Israel has confiscated some 2.5 million shekels ($724,000) of the tax money it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority to be paid to three Palestinians who were subjected to torture after the PA accused them of working with Israel.
The three recipients are part of a group of 52 Palestinians who sued the PA in the Jerusalem District Court for damages after PA authorities arrested them on charges of "collaborating" with Israel. All were tortured.
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In November 2018, the Supreme Court rejected a PA appeal against the district court ruling in favor of the plaintiffs and ruled that the PA would compensate each plaintiff to the tune of 450 shekels ($130) per day they were in detention, even before a total amount of punitive damages for the violence to which they were subjected was decided.
However, the PA refused to pay out the court-ordered compensation, and Israel froze its assets in an attempt to force Ramallah to pay the final sum of 14 million shekels ($4 million) to the 52 victims.
The decision to take some of the money out of the tax income Israel collects for the PA marks the first time that Israel has taken such a step to enforce a court ruling.
The government said in a message issued by the Jerusalem office of the Law Enforcement and Collection Authority that one of the three plaintiffs would be allotted some 550,000 shekels ($159,000); the second would be paid some 978,000 shekels ($283,000), and the third 912,000 ($264,000) shekels.
Attorneys Arie Arbus and Barak Kedem, who represented the Palestinian plaintiffs, said, "We congratulate the state for freezing the PA funds and delivering them to our clients. This is the beginning of historic justice for horrific acts by the Palestinian Authority, and we hope that the court will soon rule on millions of shekels more in compensation for other damages."
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