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JERUSALEM – The Israeli parliament on Monday passed 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 money that Palestinians allocate to their so-called "martyrs' fund" taxes collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.
Development, condemned by Palestinians, worsened fiscal crisis for Palestinian government already hit hard by US cuts
Israel has long called on Palestinians to stop benefits – benefiting about 35,000 families Palestinians killed and wounded in the conflict with Israel – and said that this practice encourages violence. Among the beneficiaries are families of suicide bombers and other militants involved in deadly attacks.
Allowances amount to about $ 330 million, or about 7% of the $ 5 billion budget of the Palestinian Authority in 2018.
Lawmaker Avi Dichter The godfather of the law, said the families of the Palestinian attackers had easy access to these funds.
"The only thing you have to do is kill Israelis, get arrested or kill," he said. say 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 viewed 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 with 87 of the 120 lawmakers in the House who voted in favor of the bill, while retaining responsibility families of prisoners and martyrs I opposed this, the remaining deputies were absent
Elazar Stern, legislator of the Yesh Atid party who co-sponsored the bill, said the money withheld would be set aside, giving the Israeli government the opportunity to return 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 legal complications Stern asserted that the martyrs' fund offers higher benefits to those involved in more serious attacks.
"Not only do they encourage their people to take terrorist actions, they even encourage them to make more innocent victims. "
Arab lawmakers objected to the bill before the vote. Jamal Zahalka, from the joint list of Arab parties, said the bill was "despicable" and called Dichter, a former head of the Shin Bet security agency, "a terrorist"
"You fly to the Palestinian people" Zahalka shouted
Israeli law was passed the same day as Australia declared that it put an end to direct aid to the 39, Palestinian Authority, claiming 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 paying allowances to Palestinian assailants and to their families.
The United States is currently looking for $ 200 million in aid 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 passage 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 Palestinian cash – strapped authority, which relies heavily on Israeli tax funds and international aid, has suffered chronic fiscal problems. 19659003] Issa Qarakeh, 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 the benefits.
"When we signed the Oslo Agreement, the authority pays these families, and they never objected, but they create a problem to avoid solving the real problems that arise Israeli military occupation and construction of settlements on our land, no social assistance to families who "
Israel's decision to further cut funds underscored weak prospects of peace in the decades-old conflict.
A study released on Monday revealed that Israelis have little hope in Trump's upcoming peace proposal
The poll The Israel Institute of Democracy and Tel Aviv University reports that nearly three-quarters of respondents believe the plan has a very low or moderate chance of success, and the survey did not ask respondents why thought so
The survey, q which had a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points, included 600 Jewish and Arab respondents.
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