Funding Palestinian Terrorism

"We should understand that beside the fact that the donor community is paying into the Palestinian Authority, the end result is to create a system to recruit human beings to carry out attacks and then serve their time and be rewarded."
"[The Palestinian government has] an inducement to pay human assassins to seek out innocent people and kill them. In other words, the amount per month paid into the fund or going to the family is dependent on how heinous the crime, how many victims. And in addition…if it’s bad enough, you serve enough time and you’re automatically given a position in the Palestinian Authority once you get out."
Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) 

"It is a problem for the PA. On one hand they claim they want peace and discourage violence, and on the other hand they put terrorists on pedestals, idolize them as heroes, and provide meaningful financial incentives for others to follow their path."
"[Those who sit in jail for longer periods of time get more money; in other words] the more gruesome the terrorism, the more money will be paid."
Israeli Government sources quoting newly revealed documents in 2015

PA President Mahmoud Abbas.. (photo credit:AMMAR AWAD / REUTERS)

Documents brought to light a year ago showed that most of those receiving payouts from the Palestinian Authority, out of funding it receives from the international community to administer the West Bank and Gaza, are Hamas members who were behind some of the bloodiest terrorist attacks of the second intifada. These post-crime "salaries" are given those serving time in maximum-security prisons after having undergone trials and being found guilty of their crimes.

One documents revealed that Abdullah Barghouti, a Hamas bomb maker serving 67 life sentences, has so far received more than NIS 250,000, while Ibrahim Hamad, who had served as head of Hamas’s military wing in the West Bank, currently serving 54 life sentences, was shown in the documents to have received NIS 20,000 up to a year ago in recognition for his outstanding work.

It should be noted that both men were involved in some of the worst suicide bombings of the second intifada with great loss of innocent lives.

Muhammad Arman, who served as a representative of imprisoned Hamas members and is serving 36 life sentences himself, received NIS 250,000 up to 2012. (2.78 Israeli shekels to one U.S. dollar) Six-figure salaries are being paid out to members of the Palestinian Authority security forces found to have been behind terrorist attacks during the second intifada, representing those still serving sentences in Israeli jails.

And it is this nefarious situation which the American lawmaker referred to during a U.S. budget hearing. In acknowledgement, Palestinian officials state that their kill-for-pay protocol is in its  phasing-out period, a claim that Representative Royce rejects: "This process is not only continuing, but rather than the Palestinian Authority make the stipend directly out of the budget, what they’ve instead done is go to the PLO budget and make a transfer to the PLO", he stated.

As far as Representative Royce is concerned, in an effort to shield themselves from criticism the Palestinian Authority has transferred authority over the payouts to the Palestine Liberation Organization of which the ruling Fatah party representing the PA is part: "The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Prison…is the same ministry as the PLO. As a matter of fact, it’s the same minister", stated Mr. Royce dismissively.

"What they were simply doing was transferring the entire sum over to the PLO so that the payments could continue to be made." And it is precisely this practise, and the stealth behind it, in the financial support of terrorism, that raises "real concerns about how we prepare people to put the foundation down for peace". In fact, that's precisely the issue, there can be no foundation for peace as long as Palestinians continue being incited to view Israel and Jews as enemies whose presence must be exterminated.

The double-dealing of the Palestinian Authority is too inconvenient, however, to be recognized for what it is; European sponsors of a Palestinian State in the United Nations don't appreciate being faced with the reality that their encouragement and their funding of the PA simply validates and supports it to continue its incitement to hatred and violence, while claiming to be interested in peace with their neighbour.