As direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority began this week in Washington, the PA gave an award to a woman for raising four sons who all murdered Israelis in terrorist attacks.
PA Minister of Prisoners Affairs Issa Karake gave the “Shield of Resoluteness and Giving” to the mother of the Abu Hamid brothers, four of whom have been sentenced to life in prison for terrorism, in a ceremony reported by the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida and translated by Palestinian Media Watch. A fifth was killed fighting Israel in 1994.
The woman was referred to by PA media only as Umm Yusef, “mother of Yusef,” and not by her given name. She was also referred to as “Khansa of Palestine,” a reference to the legend of a woman from the days of the beginning of Islam, who rejoiced when her four sons were all killed in battle.
Umm Yusef Abu Hamid's sons all took part in terrorist attacks in which innocent Israeli civilians were murdered.
Karake praised the Abu Hamid family as “a model of willpower and of the struggle for the independence of Palestine.” He was accompanied by other PA representatives and by representatives of PA "human rights" groups.
Karake also visited the family of Ayyat Al-Akhras, a suicide bomber who murdered two Israelis in a Jerusalem supermarket in 2002. Al-Hayat Al-Jadida referred to Al-Akhras as having “died a Martyrs' death.”