Defense Ministry reveals: This is what a terrorist makes

Yoav Zitun

A terrorist who is an Israeli citizen, married with three children, and serving a life sentence, will receive NIS 10,950 from the Palestinian Authority every month for the rest of his life; Israel sets out to pass legislation to deduct sums from PA tax money.

The Defense Ministry on Tuesday revealed how much money the Palestinian Authority pays terrorists serving prison sentences in Israel.
In 2017, the Palestinian Authority paid prisoners and freed prisoners over NIS 550 million, while families of killed or wounded terrorists received some NIS 687 million. This constituted some seven percent of the PA’s overall budget.

According to the data from the PA, a terrorist sentenced to three to five years in prison gets NIS 2,000 a month, while one sentenced to 20-35 years will get NIS 10,000 a month for the rest of his life.

– A married terrorist gets an additional NIS 300 a month, and if he has children he gets an additional NIS 50 per child.
– Terrorists who are Jerusalem residents get an additional NIS 300, while terrorists with Israeli citizenship get an additional NIS 500 a month.

For example, a terrorist who is an Israeli citizen, married with three children, and serving a life sentence, will receive NIS 10,950 ($3,172.65) every month. Meanwhile, the average wage in the West Bank is just a little over NIS 2,000 a month.

Terrorists released in the Shalit deal (Photo: AP)

The data was included in a memorandum attached to the Law to Prevent Payments to Terrorists and Their Families by the Palestinian Authority.

According to the memorandum, at the end of every year the defense minister would present a report concluding the annual payments made by the PA to terrorists to the Security Cabinet for approval. In accordance with that report, the sum will be deducted from the tax money Israel collects on behalf of the PA.

“The Palestinian Authority pays over NIS 1 billion a year to terrorists and their families and thus encourages and perpetuates terrorism,” Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said.

“The moment the payments and their amounts are set in accordance with the gravity of the offense and the length of the prison sentence, this constitutes funding of terror attacks against Israeli citizens. There’s nothing that illustrates the PA’s support of terrorism more. It is our duty to put an end to it,” he concluded.

Israel sets new record with 3.6 million tourists in 2017

Rebecca Stadlen Amir

Israelis and tourists walk on the promenade by the beach in Tel Aviv. Photo by Miriam Alster/FLASH90

Israeli tourism hit an all-time high in 2017, earning ₪20 billion in revenue from incoming tourism alone thanks to new flight routes and marketing efforts led by the Ministry of Tourism. A total of 3.6 million tourists were recorded, a 25 percent increase over 2016.

“The all-time record number of tourists visiting Israel this year is no accident; it is the result of a clear policy,” said Minister of Tourism Yariv Levin. “We have implemented several significant initiatives including reaching out to new and focused markets, building sub-brands and launching new campaigns, collaborations with large online travel agents, giving financial incentives to airline companies that open new routes to Israel and continued marketing throughout the world.”

As part of these efforts, 18 new air routes to Ben-Gurion International Airport were opened this year including direct flights from Europe, Miami and Iceland via airlines LOT, Ryanair, Wizz Air and WOW.

As in previous years, the majority of incoming tourism was from the United States, with 716,000 visitors arriving between January and November 2017, 21% more than the previous year. Russian visitors took second place with 307,000 visitors, and tourism from France was third, with about 284,000 visitors. Germany and the United Kingdom rounded out the top five with 202,000 and 185,000 visitors, respectively.

Tourists on Jerusalem’s Mount Olives looking at the Old City of Jerusalem. Photo by Hadas Parush/FLASH90

Jerusalem remains the city most visited by incoming tourists (78% of all tourists) followed by Tel Aviv-Jaffa (67%) and the Dead Sea area (49%). The Galilee, including Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee, receives 35% of all tourists.

With a new focus on the digital space, the ministry hosted nearly 3,000 opinion leaders, celebrities, bloggers, actors, sports stars, producers and journalists from around the world. Notable celebrity visitors in 2017 included Latin heartthrob William Levy, American fashion model Ashley Graham, and performers Justin Bieber and Mariah Carey.

“The additional half million tourists who came to Israel this year are half a million more ambassadors of Israel around the world and our loyal representatives on social media, and this is also a decisive contribution to Israel’s image,” said Levin.

