This morning, a bomb struck a bus in downtown Jerusalem, killing one person and injuring dozens more. Jerusalem police called it a “terrorist attack,” the first in Jerusalem in seven years. President Obama condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms.” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayad have also condemned the attack.
Even before the street had been cleared, however, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee blasted an email out to its supporters in a crass attempt to raise money off the attack:
While Jerusalem has been relatively quiet over the past years, the occupation of the West Bank — which, despite the lack of attention to it, is a constant, humiliating reality of Palestinian life — ensures that tensions always remain at a simmer. Settler activity over the past couple years in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem like Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah, where Palestinian families have been evicted to make way for Jewish ones, have ratcheted up tension to an alarming degree. The horrific murders in the Itamar settlement earlier this month added more fuel to the fire, and the recent exchange of fire between Hamas and the Israeli army in Gaza has added more. There is a real danger now of things spiraling out of control. It’s disgraceful that AIPAC’s first response to this tragedy is to try and monetize it.
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