Israel said Sunday it will withhold over $138 million from the Palestinian Authority for payments given to families of Palestinians who carried out attacks against Israelis. The sum, which comprises about 5% of the PA's revenues, was cut from the taxpayer funds that Israel collects for the PA.
The Diplomatic-Security Cabinet said it is implementing a law passed last year allowing Israel to withhold funds used to pay stipends to Palestinian attackers and their families from taxes Israel collects on the behalf of the PA.
Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern and Likud MK Avi Dichter, who advanced the law in the Knesset, both welcomed the move.
On Twitter, Dichter said, "The party is over! As I committed to doing in the law I advanced with Elazar Stern, the cabinet announced the implementation of the law to cut terror funds. The law will make it clear to the Palestinian Authority and Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority President Abbas] – it doesn't pay!"
Stern congratulated the cabinet on its decision, and said, "There is no doubt that ultimately the implementation of the law will significantly reduce the terror incentive and the number of terrorist incidents."
Abbas said there would be consequences for the move, which he called "completely unacceptable."
In a statement, the Btsalmo organization, which represents families affected by terrorism, said, "We call on the defense minister and prime minister [Netanyahu] to order the transfer of the funds that were deducted to terror victims who have been awarded compensation but have yet to receive one shekel from the terrorists. The transfer of the terror funds to the terror victims will be a tiny amount of justice and will all the terror victims the ability to more easily rehabilitate.
Attorney Maurice Hirsch, who served as the director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria and now heads Palestinian Media Watch's legal department, called the cabinet's decision "an excellent start. It's just a shame that for six months, Defense Ministry officials couldn't succeed in figuring out the extent of payments to the families of dead terrorists. After we obtained a lot of information on the subject, we expect Defense Ministry officials to quickly complete their evaluations and bring about the deduction of hundreds of millions of additional shekels that the Palestinian Authority pays as encouragement, incentive and payment for terror."
In the past, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the PA actually invests even more in terrorist payments. In an address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee last year, he said the PA spent some $350 million on payments to terrorists and their families annually. A number Netanyahu said constitutes a little less than 10% of the entire Palestinian budget.
Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement that Israel's action was "a unilateral blow" to bilateral agreements and that any deduction of taxes by Israel was "piracy of the Palestinian people's money."
Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah called Israel's action "open war against the Palestinian people" and an attempt to destroy the PA.
In the past, Palestinian officials have defended the payments by saying those involved in deadly attacks are a small percentage of those aided by the fund, and that the PA has a responsibility to its citizens like any other government.
The freeze comes as the Palestinians face major budget cuts made last year after the United States slashed funding for the U.N.'s Palestinian refugee program UNRWA and for development programs in the Palestinian territories. The U.N.'s World Food Program also cut back services due to funding shortages.
