Amir Ohana
Amir OhanaFLASH90

The Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee held deliberations Wednesday on a bill intended to curb the transfer of funds by the Palestinian Authority to jailed Arab terrorists and their families.

The bill, which was proposed by MK Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid), has the support of the coalition government and passed its initial vote.

If passed into law, the legislation would require Israel to deduct the amount of money transferred by the PA to jailed Arab terrorists each year from the tax money collected by Israel on behalf of the PA from Arabs working in Israel.

MK Amir Ohana (Likud) praised the bill, saying that Israel needed to take action to end the PA’s financial support for terrorism.

“The time has come to turn words into action. We’ve been talking about the Palestinian Authority’s support for terror for years, including but not limited to their payments and grants to terrorists. It is the height of absurdity that the State of Israel, whose citizens’ blood is being spilled because of this [PA terror] incitement, continues to transfer money to the PA.”

Ohana cautioned, however, that the bill in and of itself was insufficient to halt the PA’s support for terror, and that further measures would be needed.

“Stopping these funds is one step, but there will need to be additional steps in the war against incitement.”