Israel and Australia are joining the United States in cutting payments to the Palestinian Authority (PA) over the body’s financial incentives for Palestinians to commit acts of terror against Israelis.
The Knesset passed a bipartisan bill by a margin of 87-15 that would deduct each shekel used by the PA to pay Palestinian terrorists and their families to a fund allocated toward providing aid for victims of terror attacks.
“We must stop the economic inventive the Palestinian Authority provides to terrorists, an incentive that encourages others to commit terror,” Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern, a co-sponsor of the law, said. “Every Palestinian youth will understand it doesn’t pay to choose the path of terror.”
Similarly, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced on July 2 that Australia would cease its funding to the PA altogether.
“I am concerned that in providing funds for this aspect of the PA’s operations there is an opportunity for it to use its own budget to (fund) activities that Australia would never support,” Bishop said in a statement. “Any assistance provided by the Palestine Liberation Organization to those convicted of politically motivated violence is an affront to Australian values and undermines the prospect.”
In response, PA spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh called the Israeli law a “declaration of war against the Palestinian people” that would result in “serious repercussions.”
According to the Times of Israel, the PA gave $198 million the families of terrorists in 2017 as well as $160 million to terrorists serving in prison in the same year.
On March 23, President Trump signed the Taylor Force Act into law, which ceases funding to the PA until ends its financial support of terrorism.
