Family of Halamish Terrorist Convicted for Not Preventing Attack

The Judea Military Court convicted five relatives of Omar al-Abed, the 20-year-old Palestinian who murdered three members of the Salomon family in the West Bank settlement of Halamish last month, for not preventing the crime on Sunday.

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The court found that the five – al-Abed's mother Ibtisam al-Jalil, his father Abed al-Jalil, two of his brothers and his uncle – "knew about his intention to carry out the terror attack and did not act to notify the security services in order to prevent it."

Al-Abed's two brothers and uncle were fined and sentenced to eight months in jail, and his father was sentenced to two months in prison. His mother, who was convicted of incitement a few weeks ago, was also fined and sentenced to one month in jail. The five were concivcted in a plea bargain after admitting to the charges.

The family was indicted following the Military Advocate General's Corps determination that they are aware of a Facebook post al-Abed published hours before the attack. In it, he wrote he was "writing his will" and planning to carry out a terrorist attack.

In the hours preceding the attack, Omar el-Abed posted on Facebook: "I am writing my will and these are my last words. I am young, I have not yet reached the age of 20, I have many dreams and aspirations."

"But what life is this, in which they murder our wives and our youth without any justification. They desecrate the Al-Aqsa mosque and we are asleep, it's a digrace that we sit idly by," he continued, asking those who have weapons "but only take them out for weddings and celebrations: Are you not ashamed of yourselves? Why won't you declare war for God? They have closed Al-Aqsa mosque and your weapons are still."

Al-Abed added: "All I have is a sharpened knife, and it responds to the call of Al-Aqsa. Shame on you, you who preach hate. God will take revenge on you...we are all sons of Palestine and sons of Al-Aqsa. You, the sons of monkeys and pigs, if you do not open the gates of Al-Aqsa, I am sure they will come after you and beat you with an iron first, I warn you."

On July 22, the Salomon family was sitting down for Shabbat dinner in Halamish when a Omar al-Abed entered the house armed with a knife and murdered Yosef Salomon, 70, and two of his children, Chaya and Elad in the West Bank settlement.