Israel to seize A$46 million in Palestinian tax revenues, distribute it to terror victims
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich ordered the seizure of 100 million shekels (A$40 million) in tax revenues meant to be transferred to the Palestinian Authority and instead be disbursed to Israeli victims of Palestinian terror.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in Jerusalem on July 1, 2024. Photo by Yoav Dudkevitch/TPS-IL
Smotrich tweeted that the move was in retaliation for the Palestinian Authority’s “pay for slay” stipends to imprisoned terrorists and to the families of Palestinians killed while carrying out attacks.
“The struggle against terror is not just a military struggle, but also a fight that includes a war against the wild incitement of the Palestinian Authority and the terrorist funds which it directs from its budget to the families of terrorists,” Smotrich tweeted on Sunday.
The announcement came on the heels of an unprecedented hearing at Israel’s High Court of Justice on Sunday, where the Palestinian Authority petitioned the court to overturn Knesset legislation allowing victims of Palestinian terror to more easily claim financial compensation from the PA. The PA has never directly petitioned Israel’s High Court before.
The hearing ended abruptly as terror victims raucously called on the PA’s lawyer to acknowledge Ramallah’s controversial “pay for slay stipends” to imprisoned terrorists.
“The judges didn’t even ask the state to weigh in at all over and above what they’d submitted. That’s very irregular. It’s clear that the judges had come to the conclusion that there was no basis for this petition in the first place,” legal expert Maurice Hirsch told The Press Service of Israel. Hirsch — director of the Initiative for Palestinian Authority Accountability and Reform in the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs — said he expected the court to issue its ruling within days.
The Palestinian Authority allocates seven percent of its annual budget for its so-called “Martyr’s Fund,” which provides stipends to Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons, and the families of terrorists killed in attacks. The size of the monthly payouts is primarily determined by the duration of the terrorist’s incarceration, with a negligible additional factor based on family size.
Israeli officials say the stipends provide incentives for terror and regularly offset an equivalent amount from taxes that Israel collects on behalf of the PA. The new law allows families to collect judgments against the PA from the frozen funds.
Despite claiming to be operating at a 172% budget deficit, the Palestinian Authority in July recognized 899 new prisoners from Gaza and tens of thousands more Gaza “martyrs” as eligible for controversial “pay for slay” payouts, according to a report released by Palestinian Media Watch in July.
Ramallah has been paying out stipends for years, but the issue came under a spotlight following the murder of Taylor Force, a U.S. citizen killed by a Palestinian who went on a stabbing rampage in Jaffa in 2018. Congress passed the Taylor Force Act, which halted U.S. aid to the Palestinians as long as terror stipends were being paid out.
U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority resumed under the administration of President Joe Biden. In December 2022, American victims of Palestinian terror filed a lawsuit against the President and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, arguing that the payments violate the Taylor Force Act.
