The Palestinians aren’t just praising militants—they’re paying them too. Illustrative banner of terrorists and Dome of the Rock. By Joshua Spurlock
The terrorist who murdered British student Hannah Bladon on the light rail in Jerusalem on Good Friday is slated to receive $1000 per month from the Palestinian Authority (P.A.), reported the Daily Mail Online’s Mail on Sunday. The Daily Mail article quoted Itamar Marcus, the Director of watchdog group Palestinian Media Watch, as saying that Jamil Tamimi’s arrest and designation as a terrorist by Israel puts Tamimi or his family on the Palestinian government’s list to receive a monthly salary from the P.A.
Marcus said this is due to a P.A. law that provides for such payments to those who are put into prison for “resisting the occupation”—a phrase used by Palestinians that includes acts of terrorism. Israeli Prime Minister ‘s Office spokesman Ofir Gendelman had previously highlighted this tragic reality shortly after the attack in a Twitter post, noting that the P.A. will “REWARD the Palestinian attacker who did it w/ a monthly salary.” Over the weekend, Gendelman tweeted a graph showing the increase in payments corresponding to the amount of Israeli prison time—which actually ends up paying more for the worst of the terrorists. “The P.A. pays to terrorists who serve sentences in Israeli jails $350 to $3000+ a month. The more Israelis they’ve killed, the more they get,” Gendelman posted to Twitter.
A report from Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) published last week noted that same graph and in one example they showed that terrorist Ibrahim Ghaneemat, who was involved in attacks that killed almost a dozen Israelis, has received sum approaching $200,000 from the Palestinian body tasked with paying prisoners since his arrest in 2005.
The COGAT report exposed the P.A.’s involvement in such payments despite some name changes and organizational rearrangements done to mask the government’s payments to terrorists. COGAT noted that the Commission for Prisoner’s Affairs that was moved under the Palestine National Fund has too many similarities to the old P.A. Ministry of Prisoner’s Affairs. COGAT listed managers, offices and a “nearly identical budget” that stands at well over a $100 million per year.
“This new commission is a similar replica of the ministry, but with a new name,” said the COGAT report. “The purpose of differentiating between the Palestinian Authority and the body financing the prisoners is to improve the P.A.’s image and make it difficult for Israel and the international community to uncover the source of aid money to terrorists in prison. However, their attempt failed and the plot was revealed.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alluded to this in comments to Fox News in an interview last week in which he said the Palestinians must stop financing terrorism—including via indirect payments to “finagle the books”—to prove they really want to reach a peace deal with Israel.
Netanyahu reiterated this demand during Sunday’s cabinet meeting, according to comments released by his office. “I made it clear that the Palestinian Authority needs to stop financing the terrorists that sit in prison and the families of the terrorists who were killed while committing their crimes,” said Netanyahu.
“This is a simple and clear test of the Palestinians’ desire for peace. One cannot be for peace with Israel and at the same time extol and finance the murderers of Israelis and of other innocents.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastudpate.com, April 23, 2017)