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PA, PLO officials on Israeli prisoners’ salaries bill: “Deliberate theft… which is based on defining the resistance as a crime;” “There is no power in the world that is capable of obligating us to abandon our prisoners and our people’s heroic Martyrs”

Headline: “A committee of the occupation ‘approved’ a ‘bill’ to deduct the salaries of the Martyrs and prisoners and ‘compensation for the damages of the fires’ from the [PA] tax money – the occupation steals and plunders Palestinian money
• Ashrawi: Political blackmail to which our people will not surrender
• The [PA] government: There is no power in the world that can obligate us to abandon our prisoners and our people’s Martyrs”
         “The occupation parliament (Israeli Parliament) [parentheses in source] Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee yesterday [June 11, 2018] approved a bill to deduct the money that the PA pays to the Martyrs’ (Shahids’) families and to the prisoners (i.e., from the taxes Israel collects for the PA, see note below –Ed.). The same committee unanimously approved a proposal submitted by occupation [Israeli] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to confiscate money from the Palestinian tax revenues for the benefit of settlers in the area called ‘the Gaza Envelope’ (i.e., as compensation for the agricultural fields of Israeli towns near the Gaza border which have been damaged by flaming kites sent from Gaza -Ed.)…
PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi condemned the Israeli approval. She said: ‘The organized and deliberate theft of the Palestinian people’s money reflects the occupation state’s method, which is based on defining the resistance as a crime and imposing collective punishments on the Palestinian people. These steps contradict international humanitarian law, and constitute additional proof that Israel is going too far in punishing all those who refuse its occupation and resist its steps.’ She noted that this money is not Israeli, and added: ‘If we had authority to control our crossings, we would not be in need of the occupation state to act as an agent in collecting taxes in return for a high percentage’…
The [PA] national unity government emphasized that there is no power in the world that is capable of obligating us to abandon our prisoners and our people’s heroic Martyrs. Official [PA] Government Spokesman Yusuf Al-Mahmoud said: ‘Our Palestinian people and its leadership are loyal like no other to our prisoners and our people’s Martyrs, who have sacrificed the years of their lives and their souls so that the members of our people would live and for their homeland’s freedom and independence’…
Al-Mahmoud… said that the occupation authorities are the ones that need to restore the full rights, compensate for their occupation, and be held accountable for their crimes, but in their great arrogance they want to kill the victim and force him to pay ‘the price of his death,’ when by doing so they are reaching the heights of sadism and insanity in history…
Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF) Secretary-General and PLO Executive Committee member Ahmed Majdalani said that confiscating the revenues from taxes – if the transfer of the salaries to prisoners and to the Martyrs’ family members will continue – constitutes a new plundering of Palestinian money and political blackmail to which we will not surrender. He again emphasized the adherence to the PA continuing to pay the salaries to the families of the prisoners and the Martyrs, and noted that this is a national, moral, and political commitment to fighters who have sacrificed their blood for the homeland, and to fighters who finished their youth and the years of their lives in the occupation’s prisons. He added that the one who is committing terror is the occupation government.”
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Bill to deduct terror salaries from PA tax money - A bill proposed by the Israeli Ministry of Defense that would deduct the amount of money the PA pays imprisoned terrorists and families of "Martyrs" from the tax money Israel collects for the PA, which was passed by the Israeli Parliament in a first reading on May 7, 2018. The Israeli Parliament Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee unanimously approved the bill on June 11, 2018, clearing the way for a second and third reading in Israeli Parliament. The bill would enable the deducted money to be used for infrastructure benefiting all West Bank residents, compensation awarded to terror victims in lawsuits against the PA or individual terrorists, and projects aimed at eliminating terror.

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