Rabbi Leo Dee, who lost his wife and two daughters in a terror attack earlier this year, sent a letter addressed to U.S. President Joe Biden and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, urging them to end the financing of Palestinian terrorists.
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In the strongly-worded letter, Dee described his personal loss and called for the leaders to exert pressure on the Palestinian Authority which has been paying stipends to convicted terrorists and their families as well as the families of terrorists who were killed. He provided a comprehensive explanation of the payment process and urged the leaders to include the demand, in any formal agreement reached on normalization of ties between the Gulf kingdom and Israel.
"We can only imagine how life in the PA would look if this money was invested in education, science, medicine, infrastructure, entrepreneurship, and for the prosperity of all its citizens. Sadly, it is not and instead, the money goes to perpetuating bloodshed and suffering," he wrote. "We, the families of the victims of terrorism, pray and yearn for peace with our neighbors and welcome your sincere efforts to march the Middle East toward a brighter future. However, a moral and just peace agreement cannot ignore the injustice caused to us, the victims of terror, and allow the Palestinian terrorist financing law to continue to exist," Dee wrote in his letter.
He signed off on a painful note. "It is up to you to demand, as part of the peace agreement that is taking shape, that the Palestinian Authority immediately annul the laws that reward the perpetrators of terrorist acts. My beloved wife and daughters - who never hurt a soul - would still be with me today if the PA was not providing terrorists’ families with financial incentives."
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Israel, Saudi Arabia and the US hoping for a normalization deal
(Photo: Kevin Lamarque / AP, Reuters)
The letter, which is part of an ongoing effort, was sent to the White House with the aim of promoting legislation that would allow for the transfer of financial compensation to victims of terrorism and their families in Israel, claiming this compensation would be funded using resources currently allocated for Palestinian terrorism. A law has already received approval by the Knesset, in its initial reading during the summer session and the campaign for its final approval is expected to gather momentum in the coming months.
The legislation was initially proposed by Sander Garber, a Jewish-American businessman who has also been instrumental in passing the Anti-Terror Funding Act and the Taylor Force Act in the United States. These acts are designed to halt the funding of terrorists and ensure compensation for victims.
As a reminder, in April of this year, Lucy Dee and her daughters Maya and Rina were murdered in a fatal shooting attack at the Hamra Junction in the Jordan Valley. Leo, the family patriarch, was traveling separately from his family and had passed by the location just moments before the attack took place.