Infamous: Aziz Salha displays his blood-soaked hands during Ramallah lynch
Infamous: Aziz Salha displays his blood-soaked hands during Ramallah lyncharchives

The Palestinian Authority has continued its tradition of honoring convicted terrorist murderers - this time handing an honorary plaque to the family of a man involved in the October 12, 2000 lynch of two Israeli soldiers in Ramallah.

A May 9 report in the PA's Al-Hayat Al-Jadida - picked up and translated by Palestinian Media Watch - describes a visit by senior PA official Issa Karake to the families of Muhammad Nawarah, Habbes Bayyoud and Jawad Abu Qara - all of whom are currently serving prison sentences for their part in the infamous lynching of Israeli reserve soldiers Vadim Nurzhitz and Yossi Avrahami.

The two soldiers had accidentally entered Ramallah and were escorted by PA police to a police station, where a baying mob pounced on them and brutally murdered them, mutilating the bodies and hurling them from the window of the building to the crowd. 

Nawarah was sentenced to life in prison, while Bayyoud is serving two life sentences. Abu Qara was jailed for 25 years.

According to Al-Jadida, "Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs [and PA Parliament Member] Issa Karake...  [visited the] families of prisoners sentenced to life, together with a delegation of the commission...

"The visit began at the home of prisoner Muhammad Hashem Nawarah, 31 years old, who has been imprisoned since 2001... Karake also visited the family of prisoner Jawad Abu Qara, 42 years old,who has been imprisoned since 2001 and is now in Rimon prison. Abu Kara is married and has four sons, who grew and came of age without him being able to raise them and show them fatherly feelings because of the occupation.

"The visit ended at the home of the family of prisoner Habes Bayyoud, 42 years old, who has been imprisoned since 2002... Karake awarded plaques of honor to the prisoners' families."

The full scale of the barbarism exhibited by Nurzhitz and Avrahami's killers was revealed in a 2013.

The pair got lost on the way to the Jewish town of Bet El, which is situated right next to Ramallah.

PA police forces took the two into custody, and one word reached local PA residents that Israelis were being held in the building some 1,000 rioters gathered outside. The IDF declined to take action to rescue the soldiers, and the station was eventually stormed by the lynch mob, who were actively helped by PA police. 

One terrorist, Aziz Salha, got to the soldiers first, where he brutally murdered them - stabbing, beating, and dismembering them along with other rioters. He famously then stuck his bloodstained hands out of the window of the room where the two were held, eliciting cheers from the crowd, in what became one of the icons of the brutality shown by Palestinians during the so-called "Second Intifada." 

The crowd then dragged the bodies to a central square, beating them further before setting up a victory celebration. PA police forces did not attempt to intervene and in some cases, participated in the barbarism. 

Salha was jailed for life but released from prison in Israel's 2011 Schalit Deal with Hamas.