Netanyahu and Amsalem
Netanyahu and AmsalemFlash 90

Prime Minister Netanyahu continues to work through Coalition Chairman MK Dudi Amsalem to enlist a majority to request a re-examination of wording in the law to offset the terrorist salaries.

Arutz Sheva has learned that during the past few hours, Netanyahu's men have been working to enlist support for the request among members of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee from the Zionist Union and Meretz parties after Jewish Home announced it would oppose the request.

At the same time, it is still not clear how Likud members of the committee will vote and whether they will respond to pleas from the Prime Minister and his people on the issue.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu wants to amend the bill so that PA budget deductions be subject to decision by the Prime Minister and the Defense Minister.

Arutz Sheva was informed that the National Security Council opposed the bill, claiming it would constitute "harm to the status of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, lead to extremism and violence among the Palestinians, and even to the PA's collapse."

In the past the NSC objected claiming the United States also opposed the law, but meanwhile the Taylor Force Act submitted by Congressman Lindsay Graham passed the US Congress, and even the US President sought to dramatically reduce US funds transferred to the PA.

The bill was submitted by MKs Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid) and Avi Dichter (Likud) with broad support from the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Bereaved Families and Victims of Hostilities are expected to arrive tomorrow to support the law as it stands today without the Prime Minister's amendment, and is expected to pass second and third readings next Monday.

Education Minister and Political-Security Cabinet member Naftali Bennett warned that Netanyahu's request to condition withholding PA money on a cabinet decision empties the law of meaning and therefore Jewish Home Knesset Members on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee MK Shuli Mualem and MK Moti Yogev will vote against the revision.

משפחות מחבלים ממשיכים לקבל כסף ממדינת ישראל

Yesterday, terror victims who arrived at the Knesset were not allowed to enter the Likud meeting, where they and their families sought to protest the Withholding Law's advance being delayed.

Yoel Schwartz, whose mother was killed in a terrorist attack on Line 2 in Jerusalem, told Arutz Sheva: "The family of the terrorist who murdered my mother receives money from the State of Israel, that's insane. From October 2003 to April 2018, the Palestinian Authority transferred NIS 608,000 to the Za'tari family. That is to say over NIS 6,000 every month. We are here so that our victim will be the last. It's inconceivable that money from the State of Israel goes to the terrorists who murdered our loved one."

Yehudit Dasberg, whose daughter and son-in-law were killed in an attack, said, "We're trying to enter the Likud faction meeting because the State of Israel cannot pay salaries to murderers and their families. We must be crazy."

Shai Maimon, who was wounded in the attack where his friend Malachi Rosenfeld was murdered, said "the law to withhold terrorist's salaries was supposed to pass second and third readings today and the Likud is delaying the law.

"The Coalition Chairman submitted a revision while every day four million shekels are transferred to terrorist's families. This means that more than NIS 100 million is transferred to terrorist's families every month. Unfortunately, the Likud prevents bereaved families and victims of hostilities from entering their meeting," Maimon concluded.

The Likud said in response, "The government asked the Coalition Chairman to do a revision to correct some things in the bill because the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman was abroad."