Israel’s parliament has passed a law that withholds hundreds of millions of dollars in funds for the Palestinians over welfare payments given to attackers and their families.
The legislation will deduct the money the Palestinians allocate to their so-called martyrs fund from taxes collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.
The Israeli move late on Monday, condemned by the Palestinians, deepened a budget crunch for the Palestinian government already hit hard by US cuts in aid.
Israel has long pushed for the Palestinians to halt the stipends — which benefit roughly 35,000 families of Palestinians killed and wounded in the conflict with Israel — and has said the practice encourages violence. Among the beneficiaries are families of suicide bombers and other militants involved in deadly attacks. The stipends total about $US330m ($450m), or 7 per cent of the PA’s $5 billion budget in 2018.
Likud MP Avi Dichter, a co-sponsor of the legislation, said the families of Palestinian attackers had easy access to these funds. “The only thing you have to do is to kill Israelis, to get arrested or killed,” he said.
Read the article in The Australian (AP).