The two terrorists who murdered three Israelis this morning and wounded seven lived in the Sur Baher neighborhood of East Jerusalem. This neighborhood is considered a Hamas stronghold in the city. Even the neighborhood community center had (and perhaps still are) representatives affiliated with the terrorist organization. True, they were not among the 40 Jerusalem terrorists released in the last deal, but they were certainly inspired by them.
The terrorists, Murad and Ibrahim Nimr, two brothers, tried to flee the scene before being killed. They probably understood that if they got out of it alive they could return as living martyrs, heroes in the eyes of their surroundings and family, and maybe continue to harm.
The terrorists Ibrahim and Murad Nimr. Three Israelis murdered in Jerusalem terror attack, photo: Arab networks
As a Jerusalemite, I feel cheated by the phrase "terrorists without blood on their hands," which washes the hands of the despicable terrorists who returned to my city as victors. Did Ahmed Mansara from Beit Hanina, who in 2015 stabbed two Israelis and critically wounded one of them in Pisgat Ze'ev when he was 13, manage to carry out his plot without shedding a drop of blood?
Did the hands of terrorist Nafuz Aref Hamad, who tried to stab Moriah Cohen in Sheikh Jarrah in front of her children, remain clean of blood? These are terrorists who tried to murder deliberately for nationalist motives – and simply did not succeed. The blood is the same blood, the hands are the same hands. Their victims bled and recovered in a long and painful procedure, and will probably bleed mentally for the rest of their lives.
Palestinian prisoners greeted with cheers in Bitunya, west of Ramallah // Arab networks
Terrorist Nofoz Aref Hamad, photo: Arab networks
And it is simply incomprehensible that these terrorists are now returning as heroes to their neighborhoods in Jerusalem. I don't know if Ahmad will try to hit Pisgat Ze'ev again, or if Nafuz will try to stab Sheikh Jarrah again. My heart is with their victims who are now going through difficult days. But they are not the whole story, the message that is now being conveyed to their immediate and distant surroundings in the city, that it is possible to try to murder Jews and return as a hero to your home and family - may lead to many more Ahmadis and Nafuzot.
This decision, to return the terrorists to their murder scenes, hurts me and all Jerusalemites in the soft underbelly – the security I lost in my home, in my children's school, on the city streets and at bus stops. "The city that alone sits with a wall at its heart," Naomi Shemer wrote ahead of Independence Day in 1967. We stayed alone, but the wall crumbles to pieces with every victory picture of a Jerusalem terrorist returning to the city as a victor.
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