The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Wednesday approved the final draft of the so-called "terrorist wages" bill, which seeks to deduct the payments that the Palestinian Authority makes to terrorists and their families from the tax funds collected by Israel for the PA.
The move followed divisions that had emerged between senior ministers and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the wording of the legislation proposal, which will be presented to the Knesset plenum next week from its second and third readings.
Under the 1993 Oslo Accords, a mechanism was set up for Israel to collect taxes – value-added tax and customs fees – on behalf of the Palestinian Authority and transfer the money to the PA.
Those funds amount to about $100 million a month, and the PA uses a considerable portion of them to finance the stipends it pays to terrorists and their families. In 2017, it spent 1.23 billion shekels ($358 million), or 7% of its total budget for the year, on those stipends.
Officials in the National Security Council in the Prime Minister's Office convened a lengthy meeting on the wording of the bill Tuesday after a disputed emerged between Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Education Minister Naftali Bennett on one side, and Netanyahu and the National Security Council on the other.
The ministers said they would oppose changing the draft approved by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee two weeks ago, against the government's position.
The committee debated two versions of the bill: the first, which had been approved, stating that once the deduction of Palestinian funds is enacted the political echelon would be unable to rescind the measure, and the second saying that the only circumstance under which the cabinet would be able to return deducted funds is if the defense minister confirms that the PA has stopped paying terrorist salaries for an entire year.
Netanyahu and the National Security Council supported the softer version of the bill while Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Education Minister Naftali Bennett supported the stricter version.
Wednesday's vote backed the more harshly worded draft, rendering such deductions immutable.
The terrorist wages bill was sponsored by MKs Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid), Robert Ilatov (Yisrael Beytenu) and Avi Dichter (Likud).
"Insisting on principles paid off. The original draft of the bill was approved. The Palestinian Authority has to be made to understand that supporting terrorist does not pay," Stern said.
Dichter, who heads the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said, "This is a moral law that sends a clear message to us, to the Palestinian Authority and to the world. Israel will not be a conduit by which terrorist is funded. That's over."
Israel Hayom learned that intensive behind-the-scenes talks were held on the matter in the wake of Lieberman and Bennett's objections, until the prime minister and NSC officials agreed to accept the already-approved draft.
'End the absurdity'
The current version of the bill stipulates that the finance minister would deduct the PA's permanent monthly stipend for terrorists and their families from the taxes Israel collects on the PA's behalf. According to this version of the bill, adopted by the committee unanimously, once the finance minister makes the decision, the deduction would be irreversible.
This clause, which curtails the government's ability to roll back the deduction under appropriate circumstances, has been the main point of contention between Bennett and Lieberman and the government.
The NSC's position favors the softer version of the bill, allowing the prime minister and defense minister to use their discretion on the matter, but to a large extent, this leaves the bill hollow.
On Tuesday afternoon, Lieberman came out in opposition to the government's official stance, saying he would support the version Ilatov co-wrote. Ilatov told Israel Hayom that he wants the bill to remain untouched and would vote against a revised version.
Bennett, chairman of the Habayit Hayehudi party, also came out against the second version of the bill.
"The Palestinian Authority transfers over a billion shekel a year to terrorists who murdered Israeli civilians and to the families of terrorists who were killed. This absurdity has to stop, which is precisely what the bill calls for, but at the last moment a clause was 'innocently' inserted to prohibit us from automatically deducting every shekel the PA transfers for terror purposes," he said.
Consequently, Bennett announced that Habayit Hayehudi MKs on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee would vote against the revision.
Stern told Israel Hayom that "the Palestinians and the world need to know that we won't transfer money to terror. If they stop paying terrorists and their families, no one will oppose them receiving the money."
