Only Arab MKs and Meretz faction object to bill approved by large majority on first reading.

The Knesset today approved a bill to withhold salaries the Palestinian Authority transfers to terrorists.

55 Knesset members supported the bill and 14 opposed. Meretz was the only Jewish faction to vote against the law and they were joined by Joint Arab List MKs.

The bill calls for the Defense Minister to submit a yearly report for Security Cabinet Committee approval summarizing the total funds paid by the Palestinian Authority intended for terror.

According to the proposed law, the amount determined in the Defense Minister's report and certified by the ministerial committee will be permanently withheld from total funds transferred to the PA in accordance with implementation provisions of the interim agreements with the Palestinian Authority. Every month an amount equal to one-twelfth of the total payment will be deducted from the payments to terrorist operatives made in the previous year.

With regard to monies that have been permanently and completely deducted, the bill states that a designated fund will be established, to be managed by the Administrator-General, to which these funds will be transferred.

The monies to be withheld and transferred to the fund will be used to execute judgments handed down in Israeli courts against the PA or terrorist operatives, for paying compensation to victims of offenses that were heard in courts in Israel or in the Judea and Samaria region, in rulings against terrorist operatives, and for carrying out projects and missions to strengthen the fight against terror and terror financing, to be approved by the Minister.

Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben Dahan (Jewish Home) presented the bill to the Knesset on behalf of the Government of Israel.

"The State of Israel says, 'No more,'" said Ben Dahan, "We'll fight terrorists not only by capturing and bringing them to justice, but also after they've been imprisoned. We'll continue to fight terrorists, their families, and those who finance them. We will demonstrate zero tolerance for terrorism.

"According to defense establishment data, the Palestinian Authority pays more than NIS 1 billion a year to terrorists and their families. Imagine how many kindergartens and schools could have built with this amount. Instead of investing in education and health, instead of caring for the residents of Gaza, the PA is concerned about encouraging terror."</s>According to calculations presented by Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the Palestinian Authority is scheduled to payout NIS 12,604,000 ($3,478,015) to the terrorist over his lifetime, who broke into a private home in the Jewish community of Halamish and slaughtered three members of the Solomon family who were celebrating the birth of a child.

The payments are part of a sophisticated payment scheme by the Palestinian Authority to jailed terrorists or the families of terrorists killed in the act of attempted murder. The Palestinian budget for “pay-to-slay” payments—as they are now being called in Israel and the United States—was $347 million in 2017, and was increased to $403 million in the 2018 budget.

The Solomon family was sitting in the Halamish home of parents Yosef and Tova after a Shabbat meal on Friday night, preparing to receive guests in honor of the birth of a grandchild that morning when Omar al-Abed entered, murdering grandfather Yosef and two of his children, Elad and Chaya. Yosef’s wife Tova was injured, but Elad’s wife managed to flee with the children to a different part of the house.

Abed received the punishment of four life sentences for the murders.

Lieberman’s calculations were released ahead of a first vote on a bill that would offset taxes and tariffs that Israel collects on behalf of the P.A. and transfers to Ramallah. Israel transfers more than $120 million each month.

There is pending legislation in Israel to attempt to stop this process.

“I call on all MKs to join us and vote in favor of the law and put an end to this theater of the absurd,” said Lieberman. “Every shekel sent to the murderers will be deducted from the P.A. tax money. We will stop funding terrorism.”

Under the current “pay-to-slay” scheme, Abed al-Karim Adel Asi is anticipated to receive $3,478,236 during his lifetime for the murder of Rabbi Itamar Ben-Gal earlier this year. The three terrorists who murdered Naama and Eitam Henkin while they were driving home with their four children in 2015 are expected to receive between $2,776,044 and $3,100,689 during their lifetimes.

The average monthly income of a working Palestinian in the West Bank is $580, according to Israeli officials, the same amount paid out to terrorists who receive three- to five-year sentences for terrorist acts.

Terrorists found guilty of committing serious crimes that receive 20-year or longer jail sentences receive five times that per month for life. Terrorists who are also Israeli citizens receive an additional monthly bonus of $145 on top of the “pay-to-slay” payment scheme, bumping their reward payments to $2,900—higher than the average Israeli monthly income.

The Israeli NGO Palestinian Media Watch was responsible for researching the figures paid as part of the Palestinian budget and identified the terrorists receiving those payments.

