(Times of Israel) The Palestinian Authority has paid out $1.12 billion over the past four years to terrorists and their families, Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, former director general of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday. He added that PA claims that the payments are social welfare benefits are false. The Palestinians' own budgetary documents "clearly state that these are salaries and not welfare payments." "The Palestinians are trying to depict themselves as supporting peace while they are still paying the families of terrorists," he said. "Assurance of a cash prize for acts of terror is encouragement to terrorism, and is against international law." Dore Gold, a former Foreign Ministry director-general, said, "The idea that a body such as the Palestinian Authority pays money as compensation to families who lost their sons as they were engaged in terror is unacceptable and contradicts common sense. Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called it 'providing an incentive to terrorism.'"
2017-05-30 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive