The Palestinian Authority paid a whopping £258 million to terrorists and their families last year.
Citing the PA’s own data, Breitbart reports that terrorists with three to five year prison sentences receive $580 dollars a month – equivalent to the average Palestinian income, Liberman told a session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday.
Terrorists sentenced to 20 years or more – usually for the murder of Israeli civilians – receive more than $2,900 per month for their entire lives, five times the amount of a “small time” terrorist.
On top of the PA salary, Arab terrorists who hold Israeli citizenship receive a $145 bonus, more than the average Israeli income of around $2,700.
In addition, there are additional stipends for wives and children.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said, “The PA pays over a billion shekels a year to terrorists and their families, thus encouraging and perpetuating terrorism.”
“The minute the amount of the payment is decided according to the severity of the crime and the length of the sentence – in other words, whoever murders and is sentenced to life in prison gets much more – that is funding terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens. There is nothing that better illustrates the PA’s support for terrorism. We must stop this,” he added.
Liberman also presented his bill proposing to deduct the amount paid by the Palestinian Authority to terrorists and their families from monies owed by Israel in taxes.
Last year after meeting with US officials in Ramallah, Mahmoud Abbas declared, “I will never stop [paying] the allowances to the families of the prisoners and released prisoners, even if this costs me my position and my presidency. I will pay them until my dying day.”
Top Palestinian officials have also claimed that stopping the payments to terrorists is out of the question. And terrorists themselves have confirmed that these payments are a motivating factor for them to commit acts of terror.