DELTA EMPLOYEES DETAIL A PATTERN OF ANTISEMITIC ABUSE AT AIRLINE

JTA

Delta airline’s managers have a long history of making antisemitic comments and ridiculing Jews.

Delta Airlines airplanes at JFK airport, NY.. (photo credit: REUTERS)

NEW YORK — It wasn’t long after Nahum Amir began working for Delta Airlines as a mechanic that he says his manager started calling him “the Jewish guy.” Then Amir says the manager accused him and other Jews of “killing kids in Gaza.”
During the same period, Yaron Gilinsky was working as a Delta flight attendant on flights from New York to Tel Aviv. Except, he says, his non-Jewish co-workers would call it “Hell Aviv.” Gilinsky remembers some, including managers, making fun of haredi Orthodox Jews’ beards and sidecurls. One non-Jewish fellow attendant called them “ugly Jews.”

“At some point, it makes me feel ashamed and it makes me feel this person doesn’t respect me,” Gilinsky, 38, told JTA about his co-workers’ comments. “I was brought into this company because I speak Hebrew. I was brought into this company to take care of the clients that support that flight, and here this person is talking very derogatorily and putting down my faith, my people, everything that I grew up on.”

Amir, an Israeli-American, and Gilinsky, who was born in Israel and lives in the United States, are each separately suing Delta in federal court for violating the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on ethnicity. Gilinsky is in the process of formally joining a suit filed last week by four other Delta employees who also allege anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli discrimination. Amir’s suit was filed Monday evening.

“I have been subjected to a hostile and threatening environment based on my race and ethnicity,” Amir stated in a signed affidavit obtained by JTA.

The manager, whom Amir names as Azeem Narine, “continues to make jokes and comments about Jewish people, including about circumcision. He would go to the computer room talking about Jewish people chopping off part of his private areas.”
Both suits were filed by Philadelphia lawyer Brian Mildenberg.

In a January 3 statement, Delta says it “strongly condemns the allegations of discrimination described in this suit and will defend itself vigorously against them. As a global airline that brings people across the world together every day, Delta values diversity in all aspects of its business and has zero tolerance for discrimination.”

After six years of hearing antisemitic comments, Gilinsky was fired in September because, he says, he made a Jewish friend his travel companion. Flight attendants are allowed to designate a friend or family member as their travel companion, which allows the companion to fly standby at a reduced rate.

Gilinsky’s travel companion is a friend he had met on a flight to Israel in 2013. Although they live in different states — Gilinsky in California, the friend in New York — they stayed in touch and met up in Israel. But Gilinsky says that Delta management, after questioning him about his friend, suspended him without pay and fired him two weeks later.

“Our relationship had been very good, and we had good communication with each other,” he told JTA. “Almost every flight attendant I know has given their pass privileges to someone. It’s part of our benefits.”

Gilinsky is set to join other plaintiffs, some non-Jewish, who also complain that Delta suspended or fired them because they shared their travel benefits with Jews and Israelis. One plaintiff, Cynthia Fukelman, alleges that Delta fired her because she was an Israeli Jew. The lawsuit says Delta employees derided Jews for praying in-flight and requesting kosher food.

“Delta has encouraged and maintained an anti-Jewish, Hebrew and ethnic Israeli attitude among management,” the lawsuit says, adding that Delta managers “operate under an express assumption that ethnic Jews and Israelis, as employees and passengers, cannot be trusted, are aggressive and inappropriate, and engage in what are deemed to be ‘strange’ behaviors.”

Amir won an award for his performance in 2014, and still works at Delta. He has complained to human resources about the antisemitic harassment. But he says management handled the incident inappropriately, asking Amir to recount the story in front of Narine, his manager, and suggest a punishment. He says Delta then refused to reprimand Narine for his statements, instead suggesting that Amir switch terminals.

After a six-month break, Amir says Narine resumed the antisemitic slurs, suggesting that haredi men’s facial hair is fake and making derogatory comments about circumcision. Amir also claims Narine has subjected him to unsafe work conditions, in one instance demanding that Amir complete a 20-hour job in 90 minutes. Another time, Narine sent Amir to work alone in icy conditions.

In another instance, Amir claims Narine sent him to clean up and repair an overflowed toilet on a 777 jet, and said, “You have to clean all of the Jewish shit off of these planes.”

“He was joking around and gyrating his hips,” Amir said in the affidavit. “I fixed it because it is my job.”