Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday ordered the seizure of 100 million shekels from the funds that Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) for the benefit of victims of terrorism.
The seizure orders were given in accordance with rulings in Israeli courts which said that the funds should be handed to the families of victims of terrorism.
This is the fifth seizure of terrorist funds in the total amount of hundreds of millions of shekels and a preliminary step to the realization of claims in Israeli courts against the Palestinian Authority.
"The fight against terrorism is not just a military fight, but a combined fight that includes a fight against the wild incitement of the Palestinian Authority and the terrorist funds that it diverts from its budget to the families of terrorists," said Minister Smotrich.
He added, "As I have done since I took office, court rulings against the Palestinian Authority are immediately taken from the funds transferred to the Palestinian Authority and transferred to compensate the families of the victims of terrorism. We will continue to protect the security of the citizens of Israel and fight terrorism and its supporters with all the tools at our disposal."
In January, for the first time, the Minister of Finance directed the Director of the Tax Authority to implement a seizure of 3.1 million shekels for victims of terrorism from the Palestinian Authority's tax funds.
He clarified at the time that "the State of Israel stops the funding of terrorism by the Palestinian Authority in Gaza and Judea and Samaria. We will not allow this absurd situation to happen and we will continue with the policy on which I decided to stop terrorist funds."
The PA’s “martyr payments” program financially supports terrorists and their families. PA officials have remained defiant about the issue of payments to terrorists and have made clear that the PA will never cease paying terrorists' salaries.
PA chairman Abbas has in the past called the PA's continued payments to terrorists a "red line" that would not be halted under any circumstances.
Last November, the Israeli Cabinet decided to offset from the funds of the PA all the money intended for the Gaza Strip, in addition to the offset that is carried out, in accordance with the law, of funds paid to terrorists and their families.
Upset by the Israeli move, the PA refused to accept the money that Israel collects on its behalf, unless the funds for Gaza are included, and returned it.
In March, the PA received 407 million shekels from Israel after Norway agreed to help facilitate the transfer of the frozen tax funds earmarked for the PA that were collected by Israel.