The Ministerial Committee for Legislation last week approved legislation submitted by Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman to prevent the Palestinian Authority from paying terrorists and their relatives. Should the bill become law, Israel would deduct the salaries the PA pays terrorists and their families from the tax funds collected by Israel for the PA.
The bill is a step in the right direction, first and foremost from a moral perspective – in that it highlights the absurd reality in which Israel and the free world are helping the PA at the same time that it finances terrorists. The proposal also makes it clear we must hit them where it hurts: in their pockets.
The problem is that, from a practical perspective, the legislation does not provide a real solution to the problem. According to the wording of the bill, "The ministerial committee will have the authority to decide not to deduct the amount determined in the report, or decide on deducting a smaller amount as well as to cancel the past deduction of funds at any time … for special reasons of national security and foreign relations."
No government would want to tie its own hands, and rightly so. Nevertheless, in this instance, it seems the wording of the proposed legislation will prevent the implementation of the law, and the deduction will be symbolic, if at all.
Deducting the money the PA pays to support terrorists from the tax funds it transfers to Ramallah will not make the PA end its support for terrorism. If anything, the cuts will be felt in areas like welfare and health, and the Palestinian propaganda will present Israel as instigating a humanitarian crisis. We recently witnessed as much in the "humanitarian disaster" campaign in the Gaza Strip, when the United States announced it was contemplating ending its support for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which has responsibility for aid to Palestinian refugees. This propaganda campaign will result in major international pressure on Israel, which could bring the cabinet to fold.
Efforts to end the funding of terrorism, then, should be fought by other means. The "Starving Funds of Terror" campaign, headed by security expert Eitan Rilov, is working with the brightest of minds in the field in Israel and around the world. It offers a model that while relatively low-cost could prove very effective. According to the model, a "tsunami" of personal lawsuits would be filed for every one of the tens of thousands of terror victims in Israel. The lawsuits would be filed against every individual that played a role in these attacks, from planning to perpetration. An intelligence center would be established that would assist the victims by gathering evidence tying the terrorists and their supporters to the attacks. Legal and economic barriers to the lawsuits' success would be removed, including by the full government funding of plaintiff expenses.
One lawsuit filed this year, which relied heavily on the campaign's model, resulted in a ruling granting the plaintiff 62 million shekels ($18 million) in compensation from those responsible for the attack. If we act wisely and multiply the amount by the terror victims, it would be enough to bring about the collapse of the terror network. If an effective economic campaign is added to the military and diplomatic war, it would constitute a deathblow to terrorism.
