Attorney Maurice Hirsch, Head of Legal Strategies for Palestinian Media Watch, explains that Israel is allowing the Palestinian Authority to continue paying salaries to terrorists through collecting tax money.
”How does it work? Israel collects taxes according to the Oslo Accords and transfers those taxes every month to the Palestinian Authority – we're talking about somewhere in the region of 75 to 80 percent of the PA’s entire budget, if we put international aid aside," Hirsch tells Israel National News. “It's an incredible amount of money. That is the money that the PA then uses to pay monthly salaries to the terrorists. We're talking about something in the region of 65 to 70 million shekels paid every month.”
The salaries the PA gives to terrorists are not concealed and are actually enshrined in Palestinian law.
“It's not only official, it's actually entrenched in a Palestinian law from 2004 which mandates the payment of salaries to terrorist prisoners and released prisoners. There's an extra provision for payments to the families of wounded terrorists and to the families of terrorists who've been killed or who killed themselves. Suicide bombers receive payment.”
He adds: “That is something which they openly talk about – the numbers that we at Palestinian Media Watch can attribute to these payments because the Palestinian Authority leaders talk about these payments. They're proud of these payments.”
Because of the Taylor Force Act, which was signed into law by President Trump in 2018, it is illegal for the American government to give economic aid to the PA until it ceases paying salaries through the Palestinian Authority Martyr’s Fund to terrorists and their families.
Hirsch explains that the Taylor Force Act eliminated most of the American aid to the PA through the Economic Support Fund while they continue to practice a “pay for slay” policy of paying terrorists.
He says that to the best of his organization’s knowledge, the aid money “to a great extent” is not going through.
But the Biden administration is trying to use loopholes to get around Taylor Force, according to Hirsch.
“The Biden administration is trying to circumvent those provisions by providing aid either not directly to the Palestinian Authority or giving aid to the Palestinians via USAID which is almost the same thing,” he explains. “So while the Biden administration is while enforcing the letter of the law, it's very much circumventing the spirit of the law.”
Money given to the PA is also being used for their attempt to exploit legal means to undermine Israel through the process of lawfare.
“Palestinian Media Watch exposes that the Palestinian Authority is having high level discussions with the prosecutor in the International Criminal Court with the goal of furthering the investigation against Israel,” Hirsch says. “There's a similar provision in American law which says that any time that there is active PA support for such an investigation, again the U.S. aid is stopped. Unfortunately there is no similar provision in Israeli law. Israel with the tax money that it provides not only helps the PA pay its salaries to terrorists but is also supporting this entire lawfare approach. The entire investigation against Israel is being funded by [Israel].”