PLO official: “The PA will not submit to any demands to stop supporting the Martyrs’ families and prisoners, because they are freedom fighters”
Headline: “Majdalani: We will not submit to any demands to stop supporting the Martyrs’ families and prisoners”
“PLO Executive Committee member [and Secretary-General of the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF)] Ahmed Majdalani said that the American Senate Committee on Foreign Relations’ approval of the law to stop the American aid to the PA is a step that the [Palestinian] leadership expected. He noted that [the leadership] has recently received great threats of stopping the financial aid and extortion over its political positions.
Majdalani connected the aforementioned law to the [PA] leadership’s recent decision to freeze all contacts with Israel (the decision came in response to Israeli security steps; see note below –Ed.). He said that this constitutes ‘unacceptable political punishment,’ and added: ‘The US is once again proving that it is completely biased in favor of Israel and supports it. It also proves the correctness of the strengthening estimation by the Palestinians that it is not a fair and possible mediator for a serious political process.’ Majdalani emphasized that the PA will not submit to any demands to stop supporting the Martyrs’ (Shahids’) families and prisoners, because they are freedom fighters.
It should be noted that the American Senate committee on Thursday [Aug. 3, 2017] approved a bill, according to which financial aid of $300 million that the US provides to the PA each year will be stopped, unless it [the PA] stops paying sums of money ‘as a reward for crimes of violence,’ as the legislators described it. The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations voted by a majority of 17 in favor as opposed to four against on the bill that is known as the Taylor Force Act. This was after a Palestinian (i.e., terrorist Bashar Masalha) killed 29-year-old American [Taylor Force] by stabbing, when the latter visited Israel last year…
The occupation police killed the attacker who stabbed Force, but his family (i.e., the killer’s) receives a monthly sum.”
The Taylor Force Act - a bill named after US citizen Taylor Force who was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in Tel Aviv on March 8, 2016, which calls to cut almost all funding to the PA if it continues paying salaries to terrorists and allowances to families of "Martyrs." It was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Aug. 3, 2017, the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Nov. 15, 2017, and the House of Representatives on Dec. 5, 2017. The bill still needs to be approved by the Senate, and then the president.
The PA’s freezing of contacts with Israel came in response to Israeli security measures at the Temple Mount, including metal detectors at the entrances, following an attack there on July 14, 2017, in which 2 Israeli border police officers were murdered by 3 Israeli Arab terrorists. On July 24, 2017, Israel decided to remove the metal detectors and security cameras it had placed at the site. The PA continued to demand that all measures including inspections at the entrances be removed, and Palestinians continued to riot. On July 27, 2017, PA religious leaders declared that all Israeli measures had been removed.
Bashar Masalha – 22-year-old Palestinian terrorist who carried out a stabbing attack, murdering Taylor Force, an American tourist, and injuring 11, in Tel Aviv-Jaffa on March 8, 2016. Masalha was shot and killed by Israeli police.
“PLO Executive Committee member [and Secretary-General of the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF)] Ahmed Majdalani said that the American Senate Committee on Foreign Relations’ approval of the law to stop the American aid to the PA is a step that the [Palestinian] leadership expected. He noted that [the leadership] has recently received great threats of stopping the financial aid and extortion over its political positions.
Majdalani connected the aforementioned law to the [PA] leadership’s recent decision to freeze all contacts with Israel (the decision came in response to Israeli security steps; see note below –Ed.). He said that this constitutes ‘unacceptable political punishment,’ and added: ‘The US is once again proving that it is completely biased in favor of Israel and supports it. It also proves the correctness of the strengthening estimation by the Palestinians that it is not a fair and possible mediator for a serious political process.’ Majdalani emphasized that the PA will not submit to any demands to stop supporting the Martyrs’ (Shahids’) families and prisoners, because they are freedom fighters.
It should be noted that the American Senate committee on Thursday [Aug. 3, 2017] approved a bill, according to which financial aid of $300 million that the US provides to the PA each year will be stopped, unless it [the PA] stops paying sums of money ‘as a reward for crimes of violence,’ as the legislators described it. The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations voted by a majority of 17 in favor as opposed to four against on the bill that is known as the Taylor Force Act. This was after a Palestinian (i.e., terrorist Bashar Masalha) killed 29-year-old American [Taylor Force] by stabbing, when the latter visited Israel last year…
The occupation police killed the attacker who stabbed Force, but his family (i.e., the killer’s) receives a monthly sum.”
The Taylor Force Act - a bill named after US citizen Taylor Force who was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in Tel Aviv on March 8, 2016, which calls to cut almost all funding to the PA if it continues paying salaries to terrorists and allowances to families of "Martyrs." It was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Aug. 3, 2017, the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Nov. 15, 2017, and the House of Representatives on Dec. 5, 2017. The bill still needs to be approved by the Senate, and then the president.
The PA’s freezing of contacts with Israel came in response to Israeli security measures at the Temple Mount, including metal detectors at the entrances, following an attack there on July 14, 2017, in which 2 Israeli border police officers were murdered by 3 Israeli Arab terrorists. On July 24, 2017, Israel decided to remove the metal detectors and security cameras it had placed at the site. The PA continued to demand that all measures including inspections at the entrances be removed, and Palestinians continued to riot. On July 27, 2017, PA religious leaders declared that all Israeli measures had been removed.
Bashar Masalha – 22-year-old Palestinian terrorist who carried out a stabbing attack, murdering Taylor Force, an American tourist, and injuring 11, in Tel Aviv-Jaffa on March 8, 2016. Masalha was shot and killed by Israeli police.