PMW releases special report to European MPs
Dutch, British and German MPs
condemn PA deception, Antisemitism,
and terror glorification
Dutch, British and German MPs
condemn PA deception, Antisemitism,
and terror glorification
The following is the introduction and executive summary of the report:
2011
PMW exposes that the PA pays high salaries to terrorists in prison
2012 -2014
Western donors threaten to stop funding the PA because of this policy of rewarding murderers
August 2014
PA issues "presidential decree" that salaries to terrorist prisoners would no longer be paid by PA but by PLO
2015
Western
donors are giving the PA more than a billion dollars, with the
understanding that the PA has stopped paying salaries to terrorists
May 2015
PMW documentation challenges PA claim:
- The PA Ministry of Finance continues to pay salaries to terrorist prisoners
- PA continues to set conditions for the salaries to terrorist prisoners
Conclusion
Western donors may have been intentionally misled by the PA, which continues to pay salaries to imprisoned terrorists
Executive Summary
The
Palestinian Authority receives over a billion dollars in international
aid yearly. Several EU countries and the US have been threatening to
stop this funding ever since Palestinian Media Watch exposed in 2011
that the PA pays high salaries to terrorist prisoners and released
terrorists, amounting to over $150 million dollars in 2015 alone. For
example, in June 2014, Dutch Parliament voted overwhelmingly, 148 - 2,
in favor of demanding the cessation of PA salaries to terrorists.
In
order to continue receiving donor funding, in August 2014, the PA
closed the PA Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs and announced the
establishment of a new PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs, which they
claimed would pay the salaries.
However,
the PLO Commission was new only in name. The PLO body would have the
same responsibilities and pay the exact same amounts of salaries to
prisoners; the former PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs, Issa Karake,
became the Director of the new PLO Commission and PA Chairman Mahmoud
Abbas retained overall supervision of the PLO Commission. (All sources
in report)
In
spite of these mere cosmetic changes, the international community
accepted PA assurances that it was no longer paying the salaries to
terrorist prisoners. For instance, see this statement issued by the
Dutch government:
"The
responsibility for payments to prisoners was transferred to the PLO and
will no longer be charged to the budget of the PA, and these [payments
to prisoners] are not funded by PA tax revenues or donor funds. The PLO pays such costs from their own income, where the Cabinet has no access."
[Question and Answer session, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, April 22, 2015]
Palestinian
Media Watch has now uncovered ample evidence that contradicts the PA
assurances to the Dutch and other donors. PMW's findings are based
entirely on information supplied by the PA:
-
In October 2014, the PA announced that there were more than 200,000
recipients of PA salaries. This figure "includes the families of the
Martyrs (Shahids) and wounded, as well as the prisoners' and released [prisoners]." (All sources below in full report)
-
In January 2015, the PA Ministry of Finance announced that the PA
budget includes transfer of salaries to prisoners in Israeli jails, who
were from Gaza.
-
When Israel withheld PA tax income in the first months of 2015, the PA
announced that prisoners receiving more than 2,000 shekels would only
receive 60% of their salary -- the same reduction that was imposed on
civil servants. Were the PLO paying salaries from Arab donor money and
not the PA, Israel's holding up PA money would have no impact on
terrorist prisoners' salaries. Clearly, it is still PA money paying
terrorist prisoners' salaries.
Western
donors should ask the following question: Was the new PLO Commission of
Prisoners' Affairs created for the sole purpose of deceiving Western
donors regarding the payment of salaries to terrorists?
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