PA PM welcomes PA general elections, reiterates refusal to accept cuts to terror salaries, rejects US economic workshop
Headline: "[Abbas] reiterated his rejection of the Manama workshop and called on everyone to boycott it – the [PA] government welcomed the president's call to hold elections and confirms the government's willingness to bring about their success"
"During the weekly [PA] government meeting in Ramallah yesterday [June 17, 2019], [PA] Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh welcomed [PA President] Mahmoud Abbas' call to hold general elections, while confirming the government's willingness to do everything necessary to bring about the success of these elections and their fullest execution.
The prime minister repeated the Palestinian leadership's refusal to accept the reduced tax money from the Israeli side and rejection of our sons in the occupation’s prison being described as terrorists (referring to Israel's Anti "Pay-for-Slay" Law to deduct terror salaries; see note below –Ed.), and emphasized the complete rejection of the Manama workshop (i.e., refers to US-led conference in Bahrain in June 2019 focusing on economic aspects of US President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan)… while calling on everyone not to participate in it."
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.