A non-profit Israeli institute that researches Palestinian society has found a troubling possible linkage between US aid to the Palestinian Authority and the scope of deadly terror attacks against Israelis.

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The Palestinian Media Watch published a study this week that analyzed statistics taken from periodic reports published by the US Congressional Research Service, from 2011 (the year the non-profit exposed the PA's terror-rewarding pay-for-slay policy) through 2022.

It found that when aid to the PA dropped, such as during the Trump administration, attacks against Israelis also decreased. However, when such aid was high, such as during the Obama and now Biden administrations, more Israelis were killed.

There are three types of US aid to the PA: the Economic Support Fund, the International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement, and US aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Between 2009 and 2017, the Obama administration provided the PA with 6.4 billion dollars in aid. Within that time, 140 Israelis and foreigners residing in Israel were killed in terror attacks, an average of 17.5 a year.

Over the next four years, the Trump administration gradually decreased aid to the Palestinians to as little as 670 million dollars. Within that time period, 42 Israelis and foreigners were killed in Palestinian terror attacks, an average of 10.5 people a year.

Since the Biden administration took office in January 2021, the PA has received a billion dollars in aid. In that time, 46 Israelis and foreigners have been killed, an average of 23 a year. In January and February this year, when US aid to the PA continued unabated, 14 Israelis and foreigners were killed in Palestinian terror attacks.

Maurice Hirsch, head of Legal Strategies at the PMW, said, "The correlation is also annual. In a year when extensive economic aid to the Palestinians flows, the number of attacks increases – and vice versa. The Palestinians interpret American support, as far as it is expressed in financial aid, as approval for terrorism and the murder of Israelis.

"US support is ostensibly dedicated to promoting peace, but in practice, the Palestinians see its support as an opportunity to promote terrorism. While US aid to the Palestinians flows freely, Palestinian terrorists feel empowered and kill Israelis. Only when the US demonstrates moral clarity and stops the aid, the Palestinians will understand that terrorism does not pay."

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The Bank of Palestine has recently discontinued its work with the accounts of terrorists who receive benefits from the Palestinian Authority.

According to official statements from the terrorist organizations, the bank has informed terrorists and their family members that they must withdraw all funds and close their accounts.

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The decision stems from the warning the Bank of Palestine received from the Palestinian Media Watch, a non-profit Israeli institute that researches the Palestinian society.

The institute warned the bank about a year ago that according to the 2016 Counter-Terrorism Law, financial entities involved in the pay for slay system will be viewed as supporting terrorists – and will therefore be exposed to enormous legal and economic risks.

Israel's Military Advocate General had been delaying the application of the Counter-Terrorism Law in Judea and Samaria for years. Only after the murder of 17-year-old Rina Shnerb and following a demand by Palestinian Media Watch attorney Maurice Hirsch, who also represents the family, was Israel forced to clarify that the law does indeed apply to Judea and Samaria.

The Palestinian Authority prepared for the shift in advance. It paid a large part of terrorists' salaries several months in advance and is looking for new ways to continue the payments despite international pressure to stop doing so.

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What is the Palestinian Authority (PA)'s official stance when it comes to the global pandemic?

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Earlier this month, some experts claimed that Israel and the PA were cooperating effectively to combat a mutual concern. It appears that the Palestinian government was playing a double game, however, and integrated COVID-19 into its long-standing practice of inciting against Israel on a systematic level. The PA accuses Israel of purposefully spreading the virus to the West Bank in an effort to "annihilate" the Palestinian people, according to extensive reporting from Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).

But the numbers tell a different story.

As of Monday, 259 people in the West Bank are reported to have coronavirus and two people have died from the virus – a relatively low figure suggesting mitigation efforts are working well so far.

On Sunday, Israeli military officials warned the PA to cease its COVID-19 incitement campaign, according to Israel's Channel 12 News and reported by the Times of Israel. The Channel 12 report states that most COVID-19 cases in the West Bank have been traced to Palestinians who work in Israel. The PA sought to spin this information to accuse Israel of deliberately targeting Palestinian areas with the virus.

For example, on April 5, the official PA daily al-Hayat al-Jadida published an article claiming that "Palestinian prisoners are being burned between the fangs of Israel and the coronavirus."

The article, translated by PMW, featured a Fatah spokesman warning of Israel's "exploitation of the coronavirus in order to annihilate the Palestinian prisoners."

Another PA conspiracy claims that Israel is deliberately infecting Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails with the virus.

One video, posted to a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Facebook page, depicts a tank taking aim at a Palestinian child while coronavirus particles threaten children imprisoned in Israeli jails.

PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh's voice is superimposed on another PLO-produced clip depicting this modern-day blood libel, calling for the release of all Palestinian prisoners.

Despite US and international pressure, the PA continues to transfer payments to convicted terrorists and their families. The amount of money paid to imprisoned or released terrorists depends on the length of sentence, which is a function of an action's severity. The more brutal the attack or murder, the more money a Palestinian prisoner receives.

On March 30, after airing footage of an Israeli soldier simply spitting on the ground, the PA's official daily claimed that "dozens of occupation soldiers spit on cars of (Palestinian) residents and the door handles of the homes" to spread COVID-19. A day earlier, Fatah's official Facebook page stated that Israel is waging "a biological war against Palestine."

Another article in the PA's official daily last month claimed that Israel is attempting to "thwart" Palestinian efforts to combat the virus.

In reality, however, Israel continues to train Palestinian doctors and supply medical assistance to the West Bank to mitigate against a COVID-19 outbreak in areas controlled by the PA. Instead of encouraging Israeli-Palestinian cooperation, the PA would rather incite against the Jewish state amid a pandemic that does not discriminate against its victims.

West Bank-based leaders are not the only Palestinians engaging in coronavirus-related incitement.

In a sermon last month, a Gaza-based imam, Jamil Al-Mutawa, preached that God started COVID-19 to kill infidels and Israelis, claiming that Muslims were least impacted by the virus.

"Look how anyone who schemes against the Al-Aqsa Mosque is being shattered to smithereens by the soldiers of Allah," Al-Mutawa claimed, adding "look how empty the [Israeli] cities are. Look how empty their streets are and look how crowded this mosque is. Who is it that has given us security and terrified them? Who is it that has protected us and harmed them? It is Allah!"

The imam noted that "there is not a single case (of COVID-19) in Gaza." The next day, Palestinian health officials confirmed two cases of the virus in the Strip.

Last week, Hamas arrested several peace activists in Gaza for participating in a video conference call with Israeli activists seeking to find common ground on several issues, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Hamas views any engagement with Israelis as a treasonous offense.

Several Palestinians, including a journalist and former research consultant at Amnesty International's Israel office, condemned the video conference as an attempt to normalize ties "with the Israeli enemy." Palestinian journalist Hind Khoudary tagged three senior Hamas officials on her Facebook post last week to alert the terrorist organization about the peace activists' call. Amnesty International's Israel office has since condemned Khoudary's post and clarified that she worked for the organization as a free-lance researcher in March 2019.

Like Palestinian leaders, Islamist outlets from Algeria's Al Masdar to Hizballah's Al Manar TV blame others, including Israel and the United States, for the virus's spread.

Last month, Iran's supreme leader refused US assistance to fight the deadly virus spread, suggesting that "possibly your [American] medicine is a way to spread the virus more." The coronavirus has severely plagued Iran, with 4,585 recorded deaths. The commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) called the virus an "American biological invasion," while Iran's propaganda machine spread rumors that the virus was a "Zionist biological terrorist attack," according to an article in Foreign Policy. Even so-called biology experts in Iran claim that the "Americans and Zionist regime" created the "biological ethnic weapon" to target Iranians specifically.

If the latest Palestinian campaign of incitement does not stop, Israeli officials recently threatened to reduce security cooperation with the PA – which depends on Israeli intelligence to thwart terrorist attacks and Hamas-led plots to overthrow the Palestinian government.

By spreading these dangerous lies, the PA joins the likes of the Islamic State, Hezbollah, and the Iranian regime in their efforts to exploit the coronavirus pandemic for their own terrorist and political objectives.

Reprinted with permission from IPT News.

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The bombing in downtown Jerusalem killed 15 people, including two Americans, and wounded around 130 others.

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The family of the suicide bomber behind the August 9, 2001, attack, Izz Al-Din Al-Masri, has been one of the recipients of PA rewards.

According to the report, Al-Masri's family has received $53,689 overall, while the bombmaker, Abdullah Barghouti, has collected $213,848.

Ahlam Tamimi, who planned the attack, has shown no remorse, saying that she has "no regrets."

Tamimi had been awarded $51,836 until she was released from prison as part of a 2011 prisoner exchange that included Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit's release from Hamas captivity, when she then escaped to Jordan.

Tamimi is on America's Most Wanted Terrorist list, but the United States has been unable to secure her extradition as a 1995 extradition agreement was not ratified by Jordan's government.

The Palestinian Authority allots $7,321 monthly to the Sbarro terrorists and their families, per the report.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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