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If the PA Lacks Funds to Combat the Coronavirus, It Should Stop Paying Salaries to Terrorists

(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser - According to official Palestinian reports, the actual expenditure by the Palestinian Authority on salaries to incarcerated terrorists during 2019 was 517.4 million shekels ($148 million). This is in comparison to 502 million shekels in 2018. The Palestinians keep paying salaries to all terrorists arrested in Israel and to the families of dead terrorists in spite of the growing international attention to the "Pay for Slay" phenomenon. In 2018, Israel adopted a law requiring the deduction of the amount the PA paid as salaries to terrorists and their families from the taxes it collects for the PA. Following the outbreak of the coronavirus, the PA asked Israel to deliver the withheld funds. Clearly, if the PA lacks the financial resources to combat the epidemic, they can stop paying salaries to terrorists. The writer, former head of the IDF Military Intelligence Research Division and director-general of the Strategic Affairs Ministry, is director of the Project on Regional Middle East Developments at the Jerusalem Center. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
2020-03-27 00:00:00
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