Rabbi Meir Avshalom Chai
Rabbi Meir Avshalom ChaiIsrael news photo: file

Shortly before the murder of Rabbi Meir Chai ten days ago, the Palestinian Authority rejected a request by Israel's security forces to re-arrest Fatah terrorist Anan Subuh, who later participated in the murder.

Subuh, 36, a resident of Shechem, was a member of the Fatah terror group's “Al Aqsa Martyrs” and Tanzim subgroups. He had been a member of a Tanzim cell that operated from the casbah area of Shechem and was led by Naef Abu Sherach until Sherach's death in June 2004. Subuh traded in weapons and supplied the weapons for terror activity.

He was included in the “fugitive agreement” between Israel and the PA, in which Israel agreed to stop hunting down certain fugitives in return for a promise by them not to go back to terror activity.

Arutz Sheva has learned that the Shabak received highly dependable information that Subuh had gone back to terror activity after the fugitive “pardon.” The IDF therefore demanded that the PA, which is headed by Fatah, arrest him. The PA refused, apparently because Subuh belonged to a Fatah subgroup and not to rival Hamas.

Shortly afterward Subuh participated in Rabbi Chai's murder. Two days later the IDF gunned him down when he hid in a weapons cache in his home. Two other terrorists who carried out the murder were also eliminated that day.

The Palestinian Authority is headed by Mahmoud Abbas, who also heads Fatah. However, ever since the 1993 Oslo Accords, world leaders and news media usually refer to terror acts by Fatah subgroups as unconnected to Fatah's political leadership and to Abbas.