A Palestinian Authority rock-throwing terrorist was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences and another 58-year sentence for the murders of an Israeli man and his infant son ear Kiryat Arba two years ago.

Waal al-Araja, whose wages as a PA security officer are partly paid for by American and European Union aid, was sentenced Tuesday by the Ofer Military Court for the killing of dual Israeli-American citizen Asher Palmer and his infant son Yonatan in September 2011.

Palmer’s car overturned after a rock crashed through the windshield. Police originally tried to sweep the attack under a diplomatic rug and determined that the crash on Route 60 near Kiryat Arba an accident, but the publication of photographic evidence of a bloodstained rock on the car forced police to investigate a second time, when they agreed that the Palmers were victims of a terrorist attack.

Al-Araja admitted during the trial that he threw the rocks, but said he did not intend to kill anyone. The judges said in their verdict earlier this month that Al-Araja understood the harm that throwing rocks could cause and that he intended to harm his victims.

The monument after IDF soldiers cleaned it up. Photo: Tazpit New Agency

Shimshon Battalion soldiers, posted in Hebron, on Sunday, Israel’s Memorial day, cleaned up a monument in memory of a Jew who were murdered in Hebron in 1980. The monument is situated in the city Casbah, an area of shops and Cafés that’s off-limits to Jews nowadays. After cleaning up the monument, which had been defaced by Arabs, the soldiers lit a memorial candle.

The Casbah in Hebron has been closed to Jews in recent years. But in consideration of the fact that there are many houses and property inside the Casbah which belong to the Sephardic Jewish community “Magen Avot,” to Chabad Lubavitch and to the Jewish families, such as the Hausmans, that built their home in Hebron more than a century ago, the army permits a guided tour of the area every Saturday.

During a Passover tour, participants were shocked to see the monument of Joshua Salome desecrated with black spray paint, to the point where it was very difficult to read the inscription.

Joshua Salome grew up in an assimilated environment in Denmark, came to Israel as part of the Bnei Akiva training, and studied at the Hesder Yeshiva Nir in Kiryat Arba.

Thirty-three years ago, as he was walking among the stalls in the Hebron market (which back then was still open to everyone) to buy fruits for Tu Bishvat, Joshua was attacked and murdered by one Ibrahim Mahmoud Mohamed from Yeta village.

It was one of the first murders of a Jew in Hebron since the massacre of sixty-seven Jews in 1929.

Following the murder of Joshua Salome, then Defense Minister Ezer Weizman passed a resolution to establish a Jewish settlement in Hebron.

Wide public debate was aroused after Joshua’s kidneys had been transplanted into the body of a pro-terrorist Arab woman.

The terrorist who killed Joshua Salome was released as part of a gesture of good will by Shimon Peres.

Because the Casbah is barred to Israeli citizens, the monument had been standing dishonored until last Sunday.

The Jewish community of Hebron told Tazpit it was grateful to the IDF soldiers for the fine gesture.

The leader of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria (Yesha) filed a complaint with police, charging Haaretz journalist Amira Hass with incitement by writing that Palestinian Authority Arabs have a “duty” to throw rocks at Jews.

She wrote her article after an Israeli court found a Hevron cab driver guilty of murder for throwing rocks and causing the fatal cash of a car driven by American-Israeli citizen Asher Palmer 18 months ago. Palmer and his two-year-old son were killed when he lost control of his vehicle and smashed into a guard rail near Kiryat Arba.

The rock-throwing terrorist, Wael Salaman Mohammed el-Arjeh, confessed to throwing rocks but denied he intended to murder anyone.

Hass, a Jewish journalist who has lived in Gaza and Ramallah and fully supports the Palestinian Authority, wrote, “Throwing stones is the birthright and duty of anyone subject to foreign rule. Throwing stones is an action as well as a metaphor of resistance.”

Ron Shechner, a former assistant to Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz in the Sharon government and now director of Yesha, told the Jewish Press he filed the complaint with police because Hass’ article directly incites violence against Jews.

Hours after the complaint was filed with Jerusalem police, rioting Palestinian Authority Arabs stoned dozens of cars on the highway from Jerusalem to Kiryat Arab-Hevron.

Hass sees no problem with rock-throwing, which usually is aimed at causing drivers to lose control of their vehicles and crash, as happened to Palmer.

