In a statement released last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered that the amount of money that the Palestinian Authority pays to convicted terrorists and their families be deducted from the monthly tax revenues that Israel transfers to the PA, with immediate effect.
The statement read: “The Palestinian Authority transfers funds to terrorists by various laundering methods; the more severe the acts of terrorism, the greater the amount of funds. Prime Minister Netanyahu has ordered that the entire amount of support for terrorists and their families be deducted from the tax revenues that Israel transfers monthly to the Palestinian Authority”.
It continued: “Israel believes that the encouragement of terrorism by the Palestinian leadership – in the form of both incitement and payments to terrorists and their families – constitutes incentive for murder”.
Contradicting its assurances to the international community, the PA continues to pay an estimated £88 million annually to convicted terrorists. These monthly salaries are paid to around 5,500 convicted terrorists, ranging from £230 to as much as £2,000 for those serving a 30-year sentence.
In August 2014, the PA announced that it was closing its Ministry of Prisoner Affairs and establishing a new institution, the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, which the PA claimed would instead fund the salaries from non-PA sources.
However, a report published by Palestinian Media Watch in April 2016 shows that the PA has misled donor countries and in fact continues to fund salaries to terrorists. Official PA sources have identified the PA Ministry of Finance as the body responsible for paying salaries to terrorists. The full report can be found here.
