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.

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.