PA Denies Sick Palestinians Treatment to Pay Benefits to
Terrorists
The Palestinian Authority has decided to
penalize Palestinian civilians in need of medical assistance to avoid cutting
salaries of Palestinian terrorists and their families under the so-called
“pay-to-slay” scheme, which led the United States and Israel to cut aid until
the PA stops inciting terror.
Explaining the decision,
PA Ministry of Health Spokesman Osama Al-Najjar said: “The decision is
political par excellence and comes in response to Israel deducting sums from
the money that it collects for us.”
Israel’s Diplomatic-Security Cabinet decided in
February to implement a major slash in the tax revenues that Israel collects on
behalf of the PA, with the amount the PA pays to terrorists and their families
to be deducted from the aid Israel hands over to the Palestinian leadership.
The PA paid out some 502 million shekels ($138 million) to living terrorists in
2018, according to recent Israeli media reports.
The PA is using those
cuts as an excuse to no longer permit Palestinians to travel for medical
treatment in Israel — which costs the PA $100 million a year — while still
paying in full the salaries to both imprisoned and released terrorists, as well
as the allowances to wounded terrorists and the families of dead terrorists.
The decision comes on the heels of the PA’s decision to cut
the salaries of civil servants, 40 percent of which earn less than 2,000
shekels per month (about $535). It demonstrates the reality that under the
so-called “pay-to-slay” scheme, Palestinians terrorists who have been in prison
for a cumulative period of three years earn higher salaries than 40 percent of
the PA’s law-abiding public employees.
Additionally, in February, in response to the Israeli law,
the PA said that it
would not accept tax payments from Israel. PA President Mahmoud Abbas said at
the time, “I tell you honestly that if we only had 20 or 30 million shekels,
which is what is paid [monthly] to families of martyrs, we will give them to
the families of martyrs. I mean if the [Palestinian] Authority doesn’t have
anything other than that [amount], I will pay it to the families of martyrs and
prisoners and wounded persons. This needs to be understood.”
Last year, PA President Mahmoud Abbas swore he would
make paying terrorists a top priority. “By Allah, even if we have only a penny
left it will only be spent on the families of the martyrs and prisoners and
only afterward will it be spent on the rest of the people,” Abbas vowed.
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