Many Palestinians said that they were surprised to hear that the terrorist who carried out the shooting attack at the Tapuah junction earlier this week was a wealthy businessman from the town of Turmus Aiya, north of Ramallah.
Muntaser Shalabi, 44, was arrested on Wednesday night by the IDF just hours after one of the three Israelis injured in the attack, 19-year-old Yehuda Geutta, died of his wounds.
Like many of the residents of Turmus Aiya, Shalabi, a father of seven, was a US citizen. Many of the town residents are based in Chicago, New Jersey, New York and Houston.
“Shalabi is an extraordinary man,” said Palestinian writer Radwan al-Akhras on Twitter. “On the personal level, he is a successful businessman who holds US citizenship; he has a house and children. He left everything behind and went out to carry an operation. Something inside him told him that there is something more precious.”
Residents of Turmus Aiya said they believed that Shalabi carried out the attack in response to Israeli “provocations” in Jerusalem, including visits by Jews to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound (Temple Mount).
In the past few weeks, dozens of east Jerusalem residents have clashed with police in protest of security restrictions at the Old City’s Damascus Gate.
Clashes have also erupted between protesters and police in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, where a number of Arab families are challenging a court order to vacate their homes that belonged to Jews before 1948.
“Shalabi wanted to do something to defend the people of Jerusalem and al-Aqsa Mosque,” said Emad Abu Zahra, a resident of Turmus Aiya. “He was prepared to sacrifice a good life to serve his homeland and cause.”
Abu Zahra and other residents claimed that the Palestinian Authority security forces had assisted Israel in locating and arresting the terrorist. They also denied that Shalabi was a member of Hamas or any other terrorist group.
“Shalabi is an icon of the Palestinian resistance,” said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum. “He has revived hope in the hearts of our Palestinian people, who are being targeted by the Zionist enemy and those who are conducting security coordination” with Israel.
Shalabi’s wife, Sana, said that PA security officers raided her home on Tuesday and questioned her on her husband’s activities. “The Palestinian officers tried to provoke me to get information out of me,” she said. “I told them that I don’t know anything.”