Defense Ministry pushing bill cutting PA funds over terrorists’ salaries
The PA pays an estimated NIS 1.2 billion annually to terrorists in Israeli prisons or to the families of those killed by Israel.
By LAHAV HARKOVUpdated: JANUARY 9, 2018 05:31Avigdor Liberman(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
The government will submit legislation to deduct an amount equivalent to what the Palestinian Authority pays terrorists and their families, from tax and tariffs Israel collects for the PA, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said on Monday.“I think the PA encourages and incentivizes terrorism,” Liberman said at a Yisrael Beytenu faction meeting.The PA pays an estimated NIS 1.2b. annually to terrorists in Israeli prisons or to the families of those killed by Israel. The terrorists’ salaries are anchored in PA law, and the amount increases with every Israeli they kill.“The minute the amount of the payments that the PA gives is in accordance with the severity of the crime, meaning whoever murdered gets much more money than those who just threw Molotov cocktails or rocks or only injured someone, that is direct encouragement of terror,” Liberman said.He added that payments increase in accordance with the length of the prison term, so that a life-sentence for murder results in more money being paid than a short imprisonment does.“We must put a stop to it,” Liberman said.The Defense Ministry bill is a version of legislation submitted by Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern.The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is set to hold a meeting on Stern’s bill tomorrow, at which time the Defense Ministry will present its proposal.Stern said he was “glad to hear Defense Minister Liberman adopting my bill, which is supported by all the security bodies in the State of Israel.”“The time has come for the State of Israel to put an end to the PA’s encouragement of terrorism,” he said. “I hope this bill will be promoted quickly and will be brought to a vote in the Knesset in the coming days.”
Stern proposed his bill last March, and it passed a preliminary vote in June.The proposal is based on the Taylor Force Act, a bill by US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) that would stop all US aid to the Palestinians as long as they pay salaries to terrorists and their families. The bill, named after an American victim of Palestinian terrorism, passed the House of Representatives in December and is awaiting Senate approval.