As Palestinian terrorists murdered Israeli civilians, the world blamed Israel

On Good Friday, as the three religious festivals of Easter, Passover and Ramadan converged, Palestinian terrorists unleashed horror. Two attacks took place within hours of each other, and four innocent people were murdered – two sisters and a mother of a British-Israeli family were murdered in a shooting attack and an Italian man was killed and several were injured in a car-ramming attack. Both attacks were fuelled by a hatred of Israel and the Jewish people. Sadly, world governments and the media blamed Israel because of Israel’s attempts to protect the Temple Mount from terror.

Let’s start with the first Palestinian terror attack that occurred on Friday morning when three members of the Dee family were killed as they drove to a relative’s house for the Passover holiday.

The Dee’s were a British-Israeli family that had moved to Israel from the UK nine years ago. A family of seven, they split between two cars to make the journey.
Sadly, when Lucy Dee, 48, stopped at a junction, terrorists opened fire on the vehicle. Lucy tried to drive away but, being wounded, crashed her car a few meters down the road.

The two terrorists then walked up to the vehicle, and seeing the three defenceless women inside, opened fire and murdered them at close range. Lucy’s two children Rina (15) and Maia (20) were killed instantly in the attack. Lucy, who was shot in the head and neck, clung to life until the following Monday before she finally succumbed to her wounds.

Rabbi Leo Dee, the father of Rina and Maia and husband to Lucy, gave a press conference on the day his wife died and spoke of how his “family of seven is now a family of four”.

He was travelling ahead of his wife and daughters and had no idea his family had been targeted by terrorists until his sister called and asked if they had seen anything. He described trying to contact his wife and daughters to see if they were held up in traffic.

“I called Lucy – no answer, I called Maia – no answer, I called Rina – no answer. Then I saw a missed call from Maia at 10.52am – I hadn’t notice it ring, I hadn’t picked up the phone.”
“The feeling she called me during the attack and I wasn’t able to speak to her will come back and haunt me for a while,” he said.

We recommend watching the press conference below, Rabbi Dee brings up many strong points about how Palestinian terrorism is destructive and evil and how the world seems to blame the victims, the Jews, simply because they chose to build lives for themselves in their ancient homeland.

Rabbi Dee gave an example of a child building a sandcastle at the beach only to have it kicked down by another child. Then all the parents gather around the child who built the sandcastle and blame them for the actions of the child who knocked down the sandcastle. They blamed the one who built rather than the one who destroyed.

“Isn’t that how the world’s media treats Israel?” Rabbi Dee asked. “We build, they murder us. They destroy, but it’s your [Israel’s] fault because you build it in the first place.”

Sadly, Rabbi Dee is correct. The world’s media and the nations of the UN continue this shameful victim blaming. They claim that Jews building their homes in the land God gave them is the biggest problem. They make out that if innocent Jews hadn’t built houses, then Palestinian terrorists wouldn’t have to murder them. It is evil and wrong.

Despite this extremely sad tragedy occurring, there was some good to come out of it in the form of Lucy Dee’s organs being donated to those needing lifesaving medical transplants.

Israel’s National Transplant Centre said a 51-year-old woman received Lucy Dee’s heart; a 58-year-old woman one of her lungs; a 25-year-old man her liver; and a 58-year-old man and a 39-year-old man her kidneys. Her corneas have been preserved for future use.

The terrorists who carried out the attack are currently at large. Israeli police suspect two people of being involved in the attack. They used a Kalashnikov gun and fired 22 bullets at the women. They fled the scene and are currently being hunted by Israeli intelligence and security forces.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “get all the evil terrorists who killed our citizens and they will be held accountable with no exception”.

The tourists targeted by terror

On Friday evening, a second heinous attack occurred when an Israeli-Arab used his car as a weapon to plough into civilians walking near the beach in Tel Aviv. The victims were mostly tourists from Italy and the UK.

Alessandro Parini (36), a lawyer from Rome, was killed in the attack. Seven others were also injured, including another Italian and three British nationals. Out of the injured, three suffered moderate injuries and four sustained only light injuries. All of the victims were tourists.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her “deep sorrow” at Mr Parini’s death and described the attack as “cowardly”.

