September 15, 2004.
Yasser Arafat paid $2,000 to the family of a Palestinian suicide bomber who
attacked the beach front Dolphinarium dance club in Tel Aviv in 2001 and then
sent the terrorist’s father a letter in which he praised his son’s murderous act,
according to documents captured in a recent Israeli operation that were
released yesterday.
The attack on the Dolphinarium was one of the most brutal massacres of the
Palestinian intifadah, killing 21 people, mostly teens, on a Friday night in June
2001. More than 120 people were injured in the powerful blast carried out by
Hamas terrorist Hassan Khutari.
It was disclosed in documents published yesterday by the Israeli Intelligence
and Terrorism unit at the Center for Special Studies that the Palestinian
Authority transferred $2,000 to Khutari’s father, who resides in Jordan.
The documents, seized from the Institute for Caring for Victims’ Families – a
division of the Palestinian Welfare Ministry – were captured during Israel’s
Operation Defensive Shield in March 2002.
Israel National News reported the funds were transferred to the family through
a branch of the Arab Bank, in El-Bireh, near Ramallah.
The bank is known to be the preferred channel of the Palestinian
Authority and terrorist groups for funneling money to the families of imprisoned
and dead terrorists and to terrorist operatives themselves.
Days after the money was transferred to Jordan, a German television station
reported Arafat, via the Palestinian ambassador to Jordan, sent the terrorist’s
father a letter praising the act of his son, describing him as “an extraordinary
model of strength, manliness and willingness for self-sacrifice.”