If Hass’s car were stoned by Arab attackers, she no doubt would blame Israel, which she said is a reality of violence and whose soldiers, “bureaucrats, jurists and lawyers…protect the fruits of violence instilled in foreign occupation − resources, profits, power and privileges.”

She justified stone-throwers by stating it often “is borne of boredom, excessive hormones, mimicry, boastfulness and competition” and is a message that, “We’ve had enough of you, occupiers.”

Hass advised Palestinian Authority schools to introduce basic classes in resistance: how to build multiple “tower and stockade” villages in Area C; how to behave when army troops enter your homes; comparing different struggles against colonialism in different countries; how to use a video camera to document the violence of the regime’s representatives; methods to exhaust the military system and its representatives; a weekly day of work in the lands beyond the separation barrier;

“How to remember identifying details of soldiers who flung you handcuffed to the floor of the jeep, in order to submit a complaint; the rights of detainees and how to insist on them in real time; how to overcome fear of interrogators; and mass efforts to realize the right of movement.”

Ironically, the same advice could be written for Jewish right-wing activists.

Back in July of 2001, the Hebron Jewish community sued Ha’aretz, after Amira Hass had written that the residents of Beit Hadassah in Hevron abused the corpse of a terrorist. She wrote that the residents kicked, spat on, and danced atop the body of a dead Arab terrorist, who had just been shot and killed by soldiers shortly after he threw a grenade at them.

The plaintiffs cited an announcement by the IDF spokesman at the time asserting that the Jewish residents did not abuse the body in any manner. The Hebron residents demanded an apology, which Ha’aretz did not provide. They then sued the paper for 250 thousand shekels (about $70 thousand), and Ha’aretz did not even submit a defense. So Judge Shalev Gertel awarded the full sum to the Hebron community, plus 20 thousand shekels (about $5,500) for legal expenses.

Yori Yanover contributed to this report.

The Tazpit news agency reported on a rally in Hebron Thursday night which protested the lack of enforcement on illegal Arab construction currently taking place along Zion Road, the 700 meter route connecting the Jewish neighborhood of Kiryat Arba and the Cave of the Patriarchs.

The rally was in response to the massive Arab construction in the area, which the Civil Administration has been ignoring, while meticulously enforcing a ban on all new Jewish construction.

Some 50 people marched from Kiryat Arba to Cedar Lane, along Zion Road.

Action Committee member Chaim Blicher noted that “it is forbidden according to the Hebron Agreement for the Arabs to build higher than three stories around the Jewish settlement.”

The 1997 Hebron Agreement divides the city into H1, a Palestinian run section, and H2, a Jewish section which also includes some 40 thousand Arabs, and is run by the Civil Administration of the Ministry of Defense.

Blicher explained that “today we can see Arab construction that goes above three stories, ignoring the agreement without any response from the Civil Administration. There is a blatantly unequal enforcement of the law here, where on the one hand any Jewish construction or house is demolished and cleared, while Arab construction continues freely.”

Spokesman for the Jewish residents of Hebron Noam Arnon spoke at the Peace House, near the Tomb of the Patriarchs, saying, “The Jews are discriminated against, and nowadays a Jew can’t build an inch, while the Arabs are free to build.”

Elijah Persimmon / Tatzpit

Demonstrators hung a photograph of an eviction order from the Cave of the Patriarchs, which states that Jewish entry into the cave constitutes a violation of the delicate status quo in Hebron.

The demonstrators hung an altered version of the order on the doors of Arab homes, calling Arab construction a violation of the delicate balance in the city.

The Tatzpit news agency reported that hundreds of cyclists participated on Sunday morning in the ninth annual bicycle ride from Hebron to Jerusalem, that ran against a gruesome incident a few miles into the trek.

The ride, which follows in the path of the late Isaac Boanis, was secured by an extra IDF checkpoint along its route, at the Gush Etzion junction.

As the cyclists reached the checkpoint, a 14-year-old Arab emerged from a nearby nursery and tried to stab an IDF lieutenant from the Kfir Brigade.

The officer overcame his attacker and during the struggle the latter was stabbed in the abdomen by his own knife.

There were no other casualties. The terrorist was transported to Ein Kerem Hospital in serious condition.

