International Criminal Court
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The Palestinian Authority will take Israel to the International Criminal Court over recent steps to punish the PA for its continuing payments to terrorists in Israeli prisons and to the families of terrorists, a senior PA official claimed.

Saleh Rafat, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Voice of Palestine Radio last week that the approval of a Knesset bill to deduct the total sums the Palestinian Authority pays to terrorists in Israeli prisons and to terrorists' families from the tax funds which Israel transfers to the PA, will be contested in the court.

The bill, initiated by MK Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid), was approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation last Sunday.

Rafat called the bill "unacceptable" and accused Israel of "piracy" and "stealing" the PA's money.and defended the payments as going to "victims of the occupation."

The PA pays monthly salaries to thousands of terrorists in Israeli prisons. The longer the sentence the terrorist serves, the more money he or she receives on a monthly basis, effectively creating a situation where the more people a terrorist murders, the more money the PA pays him.