The UK Minister for the Middle East and North Africa Lord Ahmad condemned the attacks and confirmed British nationals were injured.

The attacker was named as Yousef Abu Jaber (45) from Kafr Qasim. He was shot dead by police at the scene of the attack. Video footage circulating online showed the scene of an overturned car with Israeli police officer aiming his gun at the terrorist and commanding him to stop moving. Gunshots then ring out as Abu Jaber is shot dead.

That police officer was at a nearby petrol station when he heard the attack occurring. After running to the scene, he tried to arrest the terrorist and only opened fire when he saw him “trying to reach for what looked like a rifle-like object that was with him”. There were reports that some of the victims had been shot, but an autopsy of Alessandro showed that he was killed by the impact of being hit by the vehicle at speed.

Abu Jaber was not known to Israeli police and he is slightly older than most terrorists. He was a married man with six children. Why then did he carry out such an atrocity?

The Palestinian terror that caused the world to blame Israel

The likely answer to why Abu Jaber carried out his heinous crime against tourists and why three British-Israel women were murdered is because they were incited to violence due to the propaganda of Palestinian terror groups.

Last week, on the eve of Passover, Palestinian terrorists and rioters took over the al-Aqsa mosque to conduct crimes and desecrate the holy site. Sadly, anti-Israel media outlets falsely depicted Israel’s handling of Palestinian terrorism on the Temple Mount as being Israel’s fault.

A single video of Israeli police beating Palestinian rioters was widely shared online with captions such as, “Israeli police brutally beat al-Aqsa worshippers” and “Israelis storm al-Aqsa”. These were not worshippers; they were terrorists and thugs who had taken over the al-Aqsa mosque, barricaded the doors and used it as a base to conduct violence.

It is true that there were innocent Muslim worshippers inside the mosque, including women, but they were not targeted by Israeli police. Likewise, those innocent worshippers were held inside the mosque against their will. They could not leave because the terrorists had barricaded the doors and told them they couldn’t leave.

Context is always king. There are videos online clearly showing that the terrorists were desecrating the mosque. They barricaded the doors, set of fireworks that resulted in fires. They threw rocks and other projectiles at Israeli police. They damaged the interior of the mosque.

Israeli security teams were forced to enter the mosque and remove the terrorists in order for peaceful worship to resume. Israel was protecting the sanctity of the site.
Unfortunately, the anti-Israel propaganda won the day. The lies spread far and wide while the truth was buried.

Even our own government fell for this trick. Our government condemned Israeli forces for entering the mosque instead of condemning the Palestinian terrorists who desecrated it. This same condemnation was issued by various governments and spread by global media.

Even the BBC titled their headline, “Violence as Israeli police raid Jerusalem holy site.” No, there was violence at the holy site long before Israeli police arrived. These terrorists that caused violence were draped in the flags on Hamas and Lion’s Den. These terrorists chanted “Death to Jews”. These terrorists not only desecrated their own holy site, but they were also a risk to Jewish worshippers. In the past, Palestinian rioters on the Temple Mount have attempted to fire fireworks and throw rocks down into the Western Wall complex where Jews pray. These terrorists were a threat to all worshippers at both sites.

The international media and our own government’s condemnation of Israel while ignoring the atrocities of terrorists does one thing; it empowers the terrorists and fuels the incitement of the Palestinian leadership.

The UK prime minister Rishi Sunak was quick to condemn the ‘abhorrent’ killing of the three British-Israeli women who were murdered. But Sunak’s government were the ones previously condemning Israel for dealing with similar terrorists on the Temple Mount.

They fell for the same propaganda that fuelled these terrorists to murder innocent Israelis and a tourist. It also fuelled terrorists in Lebanon and Gaza to fire rockets at innocent Israeli civilians.

Standing up to terrorism means supporting Israel when they are dealing with terrorism on the Temple Mount. It is terrorists from the same terror groups that were on the Temple Mount as those who murdered innocent civilians and fired rockets into Israel. They are one and the same.

Our government and our media need to wake up to this reality and blame the terrorists, not the victims.