by WorldTribune Staff, July 30, 2017
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has increased its financial support to terrorists and their families despite warnings from the United States and Israel that the payments must be halted, a report said.
The PA budget has increased support to imprisoned terrorists by 13 percent and to the families of those killed or wounded “in the struggle against Zionism” by 8 percent, the Institute for Contemporary Affairs (ICA) reported.
The PA now spends a total of $344 million per year on the payments, which amounts to 49.6 percent of all foreign aid to the PA.
Reports last week said that the family of Omar al-Abed, the 19-year-old Palestinian terrorist who murdered three family members at their Shabbat table two weeks ago, will receive a monthly lifetime salary of $3,120. The average Palestinian engineer earns about $1,300 per month.
In June, PA spokesman Nabil Shaath, speaking on behalf of PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, said that the payments were a “social responsibility” and the policy was merely “look(ing) after innocent people affected by the incarceration or killing of their loved ones as a result of the military occupation.”
A report presented to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in May revealed that more than $1 billion has been paid by the PA over the past four years to terrorists and their families.
“This commitment manifests the Palestinian view promulgated by Palestinian law that refers to the terrorists as the ‘fighting sector’ of the Palestinian society,” said the ICA, which was founded by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs jointly with the Wechsler Family Foundation in 2001.
“This ongoing pattern stands in sharp contrast to the Palestinian commitments in the Oslo Accords and to international law and conventions. It also reflects the fact that until now, no real pressure has been put on the Palestinians to stop the payments,” the ICA said.
Proposed legislation that calls for cutting U.S. economic aid to the PA, known as the “Taylor Force Act,” has not yet been approved by the U.S. Congress.
In Israel, the proposed law which would deduct the money the PA spends on supporting terror from the money Israel transfers to the PA (Palestinian taxes collected by Israel) is still under review by the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee of the Knesset, after it was approved in a preliminary reading.
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