Israeli court upholds block on Palestinian Authority payments to terrorists

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The Tel-Aviv District Court ruled in favor of an Israeli government crack-down on Palestinian Authority (PA) payments to convicted terrorists in prison, Israel Hayom reported.

Jailed for a 2005 attack that killed six people in the Israeli city of Hadera, Palestinian prisoner Mansour Omar filed a lawsuit after Israel announced it was ordering the seizure of monies sent to terrorists through banks. On July 26 the district court ruled that Israel is entitled to seize such funds.

Although Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz has suspended the general order of seizure, he welcomed the ruling and said he intends to “move forward with a variety of moves through the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing [within the Defense Ministry] to block the transfer of funds to terrorists and terrorist organizations,” Israel Hayom said.

Among those who have fought at an international level for an end to PA payments for terrorism is the Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) organization. In a statement about the payments, PMW said: “the terrorists continued to receive the salaries even when the PA paid them through an organization that was declared by the Israeli Minister of Defense as a terror organization, without the appropriate actions being taken to prevent the salary payments and/or any other action in response to money being received from a terror organization.”

Commenting on Israel’s decision to take action, PMW said it “expects that this policy of seizing the bank accounts in which terrorists receive their terror salaries will soon be expanded to the banks in the PA areas,” WND said.
According to PMW, the PA paid $143.7 million to imprisoned terrorists and released terrorists in 2018, WND reported.

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