Israel will act to counter the Palestinian Authority's planned payments to the family of a terrorist who murdered an Israeli citizen last Sunday by cutting the same amount from the tax dividends Israel transfers to Ramallah.
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon made the decision after the PA announced it would pay a stipend to killer Youssef Ali Jabarin, 17, mere hours after he stabbed Ari Fuld, 45, to death near the Gush Etzion Junction south of Jerusalem.
Fuld managed to shoot his assailant and wound him before collapsing.
Kahlon, who as finance minister has authority over the transfer of funds to Palestinians, asked to discover the exact amount of money the assailant's relatives are set to receive. The Palestinian Authority spends millions of dollars every year paying stipends to jailed terrorists and to the families of killed terrorists, in a policy known as "pay to slay."
"It cannot be that a terrorist carries out a cruel crime and takes victims and his family receives aid funds instead of being punished," Kahlon told Israel Hayom.
"As a first step, every shekel the Palestinian Authority transfers to the depraved terrorist's family will be deducted immediately. I have further asked for an examination of ways to limit the terrorist's family's financial activities, so that the family is punished, not rewarded, for the depraved actions of one of its members.
"This is the appropriate Zionist response, but also a message to the Palestinians that they are twice losing money that was supposed to go toward health care, education and infrastructure."
In July, the Knesset passed legislation to financially penalize the Palestinian Authority for paying stipends to terrorists and their families. Under the law, defense officials must submit to the government a detailed report of the funds the PA pays to terrorists and their families. The cabinet is then obligated to deduct the amount from the tax dividends Israel collects for the Palestinians.
However, the law has not yet been implemented by the government, and the first such report is set to be submitted to the cabinet in January.
