(March 30, 2022 – Washington, DC) EMET is profoundly saddened to have learned that 11 innocent Israelis have been killed within the span of one week. Yesterday, five innocent civilians were murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv. Sadly, this marks the tenth terror attack in March 2022, the third such incident in a week and marks a return to terror on the streets of Israel that we haven’t witnessed in years.

In yesterday’s attack, two police officers neutralized the terrorist, Diaa Hamarsheh, 27, just before 8 p.m. local time Tuesday. Hamarsheh was from the town of Ya’bad near Jenin and in Israel proper illegally, according to the Times of Israel, after having served time in prison for membership in a terrorist organization.  

Characteristic of these attacks, celebrations were held outside the Hamarsheh home and Hamas posted a statement on their website praising the attack, the Jerusalem Post reported. Terror attacks in Israel are known to increase around the time of Ramadan, which begins this Friday, April 1. 

Said EMET Founder and President Sarah Stern, “EMET expresses its profound sorrow to the families of the five precious Israelis brutally murdered today in Bnei Brak, the two precious Israeli Druze police officers killed in Hadera on March 27th, and the four precious Israelis murdered in Beer Sheba on March 23rd. We grieve alongside them and hope that they are able to derive some comfort from their loved ones’ memories.” 

This has nothing whatsoever to do with any so-called “occupation” of any land, but is motivated solely by antisemitism. Deep and pervasive hatred comes from the incitement that has long been part of the curriculum at UNRWA schools, as well as the “Pay for Slay” program by which the Palestinian Authority incentivizes the murder of innocent Jews and Israelis.

Continued Ms. Stern, “If the root cause of terror were the ‘occupation,’ the Palestinians would have accepted any one of the very generous Israeli offers, going back to the Peel Commission in 1937, the Khartoum Conference of 1967, the very generous offer by Prime Minister Ehud Barak to Yassir Arafat in 2000 or the even more generous offer made by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Mahmoud Abbas in 2008. These brutal acts of murder are inspired by a deep hatred and a refusal to accept the existence of a Jewish state.”

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