Murdered U.S. vet's father hopes anti-terror funding bill will bring peace
“I am glad to be here for this vote, because it means a lot,” Force said. “Pay-for-slay is just not right. It has to go away in order to make this a peaceful region."
By GIL HOFFMANUpdated: JULY 2, 2018 00:11Money seized by the police and Shin Bet from a terrorist's family in east Jerusalem(photo credit: COURTESY ISRAEL POLICE)
The father of a US army captain whose murder led to legislation in Congress and the Knesset aimed at stopping the Palestinian Authority from giving terrorists and their families monthly stipends told The Jerusalem Post, in his first interview since arriving in Israel Sunday, that he hopes the bills will be a step on the road to peace.The Knesset is set to pass into law a historic bill Monday that requires the government to deduct the NIS 1.2 billion a year the PA pays terrorists from the taxes and tariffs Israel collects for the authority. The bill is modeled after the American Taylor Force Act that cuts US aid to the PA until it stops paying terrorists and their families.Taylor Force was murdered on the Tel Aviv promenade in March 2016, while visiting as a student from Vanderbilt University. His father, Stuart Force, arrived Sunday for the vote from Charleston, South Carolina, on his first visit to Israel.“As we were about to land, I started crying, thinking about how I am retracing the journey of my son,” Stuart Force said. “It took my breath away.”Force said it was humbling that his son’s name has become well-known in Israel. He said it was an honor that the people of Israel have reached out to his family and embraced his son’s memory.“I am glad to be here for this vote, because it means a lot,” he said. “Pay-for-slay is just not right. It has to go away in order to make this a peaceful region. Hopefully this will be the first step to ending terror, and maybe it will make the European Union and Canada check where their money is going.”Force said he was happy with the final version of the bill, noting that compromises were also made ahead of the passage of the American version. He said he has been invited to speak to politicians in Canada about stopping PA funding for terrorists and their families, and he was also willing to lobby in Europe.“I will travel wherever it’s needed to do some good,” he said.Force was invited to come by the co-sponsors of the bill in the Knesset: Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee head Avi Dichter (Likud) – who met with Force in Washington two weeks ago – and MK Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid).Stern said Sunday that the Taylor Force Act served as a wake-up call for him, because he could not fathom why Israel was continuing to give money to the PA that it was using for stipends to terrorists and their families.
“Israel will stop transferring money that is used to encourage the murder of its citizens and even to purchase weapons,” Stern said. “That reality – which has gone on for years and was completely impossible to understand – will now change.”
