to withhold 1.2 billion shekels ($329 million) in tax revenues from Ramallah, the amount the PA pays terrorists and their families every year.
The move is the result of a joint effort by both coalition and opposition lawmakers, in addition to pressure from victims of terrorism to withhold the money. This unprecedented step sends the PA, which thought it could do as it wished, a strong and surprising message: Israel is changing its policy because it is sick of financing those who murder its citizens.
Now the time has come for Israel to change its policy not only on terrorists and murderers but also senior PA officials. As some of these officials are considered "partners for peace" and therefore VIPS, this will be a much harder task. But at the same time as they talk peace with us, they wage an international campaign for the boycott of Israel and incite to murder in Palestinian media outlets.
One such official is Palestinian Football Association head Jibril Rajoub, who last week led the voices against a friendly match between Israel and Argentina and threatening Argentina's players ahead of the World Cup.
Ragoub lied when he told Israelis he would never have tried to stop the game had it not been moved to Jerusalem from Haifa. Ever since he was appointed head of the Palestinian Football Association in 2006, Ragoub has acted to remove Israel from FIFA, soccer's world governing body. He has even fought to prevent Jews and Palestinians from taking part in joint sporting events.
In an appearance on Palestinian TV in July 2013, Ragoub threatened, "Anyone who enters any kind of joint sports activity with the Israelis, player, coach, referee or club - I will erase him from the Palestinian Football Association's lists."
Rajoub has a history of terrorist activity, violence and incitement. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1970 for throwing a grenade at an Israeli army bus near Hebron. He was tried and convicted for that attack and for membership in an armed group, but was later released as part of a prisoner exchange deal. As head of Palestinian Preventive Security, a role he held until 2002, Rajoub focused his efforts on hunting Palestinian "collaborators," some of whom were killed.
During 2002's Operation Defensive Shield, in which the IDF captured the main cities in the West Bank to destroy terrorist infrastructures and put an end to the terrorism that had been plaguing Israel since the onset of Second Intifada in 2000, security forces cordoned off Ragoub's headquarters and his home, where he had been hiding wanted persons, hundreds of weapons and the means for manufacturing explosives, women's wigs, kippahs and intelligence files on senior IDF officials.
While in his appearances on Israeli media outlets, Ragoub represents the Palestinian "peace camp," in Palestinian media, he is an ardent supporter of terrorism. According to a police complaint filed by Palestinian Media Watch, in June 2016, Ragoub praised terrorists as heroes, saying, "We bless you, support your families and tell you: You are the crown on our heads."
In a memorial ceremony for Ahmed Jabara, the terrorist that perpetrated the 1975 Zion Square refrigerator bombing in Jerusalem that killed 15 people and wounded 77, Ragoub said, "Abu Sukar [Jabara], the legend that walked on earth, set a path for us and wrote an unforgettable and indescribable chapter."
In addition, Ragoub sponsored a tournament in honor of terrorist Muhannad Halabi just one month after he stabbed two Jews to death in Jerusalem's Old City in 2016. The police complaint filed by Palestinian Media Watch yielded nothing. Israel should act to limit Ragoub's freedom of movement and revoke his "VIP card." Bringing people like him to justice must be Israel's next moral and security objective.
