Mother of American Victim of Palestinian Attack: Stop PA Payments to Terrorists

TEL AVIV – The mother of an American student who was killed in a Palestinian terror attack in the West Bank in 2015 called on the international community on Tuesday to put immediate pressure on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to end its monthly salaries to terrorists and their families.

“It’s been very difficult for us, but this is an important issue and it needs to be discussed,” Ruth Schwartz told the Algemeiner. Schwartz’s 18-year-old son Ezra and two other people were sprayed with bullets by a Palestinian gunman in November 2015.

Ruth Schwartz spoke at a forum jointly organized by the Israeli mission to the UN and the StandWithUs pro-Israel advocacy group at the UN Headquarters in New York City.

“I felt it was important for me as Ezra’s mother to be here and make a stand,” Schwartz said.

In her address, Schwartz talked of the tragedy wrought on her family by Ezra’s death.

“Ezra’s death broke our family and our world will never be the same,” she said. “Ezra will never smile again, never bring children to the world. I will never hug him again, or tell him that I love him.”

Schwartz then made an appeal to the international community. “The payments by the PA are just another way to glorify and encourage terrorism — it’s offensive and wrong,” she said.

“I am here to make a simple request,” Schwartz concluded. “Please do not kill. Please do not reward people who kill, because that is as if you are doing the killing yourselves.”

After the event, Schwartz told the Algemeiner that people in attendance at the forum “were emotional — they felt a connection to Ezra.”

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, also addressed the forum, saying “the reprehensible terrorists who killed Ezra receive more than $3,000 a month from the Palestinian Authority as a reward for killing innocent people.”

“We call on the Security Council to act to cease these payments and finally put an end to the Palestinian support for terrorism,” Danon added.

In his speech at a joint press briefing with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said: “Peace can never take root in an environment where violence is tolerated, funded and even rewarded.”

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