Members of Knesset from the Joint Arab List are happy this week. Their national hero, Khalida Jarrar, was released from Israeli jail after two years, and they are now making pilgrimages to her home and calling her on the phone to congratulate her.
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Jarrar is a Palestinian Authority parliament member who was convicted for her activities as a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist organization, whose members carried out an attack in Samaria in 2018, murdering 17-year-old Rina Shnerb and seriously wounding her father and sibling.
MK Ayman Odeh visited her at her home near Ramallah, hailed her as a freedom fighter, saluted her and of course, vowed that the "occupation" would not win. MK Aida Touma-Sliman publicly glorified the "Palestinian leader who finally left prison," while MK Ofer Cassif boasted that he spoke with Jarrar over the phone to congratulate her on being released. In earlier chapters of this story, even MKs from the Labor and Meretz parties advocated for and acted on her behalf on various occasions.
Our expectations from the Joint Arab List are so low, that it isn't even "news" when their Knesset members make pilgrimages to meet a terrorist leader. When MK Itamar Ben-Gvir hangs a picture of Baruch Goldstein on his living room wall, it sparks public outrage and a media frenzy of condemnation. When MKs publicly laud and congratulate a member of the PFLP on every stage imaginable – it's not even a newsflash.
The very same Khalida Jarrar is the PFLP representative to the PA parliament. In 2015, she was imprisoned for 15 months after calling for the abduction of IDF soldiers for the purpose of exchanging them for jailed terrorists. Who are the other members of Jarrar's party? The secretary-general is Ahmad Sa'adat, the mastermind behind the murder of former minister Rehavam Ze'evi. He is the party's leader, followed by Jarrar. After her on the party list is Ze'evi's actual killer, another PFLP member from Nablus who spent 10 years in Israeli prison, and another individual from east Jerusalem who tried abducting IDF soldiers. Yet another candidate, Walid Hanatsheh, is believed to have had an active role in Rina Shnerb's murder. His home was demolished by the IDF several months ago. This is her party. Due to the absence of Sa'adat, who is not expected to be released anytime soon, Jarrar is the acting PFLP secretary-general in Judea and Samaria. A political leader of murderers.
Among the main counts for which the PFLP terrorists who murdered Shnerb were convicted was that the three decided to revive the PFLP in Judea and Samaria as an active operational organization. Yes, Jarrar is included in these charges. Our members of Knesset, those from the Joint Arab List along with Labor and Meretz, are happy to paint her as an innocent politician, describing her as a "political prisoner." They seek to distort reality by striking a distinction between the PFLP terrorist organization and the PFLP political party. They are playing a game of make-believe. And we all swallow it up or simply ignore it. And what's the worst thing about all this? In the future, before the next election, we will petition the High Court of Justice to disqualify these terrorist supporters – and the High Court, as usual, will deem them kosher.
This is the national hero of the MKs from the Joint Arab List, Jews and Arabs alike. Arab towns and cities in Israel are hemorrhaging from rampant criminal violence and are "red" from the coronavirus, yet their elected officials are devoting their energy to glorifying a terrorist leader from the PFLP. Maybe Arab lives matter from their perspective, but Jewish lives, for all intents and purposes, don't matter at all.
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