Recently, a mass media campaign was launched to educate Israelis about the sophisticated nature of the pay-to-slay scheme, which is being funded in part by monthly Israeli tax and tariff transfers.</s>The Palestinian Authority is expected to pay the terrorist who slaughtered three members of the Salomon family NIS 12,604,000 ($3,478,015) over the course of his lifetime.



 Omar al-Abed murdered Yosef Salomon and two of his children, Elad and Chaya, and wounded Yosef’s wife, Tovah, when they were celebrating the birth of a grandson in their home. Elad’s wife hid their children in a nearby room in the house, where they heard the massacre take place. Abed was given four life sentences.





Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman released the calculations of how much the terrorists in several recent attacks are expected to be paid by the Palestinian Authority ahead of Monday’s scheduled first vote on a bill that would deduct the amount of funding for terrorists from the taxes and tariffs Israel collects for the PA.The PA paid terrorists over a billion shekels ($347 million) in 2017, and upped the amount to over NIS 1.4 billion ($403 million) in its 2018 budget.“I call on all MKs to join us and vote in favor of the law and put an end to this theater of the absurd,” Liberman said. “Every shekel sent to the murderers will be deducted from the PA tax money. We will stop funding terrorism.”The three terrorists who shot and killed Naama and Eitam Henkin in 2015 while they were driving home with their four children in the car, will receive a range of NIS 10,056,000-11,232,000 ($2,774,906-$3,099,418) over the course of their lifetimes.The lifetime estimate for terrorist payments is calculated based on if they live to age 80.Security forces arrested Abed al-Karim Adel Asi, the Israeli Arab terrorist who murdered Rabbi Itamar Ben-Gal outside the settlement of Ariel, on March 18, and he has already received his first NIS 1,400 monthly payment. He is expected to receive NIS 12,604,800 ($3,478,236) during his lifetime.Three Israelis were killed in a stabbing attack in Halamish, July 21, 2017 (Reuters)The average income of a working Palestinian in the West Bank is $580 per month, according to the Israeli Defense Ministry, which is what the PA pays terrorists who are sentenced to three to five years in prison.The PA pays terrorists who are sentenced to 20 years or more in prison – in other words, those who committed more severe crimes, and likely were involved in killing Israelis – five times that each month for the rest of their lives.Terrorists who are Israeli citizens receive a $145 bonus, which, when added to the amount the PA pays for the most severe crimes, comes to over $2,900 a month, more than the average Israeli income of around $2,700. There are also increases in pay for being married and for each child a terrorist has.If a terrorist is released from prison early or dies in prison, he or his family can continue to receive a monthly salary without a time limit on how long the payments are made.The Defense Ministry bill states that the amount the PA pays terrorists each month will be deducted from the tax and tariffs Israel collects for the PA.At the end of each year, the defense minister will present a report to the Security Cabinet on how much the PA paid terrorists that year. The report will be classified, unless the minister decides to release it or parts of it.The Security Cabinet can vote not to deduct the funds or to only withhold part of the amount, "for special reasons of national security and foreign relations of the state," the bill states. This is a controversial clause, which several MKs in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee opposed.The funds that are deducted will be invested in a fund to pay damages to victims of terror, among other areas.</s>A paralysed and indecisive Palestinian leadership, faced with mounting pressure from the Americans and Israelis, is undermining key national goals, analysts say.

They say the decisions taken by the Palestinian National Council (PNC) during its meeting in Ramallah last week show that Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, lacks the will to respond to American and Israeli efforts to thwart Palestinian statehood.

While in session, the PNC took several decisions including the redefinition of relations with Israel as one of "conflict".

It dismissed the PLO-Israel interim agreements signed in Washington and Cairo in the 1990s as "expired", and rejected the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

In the past, Abbas, 82, has repeatedly insisted that the path to achieving statehood for the Palestinians lies only through peace negotiations with Israel, not armed struggle.

On the face of it, the PNC decisions indicate a departure from the negotiations path, the analysts say.

However, in reality, the Palestinian leadership is too weak and fragmented to either withdraw from existing agreements with Israel or end the policy of treating peace negotiations as a strategic choice.

Mohamad Dalbah, a Washington-based Palestinian analyst, says the crisis confronting Palestinians today is rooted in the "catastrophic" Oslo agreement that Abbas and the late Yasser Arafat signed with Israel.

Oslo was a "strategic mistake" for the Palestinians, he told Al Jazeera, because it never stipulated the establishment of a Palestinian state and left open-ended the core issues of the status of Jerusalem and the right Palestinian refugees displaced by Israel in 1948.

In 1993 the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) signed the Oslo agreement with Israel and established an interim Palestinian Authority.

The Oslo Accords stipulated that within five years of the signing of the agreement - that is, in 1999 - both parties should enter into negotiations for the final-settlement status, including the issues of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.

Twenty-five years later, Palestinians and Israelis have yet to start any final settlement negotiations.

Jamal Zahalka, a Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset, told Al Jazeera the decisions of the PNC are "meaningless" as long as the PA continues security coordination with Israel, which is the most important objective for Israel.

Zahalka said the current Palestinian condition, defined by a weak local government, is in the best interest of Israel but not the Palestinians because it is conducive to neither peace nor resistance.

By maintaining internal security in Palestinian areas on behalf of Israel, the PA reduces Israel's military burden of maintaining its military occupation.

However, Abdallah Abueid, a Palestinian legal expert, says the international position of the Palestinians in light of the PNC decisions is "legally solid".

This is because Israel has repeatedly violated the agreements, refuses to withdraw from the occupied territories and is unwilling to conclude final-status negotiations with the Palestinians, says Abueid, who teaches International law at Bethlehem University.

That being said, "Palestinians are in a very precarious position today and are unable to move forward or even go backward if they wanted to".

Zahalka, the Knesset member, says Palestinian leaders should now take a strategic decision to reinvigorate popular and peaceful resistance to the Israeli occupation.

"Only then would Israel find itself compelled to end its illegal occupation," he told Al Jazeera.

During its session in Ramallah, the PNC also re-elected Abbas president of the State of Palestine and chairman of the PLO.

It further elected 15 members of the executive committee out of 18 representing different Palestinian factions most of whom are Abbas loyalists.

Neither the PNC nor any governing body formally discussed the issue of a successor for the octogenarian Abbas, who is reportedly suffering from multiple ailments.

According to sources familiar with internal deliberations on the succession issue, Abbas supports the separation of the powers of the PLO, the chairman of the Palestinian Authority, and the chairman of Fatah.

Abbas is in favour of having a different person to lead each body, the sources told Al Jazeera.</s>New York Republican senatorial candidate Chele Farley told The Jerusalem Post on a visit to Jerusalem that her opponent, Democratic incumbent Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, cannot be counted on by New Yorkers who want their senator to back Israel.



Farley cited Gillibrand’s vote for the nuclear deal with Iran in July 2015 and, recently, against the Taylor Force Act that takes away American funding from the Palestinian Authority until the PA stops paying stipends to terrorists and to the families of deceased terrorists.





“I don’t think she’s pro-Israel,” Farley said on Monday. “As the state with the largest Jewish population, New York deserves a pro-Israel senator.”Farley said Gillibrand also sponsored, put her name on, and took her name off legislation against boycotting, divesting from and sanctioning Israel, which “proves she is focusing her attention on the liberal activists in her party who she thinks she needs to run for president, and not on the people of New York.”New York has not elected a Republican to a major statewide office since governor George Pataki was reelected in 2002. But Farley said she could win in November.“Gillibrand can be defeated because she is not working for the people of New York,” Farley said. “She is running for president. I am running for senator.”Farley has a degree from Stanford University and worked in the financial services industry in New York for 25 years. She served as the New York State Republican Party’s New York City finance chairwoman.She came to Israel along with prominent Republican Dr. Joseph Frager. Together they toured the country, including visits to the Western Wall, Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Hebron. She met with US Ambassador David Friedman, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, Science and Technology Minister Ophir Akunis and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Avi Dichter.Farley also met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son Yair, a meeting which was arranged by international public relations consultant Avi Hyman, who served with the younger Netanyahu in the IDF.The trip, Farley’s first to Israel, was planned before the US Embassy move date was announced, so she will be leaving before the ceremony. She praised President Donald Trump for deciding to move the embassy, but expressed reservations about Trump on other issues.“When his policies are good for New York, and many of them are, I will support him, and when his policies are not good for New York like his recent tax bill, I would negotiate and make them better,” she said. “My husband is a Democrat. I am used to working across the aisle. As a senator, you have to work with whoever is in the White House to get things done.”Farley was glad to be in Israel for Trump’s decision on the fate of the Iran deal.“It was important for me to see for myself the dangers that Iran poses to Israel,” she said. “The deal effectively gives Iran nuclear weapons in eight years, which will threaten Israel as well as New York. I believed before that voting for the deal was a mistake, and now after coming to Israel, I am convinced that it’s true.”
The Knesset approves by 55 votes to 14 a bill designed to confiscate payments made by the Palestinian Authority to terrorists in Israel.