(Algemeiner) Ben Cohen - A revised version of the Taylor Force Act to be voted on by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday places even more stringent conditions on aid to the PA in response to its policy of paying salaries to terrorists and their families. The act, if passed, would restrict aid to the PA until the State Department certifies that it is no longer inciting and funding terrorist violence. Among the notable changes is a clause calling on all donor countries that fund the PA to "cease direct budgetary support until the Palestinian Authority stops all payments incentivizing terror." The PA would also be required to revoke "any law, decree, regulation, or document authorizing or implementing a system of compensation" for terrorists and their families as a condition for receiving U.S. aid. The State Department would be required to submit an annual declassified report specifying the dollar amount spent by the PA on terror payments, as well as its general progress in ending incitement. Addressing humanitarian concerns about cuts in legitimate aid to needy Palestinians, the six medical facilities comprising the East Jerusalem Hospital Network - which provide medical services unavailable to Palestinians in the West Bank - are exempted from the restrictions.
2017-08-02 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive