PLO senior official: Israel is "drectly killing" and carrying out "medical neglect" of prisoners, stealing their money
Headline: “On their [national] day, the prisoners are the beacon of the national struggle and their freedom is a central goal”
“In a statement issued by [PLO] Executive [Committee] member Hanan Ashrawi, the [PLO] Executive Committee called to immediately intervene to pressure Israel and force it to unquestioningly and unconditionally release all of the Palestinian prisoners, particularly in these difficult conditions in which they are facing the danger of the spread of the COVID-19 virus within its prisons.
Ashrawi emphasized that the occupation state’s criminal acts against our prisoners and its ongoing violations of their rights that are anchored in the international laws – which have reached the point ofdirect killing of prisoners and their medical neglect, deducting their salary allowances from the tax money, and exploiting their suffering and turning it into a source for obtaining money (refers to Israel’s Anti “Pay-for-Slay” Law to deduct PA terror salaries; see note below –Ed.) – will not pass without a legal and political accounting in the international courts and circles.”
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.