British-Israeli terror victim: UK government funding payments for my attacker

A British-born Israeli is accusing the UK government of subsidizing a Palestinian terrorist who seriously wounded her and killed her friend in a 2010 attack near Jerusalem.

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Tour guide Kay Wilson was stabbed 13 times and her American friend Kristine Luken was killed in the machete attack by two Palestinian terrorists in the Jerusalem hills in December 2010.

Kay Wilson at the trial of the Palestinian terrorists who murdered her friend and seriously wounded her in a 2010 attack near Jerusalem

"They began to attack us. I fought back and managed to stab one of them, but them he pulled out a big knife," Wilson said in the aftermath of the attack. "I saw Kristine trying to fight back. They held us for nearly a half and hour. I didn't understand whether they wanted to rape me or mug me."

She added: "I saw Kristine murdered before my eyes. She was yelling. I didn't want it to hurt me. I tried to keep silent. It was tough, because the beatings were hard, but I tried to play dead."

The emergency services recover Kristine Luken's body after her murder (Photo: AP)

Ayad Fatafta and Kifah Ghanimat were convicted in an Israeli court of murder for stabbing Wilson and killing Luken. Fatafta was sentenced to a life term in prison plus 20 years. Ghanimat was sentenced to two life terms and 60 years for killing Luken and for another crime.

According to a court document filed in the United States, Ghanimat told Israeli authorities that Fatafta told him "they were going to kill every Jewish person that they met."

The Palestinian Authority gives regular stipends to the families of convicted terrorists jailed in Israel, a fact that led Jerusalem to deduct the total of these payments from the tax revenue it collects on behalf of and then transfers to the PA.

This week, Wilson posted a series of angry tweets claiming that the international aid London provides to the PA had gone to one of her attackers, who she said had received more than £70,000 (approx NIS 320,000) in stipends that her British relatives were subsidizing through their taxes.

Britain's Department for International Development tweeted in response that the UK "strongly condemns all acts of terrorism and violence," and that "no UK aid is used for prisoner payments.

"We have robust safeguards in place to make sure aid to the Palestinian Authority only pays the salaries of vetted health and education public servants," it said.

Wilson disputed this statement, writing on Twitter that such claims were "political correctness, indifference and frankly blatant lies... as evil and vicious as the serrated machete that tore my flesh and my life to shreds."