Arab-Israeli terrorist Rushdi Hamdan Abu Mukh, a member of the cell that murdered Israeli citizen Moshe Tamam, was released from prison on Monday after serving a 35-year sentence and returned to his home in Baka al-Gharbiya, near Haifa, according to Israeli media.
Video published by Palestinian media showed Abu Mukh being welcomed upon his arrival in Baka al-Gharbiya on Monday.
بعد اعتقال دام 35 عاماً في سجون الاحتلال..#شاهد قوات الاحتلال تفرج عن الأسـ.ير رشدي أبو مخ من باقة الغربية في الداخل المحتل .. pic.twitter.com/QWvr2nnLuN
— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) April 5, 2021
Oren Tamam, Moshe's brother, demanded that Abu Mukh's citizenship be revoked on Monday in an interview with Army Radio, saying, "We live a 10 minutes' drive from him. This b****** has been receiving support from the Palestinian Authority for decades. We could see this human scum in the mall near our house."
Abu Mukh is among one of the highest paid terrorists in the PA's pay-for-slay program. In 2019, Palestinian Media Watch reported that he had been paid more than NIS 1,561,500. The sum has presumably grown since then.
Ortal Tamam, Moshe's niece, stated that her family had contacted Interior Minister Arye Deri with a request to revoke Abu Mukh's citizenship more than a year ago, but Deri had so far refused to meet with the family, in posts on her Facebook page on Sunday.
"It is inconceivable that the killer of an IDF soldier, especially one who boasts of his murder, one who has become a hero, will return home," wrote Ortal Tamam. "But the killer Rushdi Abu Mukh is going to be my family's neighbor tomorrow, and Deri is not doing anything."
"Why does the interior minister have the power to revoke citizenship if not exactly for these cases? Denial of citizenship of one who sees the state soldiers as enemies to the point of murder? To the point of glorifying the killer?" asked Ortal Tamam in the post.
"My grandparents paid the dearest price for this country. They do not deserve to meet their son's killer at the supermarket or market or in line for a doctor," added Moshe's niece. "My father, my uncles and aunts, paid the dearest price for this country. They do not deserve to live in fear."
On Sunday, Transportation Minister Miri Regev also called for Abu Mukh's citizenship to be revoked. "There is nothing more moral and right than the Tamam family's demand to revoke the citizenship of the despicable terrorists who murdered the late Moshe Tamam," wrote Regev on Facebook.
صور| جانب من التحضيرات في مدينة باقة الغربية بالداخل المحتل، لاستقبال الأسير رشدي أبو مخ (58 عاما) يوم غدٍ الإثنين بعد اعتقالٍ دام 35 عاماً في سجون الاحتلال pic.twitter.com/o9KSET8Cux
— فلسطين أون لاين (@pl24online) April 4, 2021
In Baka al-Gharbiya, residents prepared on Sunday to celebrate the release of the terrorist, placing photos of the terrorists involved in the murder and decorations featuring the Palestinian flag. Abu Mukh had been in prison since 1986, before the signing of the Oslo Accords.
بعد 35 عاما في سجون الاحتلال غدا على موعد مع الحرية باقة الغربية تتزين لاستقبال الأسير صالح أبو مخ بعد غياب دام 35 عاماً لدى الاحتلال pic.twitter.com/c743aojUux
— أركــــــــــــــــان (@ar2aan) April 4, 2021
"We were shocked by the pictures of the celebrations of joy in Baka al-Gharbiya with PA flags, it is as if the country is paralyzed," said Oren Tamam to Army Radio. "He is a despicable killer - he has blood on his hands."
In 2014, Israeli authorities ordered residents of the town to remove a roadside mural featuring Abu Mukh and the other three Arab-Israeli terrorists who abducted and murdered Tamam in 1984 as part of a cell run by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.