The Mail on Sunday published a report alleging that UK aid has been misused by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to help fund convicted Palestinian terrorists serving multiple life-sentences, who are receiving tens to hundreds of thousands of pounds each year for their acts of terrorism.
Britain gives £72 million a year to the Palestinian Territories, more than one-third of which goes to the PA.
The article identifies a number of these terrorists by name, including Abdallah Bargouti, who is serving 67 life sentences for his involvement in multiple deadly attacks in 2001/2 and stated to have received payments totalling £106,000, as well as other terrorists behind recent knife attacks on Israelis.
CFI Vice-Chairman, Andrew Percy MP, is quoted in the report, stating: “How can we justify foreign aid as a noble endeavour when taxpayers money goes to pay terrorists? The Government has got to get a grip”.
The report says: “In the West Bank and Gaza, despite promises by the ruling Palestinian Authority (PA) to end the practice of paying aid money to convicted terrorists, our investigation revealed that they had simply duped the West by allowing the Palestine Liberation Organisation to hand out the cash instead. It openly admits supporting terrorists whom it hails as heroes for fighting illegal occupation, awarding lifetime payments that rise depending on time spent in jail and the seriousness of crimes”.
The Department for International Development will give £25.5million this year to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as part of a £72million aid package. The Mail on Sunday article reveals: “Our investigation discovered that the PA passes millions on to the infamous Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO)”.
The Mail piece goes on to say that DfID has denied that any British money reaches terrorists, with the PLO taking over payments two years ago from the PA after an international outcry, “but a Mail on Sunday investigation has found that Britain funded the PLO until last year and that the PA openly boasts of still funding salaries of convicted terrorists, even in its own official statements. Former prisoners and the families of terrorists we have spoken to also confirmed receiving cash from both the PA and the PLO”.
The article also cites a new report due to be released this week by Palestinian Media Watch, suggesting that Western donors have been duped by assertions that the Authority no longer funds terrorists, and that some Hamas terror masterminds have received over £100,000.
One case study shows that a Palestinian father of seven, Khaled Rajoub arrested for attempted murder two years ago, told police he had financial difficulties and planned to die during an attack in order for his family to get money via the Palestinian Authority.
There is also information and case studies of thousands of PA civil servants in Gaza drawing a monthly salary supported by the UK despite not having worked since Hamas took over in 2007.
In light of the PA’s ongoing misuse of aid, numerous voices have called for the Government to reallocate aid to specific projects, rather than the PA’s general budget.
Click here to read the full report in the Mail on Sunday.