Back on Friday night, November 15, 2002, near the worshipers’ alley in Hebron, leading from the neighborhood of Kiryat Arba to the cave of the Patriarchs, three Islamic Jihad terrorists positioned themselves at either end of the alley and started shooting at an IDF patrol. Eventually all three Arabs were killed, along with five Border Guards, four IDF soldiers, and three members of the Kiryat Arba emergency squad, under the command of Boanis.

The annual trip was initiated by the youth of Kiryat Arba, in honor of Jerusalem Day and in memory of the fallen heroes of that battle.

A group of around 30 people came to Mitzpe Avichai, in an attempt to rebuild the outpost community near Kiryat Arba that was dismantled earlier in the day.

Border Police intercepted them, and removed them without incident or injuries.

The IDF demolished the Mitzpe Avichai outpost, located near Kiryat Arba, in the early hours of Thursday morning.

The community was established in 2007 in memory of Avichai Levy, who was murdered by a terrorist that same year. Mitzpe Avichai has flourished over the past year, with ten homes housing nine families being constructed.

This is the third community to be dismantled by the IDF in a week, along with Givat Arye and Gal Yossef.

All three evacuations proceeded without incident.

This year’s Shabbat Chaye Sarah, was, thank God, very successful, as expected. Despite the rain, somewhere in the vicinity of 15,000 people walked the streets of Hebron, worshiped at Ma’arat HaMachpela, and even tented outside. Lectures and Torah classes to people of all ages were conducted in Kiryat Arba and Hebron. Groups of Americans, visiting Hebron via the New York-based Hebron Fund, and also AFSI, feasted on scrumptious meals at the Gutnick Center, adjacent to Machpela and participated in various Hebron excursions, including the famed Casbah tour, Shabbat afternoon.

I spent a good part of Friday night and Shabbat day with a group of American/Israeli youth, who study in a special Yeshiva High School near the Kinneret in northern Israel. Their Rosh Yeshiva, the dean of the institution, Rabbi Danny, told me that he wanted the guys to have a good time, but also have a meaningful experience. It’s a long drive, to and from Hebron, and he wanted to make sure the Shabbat was a full educational experience.

I set up a Torah class Friday evening, as well as a short discussion with a Hebron resident. We also took a tour of Tel Rumeida in the cold crisp night air. The next day we toured other Hebron sites, and concluded with a discussion, tea, cake and cookies in my apartment in Beit Hadassah. They certainly left Hebron knowing more than they did when they arrived. More importantly, they ‘felt Hebron.’

However, a real highlight of the day took place on Friday afternoon. The Hebron Fund group, together with AFSI, drove in two buses, early Friday afternoon, about 15 minutes south of Hebron, to the Zif junction. There, leaving the buses, we all walked a few minutes to a big tent, where everyone was asked to remove their shoes before entering.

A number of years ago, a group of Arabs, together with Israeli leftists and anarchists, planned on burning down the Hazon David Synagogue, just outside the gates of Kiryat Arba, on the eve of Rosh HaShana, the Jewish New Year. The event was stopped at the last minute when it came to the attention of Sheikh Jabari, leader of Hebron’s largest clan. He told Hebron Arabs that he didn’t agree to destruction of a ‘holy place,’ especially on a Jewish holiday. He told them that this was a place of prayer, and prevented the destruction.

Following his intervention, a meeting was arranged between several Hebron leaders and the Sheikh, thanking him for his involvement. Since then, the Sheikh and Hebron-Kiryat Arba leaders meet relatively frequently, discussing relevant issues. He has publicly declared his opposition to unilateral declaration of a ‘palestinian state’ in the UN and also acknowledged the right of Jews to live in Hebron. Last summer he met at his Hebron home with Rabbi Shlomo Riskin and Pastor John Hagee.

This past Friday afternoon he met with almost 70 Americans and a few Hebron residents in a large tent, just outside Hebron. Welcoming the group, he asked those attending to be ambassadors to his message of peace ‘in the land of peace.’ He also spoke of Shabbat Chaye Sarah, Abraham and Ma’arat HaMachpela, saying that Machpela should unite all of us together, that we are one family, from one father, Abraham. He blessed the group ‘from all his heart, on this holy Shabbat.’ He thanked the group for visiting him, saying he appreciated that they came from so far away for this holy occasion.

Other members of the group addressed the Sheikh, expressing thanks for his hospitality, commenting and asking questions. The event concluded after the group was given a small cup of traditional Turkish coffee.