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JERUSALEM – The Israeli parliament on Monday pbaded a law that holds hundreds of millions of dollars in funds for Palestinians from social benefits for attackers and their families.
The new legislation will deduct the money that Palestinians allocate to their The "martyr fund" levied on taxes levied by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority
Development, condemned by the Palestinians has aggravated a fiscal crisis for the Palestinian government already hit hard by US cuts. [19659002] Israel has long pushed Palestinians to end the benefits – which benefit some 35,000 families of Palestinians killed and wounded in the conflict with Israel – and said the practice encourages violence. Among the beneficiaries are families of suicide bombers and other activists involved in deadly attacks.
Allowances total about $ 330 million, about 7% of the Palestinian Authority's $ 5 billion budget in 2018.
Lawmaker Avi Dichter, co "The only thing you have to do is to kill Israelis, to arrest you or to kill you, "he said.
Palestinians say that the number of people involved in deadly attacks is a small percentage of those helped by the fund. They say that tax revenues, collected by Israel for them under past peace agreements, are their money, and that the Palestinian Authority has a responsibility to all its citizens like any other government.
For Palestinians, families of attackers – like all Palestinians in the territories – are widely perceived as victims of half a century of Israeli occupation.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, accused Israel of "theft and piracy."
"The Palestinian Authority is responsible He said that the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, approved the law and that 87 of the 120 legislators in the House voted in favor of the bill, while providing protection Palestinian families, I objected to this, the remaining deputies were absent.
Elazar Stern, the legislator of the Yesh Atid party who co-sponsored the bill, said that the money withheld would be set aside , giving the Israeli government the possibility of restoring it to the Palestinians.
A previous bill stipulated that the money would go to Israeli victims of Palestinian attacks, but it was abandoned because of potential legal complications. baderted that the martyrs fund offers higher benefits to those who are involved in more serious attacks.
"This is not only that they encourage their people to p make terrorist acts. They even encourage them to cause more casualties among the innocent, "Stern said.
Arab legislators denounced the bill before the vote." Jamal Zahalka, from the joint list of Arab parties, said the draft was "despicable" and he described Dichter, former head of the Shin Bet security agency, as "terrorist"
"You steal the Palestinian people" Zahalka shouted
Israeli law was pbaded the same day as Australia declared that it put an end to direct aid to the Palestinian Authority, saying that Australian donations could increase its ability to pay Palestinians convicted of political violence
The US Congress approved the Taylor Force Act, a bill to stop US funding to the Palestinian Authority until it stops to pay allowances to pale attackers stiniens and their families
The United States is currently studying $ 200 million in badistance for Palestinians. He also cut some $ 300 million to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, known as UNRWA, which is still stretching the Palestinian budget.
Stuart Force, the father of Taylor Force, an American student killed in 2016 in Israel, attended the Knesset vote on Monday. He said that he was "really comforted" by the support of Israeli lawmakers for the Taylor Force Act during his time in Congress
"When there was an opportunity to show my support, I would I jumped on it. He said the vote will "bring awareness" to the issue and hoped that other countries would follow suit.
The cash – strapped Palestinian Authority, which relies heavily on Israeli tax funds and international aid, has suffered chronic fiscal problems. 19659002] Issa Qarakeh, the Minister of Prison Affairs of the Palestinian Authority, said that even if Israel stopped the transfer of funds, the Palestinian government would continue to pay compensation
"When we signed the Palestinian Authority, Oslo Agreement, the authority pays these families, and they never objected to it.Now they create a problem just to avoid tackling the real problems, which arise from the Israeli military occupation and the construction of settlements on our land, not money from welfare to families who have lost their source of life ".
Israel's decision to cut funds further underlined the poor prospects for peace in the decades-long conflict.
A poll released on Monday revealed that the Israelis had little hope in the Trump administration's peace proposal. According to the Israel Institute of Democracy and Tel Aviv University, nearly three-quarters of respondents believe that the plan has a very low or moderately low chance of success. The survey did not ask respondents why they thought so
The poll, which had a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points, included 600 Jewish and Arab respondents.
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