Police thwart attempts by terror group to hold gathering in Jerusalem

Three members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine had planned to meet in Jerusalem to discuss strategy.

By Margot Dudkevitch

Police arrested three members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terrorist group, who had planned to hold illegal gatherings in two Jerusalem hotels on Tuesday.

Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told World Israel News that the move came after police received concrete intelligence of the planned events. Based on section 69 of the 2016 anti-terrorism law, he said, a decision was made to arrest them. Rosenfeld said police units arrived in the area to prevent the first event from taking place and also thwarted attempts to move the meeting to a nearby location.

The three organizers were detained by police for questioning, Rosenfeld said.

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine was responsible for the 1974 Ma’a lot massacre in which 25 Israeli schoolchildren and teachers were killed.

In a related move, Israel’s Defense Ministry on Tuesday revealed the sums of money the Palestinian Authority (PA) pays out to terrorists incarcerated in Israel.

Data released by the ministry showed that an Israeli Arab terrorist married with three children and is serving a life sentence receives a lifetime stipend of $3,172 a month from the PA. According to Israel’s Defense Ministry, in 2017 the PA paid more than 550 million shekels to current and former prisoners and an additional 687 million to the families of terrorists killed or wounded.

The sums constitute some seven percent of the PA’s annual budget, the Defense Ministry noted.