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The Palestinian Authority's Financial Support for Terrorism Circumvents U.S. and Israeli Law
(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Yoni Ben Menachem - The Palestinian government has decided to pay grants to terrorists and their families through Palestinian postal banks to circumvent the Israeli prohibition on West Bank commercial banks' involvement in terrorism-related activity. Later, ATMs will be set up to enable the withdrawal of the salaries with a "smart" card. In addition, Qadri Abu Bakr, Chairman of the PA Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, said 7,500 released terrorists would receive salaries for official jobs in the PA and receive wages like other government officials. Israel and the U.S. Congress see these payments as rewards and incentives to terrorists. Last year, Israel began deducting NIS 52 million each month from the tax revenues it collects for the PA to offset the amount paid by the PA to terrorists. Congress has enacted the comparable Taylor Force Act.