Mmbers of the 'Bochrim Bechaim' (Choose Life) forum of bereaved families protested following reports that the Israeli government had transferred funds to the Palestinian Authority due to the coronavirus crisis.
Herzl Hajaj, the father of Lt. Shir Hajaj, who was killed in a terrorist ramming attack in the Armon Hanatsiv neighborhood in Jerusalem in 2017, told Arutz Sheva that "this money was issued from a credit line for the coronavirus. It was supposed to be used as compensation for the self-employed. Instead of going to those in Israel who need it, the money is going to the Palestinian Authority, and we all know what they know what they will do with it."
"Some of the money will disappear with the family of Mahmoud Abbas, while most of it will go to payments to the terrorists and their families. It will be that this blood money will come from us. I am funding the terrorists who murdered my Shir, and that's completely absurd. The Palestinians don't even want our tax money, and the government insists on giving it to them," he said.
Hajaj strongly criticized the Supreme Court's conduct on the issue. "We submitted a petition to the Supreme Court, along with the Lavi organization. There was a discussion and the court decided that it did not want to intervene and recommended that we withdraw the petition. The State at the beginning said that it was spending the money in the framework of what was allowed, but we argued that since there was no approved budget for it, it was impossible to make new funds which were not budgeted before. The Supreme Court decided they were right and not to intervene. Every time there's a left-wing petition they intervene. Here they chose not to."
"It makes no sense that I should pay with my tax money the terrorist who murdered Shir. I see that the Government of Israel does everything, unlike other countries in the world, to transfer funds to the Palestinians and to pay the terrorists who kill us. It cannot be that money is transferred to the PA, which reveals itself to be terrorist in nature on the one hand, and which on the other hand encourages children as young as 10 to commit terrorist attacks against us, pampers them, pays them salaries, and makes them state employees. The State of Israel is transferring terrorist funds to the Palestinians," Hajaj concluded.