07-Apr-17: Not everything's gloom and doom for the family of yesterday's murder-by-vehicle attacker

Single family house in Silwad: Somehow, they manage to get by
[Image Source: Israellycool]

Some follow-on reports arising from the killing yesterday ['06-Apr-17: An Arab-on-Israeli vehicle ramming attack north of Jerusalem this morning"] of a young IDF serviceman outside Ofra in a vehicle-borne terror attack.

According to Ynet today:

• Malak Hamed is the 21-year-old resident of Silwad [population roughly 6,000] who killed Elchai Tahar-Lev הי"ד and injured another soldier in that car-ramming attack on Thursday.
• He had been arrested in 2015 for trying to illegally penetrate Geva Binyamin (also known as Adam) on Jerusalem's northern edge. He was held in custody at the time and then released after three months. Evidently not long enough.
• A joint task force of the IDF, Shin Bet, and Israel and Border Police took control of the homes of Malak Hamed's extended family on Thursday night. Hamed's brother was arrested during the operation. 
• Six cars in their control were seized after being identified as stolen vehicles. In addition, NIS 40,000 in cash was seized on the suspicion of being used to fund terrorism.
• The extended Hamed family is said to be linked to Hamas. Nine members of the family have committed terrorist crimes in the Judea and Samaria districts over the years.

The Ma'an News Agency has these things to add:

• The person they call the "detained Palestinian", meaning the suspected Palestinian Arab vehicle-attack murderer, has a fuller name than Ynet reported. It's Malik Ahmad Moussa Hamed, 23. He's from Silwad, northeast of the Palestinian Arab capital, Ramallah. (Silwad has some seriously lavish living. See the photo above and this Israellycool article.)
• "Israeli forces reportedly tightened security at the military checkpoint installed at the western entrance of Silwad."
• "Locals told Ma’an that Hamed had borrowed his father’s car on Thursday morning, before driving in the direction of Ofra. They described Hamed as a calm and well behaved young man, whose two best friends, Anas Bassam Hamad and Muhammad Abd al-Rahman Ayyad, were killed by Israeli forces two weeks apart in December 2015 while carrying out vehicular attacks, adding that Hamed would frequently talk about his two friends."
• Hamas, the Islamist terrorists who control Gaza and increasingly the West Bank as well, "quickly released statements praising the alleged attack, with Hamas spokesperson Abd al-Latif al-Qanu saying that it was a response to the "continuous Israeli crimes committed against the Palestinians.""

When Hamas refer to something continuous done by Israel, it's a sign they have temporarily run out of vague and meaningless pretexts for the latest act of terror being praised. But they know their image-building demands that they blame their lethal anger on something. So they point to something continuous.

The Hamed clan may have lost six stolen cars and NIS 40,000 in cash last night. But spare the sympathy. Far from the headlines and the attention of most analysts and reporters (who invariably keep quiet about this though in many cases they surely know) they are about to start enjoying the very meaningful (in their society's terms) fruits of having a homicidal son.

First, the young murderer has just become eligible for participating in the Palestinian Authority's Rewards for Terror payment scheme which will continue, and indeed grow, as "calm and well behaved" (sic) Malik accumulates more and more time behind Israeli bars for yesterday's assault and murder. It's a no-lose situation for the family: a son who has become a celebrity, and a guaranteed cash flow starting now, plus the likelihood of an absurdly-well-paid senior position with the PA when he gets out.

And this: depending on how tuned in the refined Hamed clans-people are to spiritual matters, they are going to become the beneficiaries of kind and uplifting prayers from good Christians throughout the world. And if any of our readers think that's a joke, they need to immediately get familiar with things we have written about the World Council of Churches and Olav Fykse Tveit, a Norwegian Lutheran who is its chief executive. 

Back in April 2014 [here], the Rev Mr Tveit published a call for solidarity - between the WCC's faithful and what he called "some 5000 Palestinian men, women and children, languishing in Israeli jails". Many of those convicts are self-confessed murderers. Most of the rest are unrepentant terrorists. But undaunted, the WCC's leader called on the worshipers in its member churches 

"to pray for, visit, and tend to the needs of all prisoners, no matter the reason for their detention. For Israel and Palestine, prisoners have taken on even greater significance than in the past."

The World Council of Churches' Dr Tveit [Image Source]

That breathtaking phrase "no matter the reason for their detention" rattles in our brain even now three years later. It's meant to refer to the case of the thuggish man who murdered Elhai Tahar-Lev yesterday. (And if not, then let the WCC's director of non-communication say so publicly.) What kind of theology does Tveit practice? If we believe in mutual tolerance across religious lines, must we be tolerant of that kind of lethal pollyannaish drivel?

Tveit went on to invite 

"the churches in the Holy Land to remember Palestinian prisoners through prayers and acts of solidarity that restore to them their freedom with justice and dignity”.

For some other furious comments we made at the time, see "17-Apr-14: Christian solidarity with unrepentant murderers: where's the outrage?"

So for the Hamed clan, a little upset perhaps by last night's reduction in their sense of justice and dignity: hang in there! The World Council of Churches is on its way! And for the members of WCC-affiliated churches, we feel your shame.