BICOM

The US Secretary of State has claimed that the Palestinian Authority (PA) have changed their policy of paying salaries to convicted terrorists serving time in Israeli prisons.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made his comments at a public hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the US State Department’s budget, where Republican Senator Jim Risch directly asked Tillerson about the issue.

Tillerson said that he had received a report that the Palestinians “have changed that policy and their intent is to cease the payments to the families of those who have committed murder or violence against others. We have been very clear with them that this is simply not acceptable to us.”

He continued, saying the matter “was discussed directly with President Abbas when he made his visit to Washington… The president raised it, and I had a bilateral meeting with [Abbas] later and I told him ‘you absolutely have to stop this’.”

The question of payments to terrorists has long been a point of contention for US funding to the PA. In February, a group of US Senators lead by Senator Lindsey Graham introduced the Taylor Force Act, which would cut US funding to the PA unless it ceases to provide financial support for convicted terrorists.

Speaking on Kan Radio this morning, former chief of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency Yoram Cohen said he doubted the Palestinians would be able to implement such a decision.

A recent article by David Makovsky, Ghaith al-Omari and Lia Weiner in the Washington Post claimed that the PA allocates 7.6 per cent of its total budget to two foundations dedicated to assisting the families of “martyrs” and Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons.

At the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee on Monday, former director general of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs Brig. Gen. (res) Yossi Kuperwasser said that the PA had paid around £890,000 in such payments. He added: “Anyone who has sat in prison for more than 30 years gets NIS 12,000 (2,660 pounds) per month.”

An Israeli official told Haaretz today that Israel rejected Tillerson’s statements and said PA still pays money to families of terrorists.

The Knesset is due to vote on a bill that would require the government to subtract the money the PA pays to terrorists and their families from the tax and tariff revenue Israel collects on the PA’s behalf.