Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs confirms the changes to Palestinian terrorist and prisoner’s salaries
Video posted on the website of the independent Palestinian news agency Wattan
Wattan host: “Are there really news items about transferring these allowances [for released prisoners] to the social development institution according to the prisoner’s living conditions, and not according to the number of years of his sentence?”
Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr: “This was perhaps heard more in the American media. At the beginning an American paper [The New York Times] published it, and [so did] the Israeli papers. Unfortunately we [Palestinians] have adjustedourselves to them and echoed the same things…
Many of the Europeans have said: ‘We are not against you paying salaries. How much are you paying one [prisoner], 3,000 [Israeli shekels]? Give him 6,000, but through the [PA Ministry of] Social Affairs. The Europeans have been proposing these things for eight years already.”
Host: “Not according to the number of years of his sentence?”
Qadri Abu Bakr: “They [the prisoners] have no problem [with that].”
Host: “This is how they want it.”
Qadri Abu Bakr: “That it [will] not be a political matter. We are paying salaries and they (I.e., the prisoners) are considering this a policy and a prize, but we have explained to them that everyone who spends longer terms in the prisons of course deserves [more money]. In other words, someone who enters prison married and with children who have grown up and the like, and they go to schools and universities – of course their expenses will be higher.”
…
Host: “Let us move to the point about the solution that you have spoken about, which is the banks. [You have said] that there is going to be a [new] bank.”
Qadri Abu Bakr: “The national bank. Its name is Independence Bank.”
Host: “when will it start to be active?”
Qadri Abu Bakr: “It will start to be active at the beginning of next year [2021]. I sat with clerks and they said that on Jan. 1 [2021] the work will begin,.”
Host: “It will be designated only for the prisoners?”
Qadri Abu Bakr: “It is for everyone.”
But especially for the prisoners, because this bank is not subject to blackmail like the other banks (refers to the application of much of Israel's Anti-Terror Law to the West Bank, including rendering banks liable to punishment for facilitating PA terror salaries -Ed.). All the other banks’ money is within the Green Line (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel; the Green Line is the ceasefire line between Israel and the neighboring Arab countries, 1949-1967) and in the Bank of Israel.”
Host: “And the deducted money and the like? (refers to Israel’s Anti “Pay-for-Slay” Law to deduct PA terror salaries; see note below –Ed.).”
Qadri Abu Bakr: “The daily [matters] and the deducted money and the like. This bank has no connection with Israel and has no connections abroad.”
“If there are proceedings against it, the PA is the one that will bear [responsibility] for this. Because it is only [run] through the PA.”
Host: “And the prisoners’ money will be transferred through this bank?”
Qadri Abu Bakr: “They will receive it through this bank and not through [the Ministry of] Social Affairs.”
Host: “I asked you about the tax return money, in other words, there is talk about accepting them, accepting them again once more after [the PA] stopped accepting them for a while. Regarding this tax return money, the occupation (I.e., Israel) created a condition that it would not transfer it without deduction, and that it would deduct from it the prisoners’ salaries. Those that the PA is paying the released prisoners or those who are in prison. Okay, currently on what basis will the tax return money be accepted? Will these allowances be deducted from it? Do you know if the prisoners’ salaries will be deducted from it or not? Because that was the condition that the occupation set, and accordingly the PA refused to accept it.”
Qadri Abu Bakr: “The [Israeli] Hebrewpress that mentioned the issue also said that the tax return money will be transferred to the PA – with European intervention of course – without deducting a single shekel. They themselves have said-”
Host: “On what basis? Because that was their condition that-”
Qadri Abu Bakr: “As a result of European pressure. First they informed us after a year of deducting the prisoners’ [money] from the tax returns: ‘We have stopped.’ A year, the decision was for a year, but we also did not accept the amount. Here, for 4-5 months already they are deducting- they are not deducting, they are stopping the transfer or the PA stopped accepting it, because there is talk that maybe they want [security] coordination and the like.”
…
Host: “ we hope that the prisoners’ issue will remain fundamental and a non-negotiable national issue. This is what you said, and that is of course a promise and commitment to our prisoners.”
Qadri Abu Bakr: “Indeed, that is of course my promise, and that has also been emphasized by our brother [PA President] Mahmoud Abbas... he said that the prisoners’ issue is a political issue of the highest order. It is national, it is [an issue] of struggle, and we won’t renounce it.”
Israeli army legislation which applies parts of Israel's 2016 Anti-Terror Law to the West Bank (taking effect on May 9, 2020). The law prohibits numerous terror related offenses, including terror funding/rewarding and holds heads of terror organizations responsible for murder committed by members of the organization. The law criminalizes the provision of funds for or the payment of rewards for the commission of terrorist offenses, such as the salaries the PA pays to terrorist prisoners and released prisoners. The provision also applies to any person or body - such as a bank - that facilitates such funding or rewarding of terror offenses. Based on this last provision, PMW sent letters in April 2020 to the heads of banks in the PA areas warning them that they must freeze the accounts of terrorists and their proxies and transfer them to the Israeli army or face legal consequences.
Green Line - 1949-1967 ceasefire line between Israel and the neighboring Arab countries (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) following Israel's War of Independence (1948-1949). Land within the Green Line is all part of the State of Israel since 1949. Land outside the Green Line includes East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights.
aIsrael'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.