The assailant accused of murdering British student Hannah Bladon in Jerusalem will be paid a salary of more than £800 a month by the Palestinian Authority (PA), according to reports in the Mail on Sunday and the Daily Express.
Condemning the PA’s practice of paying ‘salaries’ to prisoners guilty of terror offences, CFI Honorary President Lord Polak CBE said: “The Palestinian Authority is receiving £25 million in foreign aid at the same time as it is paying the families of terrorists like Tamimi who murdered Hannah Bladon in cold blood”.
He added: “I would ask the Government what extensive precautions are in place to show taxpayers’ money does not support terror groups, organisations or individuals?”
Hannah Bladon, aged 20, was killed on a tram near Jerusalem’s Old City two weeks ago by Jaleel Tamimi, a 57-year-old Palestinian man with a reported history of mental health issues.
Ms Bladon was a religious studies undergraduate at the University of Birmingham who arrived in Jerusalem in January as part of an exchange programme with The Hebrew University.
An Israeli court has ruled, following a psychiatric evaluation, that Tamimi is fit to stand trial and should be treated as a terrorist by the justice system.
According to Palestinian Media Watch Director Itamar Marcus, Tamimi or his family will qualify for a ‘salary’ from the PA: “According to PA law, everyone who is imprisoned for ‘resisting the occupation’ receives a PA salary. In PA practice, 100% of the suicide bombers, stabbers, shooters and car rammers have been included in this category and do receive PA salaries”.
The Department for International Development (DfID) announced at the end of 2016 that it will implement key changes to its funding of the Palestinian Authority in order to avoid the misuse of UK aid.
DfID confirmed that it is redirecting aid to focus solely on vital health and education services, and that UK funds will no longer be used to support the salaries of PA public servants in Gaza who have not been able to work. It also stated that the Government will assess fiscal and public financial management reforms that the Palestinian Authority will need to show progress against in order to secure full future payments from the UK, to ensure that UK taypayers’ money is no longer misused.
Last week, in a written answer, International Development Minister Rory Stewart said that “the list of eligible beneficiaries” of UK aid is “subject to a vetting process that includes screening against international and ad hoc sanctions lists, covering a large number of different risk categories including terrorism financing”.
DfID’s aid review followed exposés in The Telegraph, Daily Mail, and Daily Express revealing that UK money has indirectly funded terrorist prisoners and organisations promoting violence, alongside calls by MPs to review aid to the PA and NGOs operating in the region.
Read the reports in the Mail on Sunday and Daily Express.
