- Kay Wilson's attacker and Kristine Luken's murderer honored by PA TV with interview with murderer's mother about his favorite food during Ramadan and how his children need him released. PA TV ignores his gruesome attack and murder
- Wilson described the terrorists' actions:
"He stabs me in the back so hard that I fall to the ground... and he is repeatedly plunging his machete into me. He's doing it with such force that I can hear my bones crunch and as he tugs out that serrated blade I hear my flesh rip"
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
Last week, official Palestinian Authority TV decided to honor Palestinian terrorist murderer Kifah Ghneimat. On Dec. 18, 2010, Ghneimat and his accomplice Iyad Fataftah attacked and stabbed two women, Kristine Luken - an American citizen and member of the Church's Ministry among Jewish People (CMJ), and British Israeli Kay Wilson, as they were hiking in a forest near Beit Shemesh. Luken was brutally stabbed to death and Wilson was critically injured and left for dead. After the terrorists fled the scene, Wilson forced herself to get up and walk for help. Wilson has described the attack, the cruelty of the terrorists and her will to survive:
"He stabs me in the back so hard that I fall to the ground...
and he is repeatedly plunging his machete into me.
He's doing it with such force that I can hear my bones crunch
and as he tugs out that serrated blade I hear my flesh rip"
(See longer excerpt and link to video below)
Terrorists Ghneimat and Fataftah were arrested a month after the attack and admitted to the crime. Ghneimat was sentenced to 2 life sentences and an additional 60 years imprisonment. Fataftah was sentenced to 1 life sentence.
For their murder, Ghneimat and Fataftah are presented by the PA as Palestinian heroes. According to PA law, they have received monthly salaries from the PA since they were arrested in 2011. By now, entering their sixth year of imprisonment, they should be receiving 4,000 shekels/month - $1000. Since their arrest in 2011, each have received more than $30,000 from the PA.
In a PA TV broadcast last week, the TV host referred to terrorist Kifah Ghneimat as "the heroic prisoner." The terrorist's mother was invited to participate and was interviewed, but not about Ghneimat's crime or what it is like to be the mother of a murderer. Rather, PA TV wished to know what this murderer's favorite food was during the Ramadan. In addition, PA TV served as a podium for the mother to complain about not having visited her son for the last "three or four months," how his children need him to be freed, and how she yearns for him. The mother also prayed that "Allah will free him from prison":
Official PA TV host: "Here with us is the mother of heroic prisoner Kifah Ghneimat who was given a life sentence and arrested 10 (sic) years ago..."
Terrorist Kifah Ghneimat's mother: "May Allah free him [Kifah] from prison, and also all the prisoners - my son Kifah and all the prisoners who are our children and brothers... I have not visited Kifah in the last three or four months. They [Israel] do not give us permits... During Ramadan, [a mother] yearns for her son to be with her out of [prison]."
Official PA TV host: "What were his favorite dishes during Ramadan? How did he spend the evenings?"
Terrorist Kifah Ghneimat's mother: "He was kind and calm. He did not have any problems... Meat with tahini, grilled meat, chicken with rice... You know that only a father can properly educate his children. A child does not have respect for his mother... Allah willing, he [Kifah] will get out [of prison] and educate his children... Don't despair of Allah's mercy. Allah willing, it will arrive soon. Allah willing, my son, you will be among us."
[Official PA TV program Giants of Endurance, June 23, 2016]
PA TV completely ignored the fact that Ghneimat murdered Luken and stabbed and severely injured Wilson.
The contrast between terrorist murderer Kifah Ghneimat's mother's account of his favorite food being "meat with tahini and chicken and rice", and Kay Wilson's account of the attack and the horror, pain, and suffering Ghneimat and his accomplice inflicted on her and her friend, is striking and horrifying:
Excerpt from Kay Wilson's TEDx talk:
"We'd been standing there for half an hour, gagged, bound, bare foot, being held hostage by two Palestinian men who have their machetes at our throats. Half an hour of terror, shock, confusion, emotional inertia that leads to the delusion of reprieve that we will be released or rescued. Half an hour of debilitating uncertainty and half an hour of unadulterated fear...
Finally, one of the men pushes me on my knees and shoves my head forward to the ground. Out of the corner of my eye, I see this light. It's the sun glinting off his machete and I prepare myself to be beheaded. I wasn't.
The forest rings out with this cosmic symphony. They scream "Allahu Akbar." My Christian friend Christine cries, "Jesus help me." And I hear my own pathetic and helpless wimper of "shema yisrael." He stabs me in the back so hard that I fall to the ground and now I'm lying on my side and he's leaning on my thigh and he is repeatedly plunging his machete into me. And he's doing it with such force that I can hear my bones crunch and as he tugs out that serrated blade I hear my flesh rip. And in a total state of shock, I plead heaven give me one more chance, let me live. And the only chance I have is to play dead. And I know people die with their eyes open so I just focused on the sight ahead of me and took those blows. And the only thing that I saw was two meters away: an innocent woman [Kristine Luken] valiantly struggling with her assailant in vain. I watched her hacked to death in front of my eyes.
They leave. My ear is pressed to the forest ground and I become aware of these vibrations which crescendo into the thuds of footsteps. They're coming back. One of them turns me over and now I'm looking at those blue skies and the setting sun, which is obscured by a silhouette of a man's hand clutching a knife. And I watch him plunge it into my chest, and I didn't move, flinch or blink. It missed my heart by 4 millimeters. Believing I'm dead, they leave. At that point, I didn't know if I was dead or alive or in heaven or hell."
[From Kay Wilson's TEDx talk at Ben-Gurion University on May 13, 2015,
"Step by Step: The Idiot's Guide to Surviving a Machete Attack"]
Click to watch Kay Wilson's important TEDx talk where she described the attack, her incredible will to survive, and her determination to continue living after the terror.
