Elazar Stern
Elazar SternFlash 90

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved Sunday a bill proposed by MK Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid) to deduct sums equal the stipends the Palestinian Authority pays to terrorists in Israeli prisons and payments made to terrorists' families, deducting them from the tax funds which Israel transfers to the PA.

The proposal was approved despite the opposition of the Attorney General and the original intention to postpone the discussion of the proposal by one week.

The amount of money the terrorists receive is proportional to the length of their prison sentence, resulting in the perpetrators of the deadliest terrorist attacks receiving the highest "salaries" from the PA.

According to the approved agreement, MK Stern's proposal will be approved this week in a preliminary reading, but will not be advanced in the Knesset until it is merged into a government bill that is to be prepared on the subject. Stern was formerly the IDF chief personnel officer.

The committee approved the bill despite it originating from an MK in the opposition. Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Miister Ayelet Shaked, both leaders of the Jewish Home Party, demanded that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu support the bill Sunday morning.