Fatah official: If we agree to deduction of terrorists' salaries, "this would mean a condemnation of their struggle”
Headline: "Al-Aloul to Wattan: We oppose any financial project that will come from the workshop in Bahrain"
"Fatah Movement Central Committee member Mahmoud Al-Aloul again emphasized his opposition to any financial project that will come from the workshop in Bahrain (refers to US-led conference to be held in Bahrain in late June 2019 focusing on economic aspects of US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan –Ed.). He added: 'Anyone who thinks that this will happen is completely delusional. We guarantee the prisoners that the heavy price that they have paid for freedom is what we base our opposition to these projects on, and we cannot agree to anything but their freedom.'
On everything connected to the attack against the prisoners and the Martyrs through the salaries (refers to Israel’s Anti “Pay-for-Slay” Law to deduct terror salaries; see note below –Ed.), he said: 'Maybe we could bear the deduction of the money from the prisoners' salaries (sic., deduction of the salaries from the tax money Israel collects for the PA) and make up for it, but the matter is not financial but rather in principle. If we were to agree to the principle of deduction from the tax money in everything regarding the money of the Martyrs and prisoners, this would mean a condemnation of their struggle and a condemnation of all their actions, and thus [recognizing] that they are a crime and not a struggle.’"
Israel's Anti "Pay-for-Slay" Law - Israeli law stating that the PA payments to terrorists and the families of dead terrorists is a financial incentive to terror. The law instructs the state to deduct and freeze the amount of money the PA pays in salaries to imprisoned terrorists and families of "Martyrs" from the tax money Israel collects for the PA. Should the PA stop these payments for a full year, the Israeli government would have the option of giving all or part of the frozen money to the PA. The law was enacted by the Israeli Parliament on July 2, 2018. During the parliamentary vote, the law's sponsor Avi Dichter said: “The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee received much help in its deliberations... from Palestinian Media Watch who provided us with authentic data that enabled productive and professional deliberations, nuances that are very difficult to achieve without precise data.” [Israeli Parliament website, July 2, 2018] In accordance with the law, as of September 2021 Israel’s Security Cabinet had ordered the freeze of 1.857 billion shekels ($580.15 million) - the sum equivalent to the PA payments to terrorists in 2018, 2019, and 2020.