BICOM

A senior Palestinian official rejected the US Secretary of State’s claim that the Palestinian Authority (PA) have changed their policy of paying salaries to convicted terrorists serving time in Israeli prisons.

The head of Prisoner Affairs at the Palestinian Authority, Issa Qaraqe, denied the PA has stopped paying salaries to families of terrorists, as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had suggested.

Qaraqe said the demand was “a declaration of war” against PA President Mahmoud Abbas and “an invitation for the dismantlement of the Palestinian Authority”.

He claimed that stopping the payments “would not lead to stability and would not serve a peace process in the region”.

Qaraqe said: “The Palestinian society is made up entirely of families of prisoners and shahids, and they are all victims because of the Israeli occupation. This demand to stop payments for prisoners’ families is no small matter, but something very big with social ramifications.”

The official also noted that even if President Abbas wanted to halt payments to prisoners, he would not be able to withstand the public outcry such a move would cause.

He said: “No one in the Palestinian Authority could make such a move. It would be very difficult for the Palestinian Authority to stop the humanitarian aid to the families of prisoners and shahids.”

However, he confirmed that the PA did stop payments to 200 Hamas prisoners some of whom were freed as part of the 2011 exchange to free captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

He insisted though that this “had nothing to do with Tillerson’s demand. It was done due to a dispute between the PA and Hamas”.

Tillerson, in what seemed like a climbdown, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee there was an “active discussion” between Washington and Ramallah on the matter.

“We will continue this dialogue with them,” he said, before adding that US President Donald Trump has only a “certain window of patience” and “a certain window which he will remain engaged and be interested”.

Tillerson said: “We’ve taken the position to the Palestinian Authority in a very unequivocal way: you either take care of this yourself or someone else will take care of it for you. Those are the words that I have used with them.”

Israel Defence Minister Avidor Lieberman  responded to the dispute, saying: “We follow this closely; as of this moment I have seen no cessation and no intention to stop paying the terrorists’ families.”