Bipartisan Support Passes Bill to Cut Funds for PA Terrorists

The House passed the Taylor Force Act, which cuts all funding to the Palestinian Authority until it stops financially rewarding terrorists. 

The Taylor Force Act, which will cut American aid to the Palestinian Authority as long as it pays stipends to terrorists and their families, a scheme sometimes referred to as “pay to slay,” easily passed the United States House of Representatives on Tuesday, with strong bipartisan support.

It will now move to the full Senate, where it will be voted on as part of the foreign operations bill.

The bill passed “easily” in a voice vote, which was “a sign of how united Republicans and Democrats are on the bill,” the Washington Examiner reported.

The Taylor Force Act is named for the US army veteran who was stabbed to death in March 2016 by a Palestinian terrorist while visiting Israel.

The terrorist who killed Force was later killed, but he was described as “heroic” by Fatah, the main Palestinian political faction, and his family receives a stipend from the Palestinian Authority (PA).

The Taylor Force Act would condition US aid to the Palestinians on the PA’s ending the practice of paying rewards to terrorists and their families. The legislation has already been approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with bipartisan support in August of this year and passed unanimously by the House Foreign Affairs Committee in November.

The Examiner reported that Force’s parents are working with lawmakers on the Senate version of the bill after they learned that the PA’s payments are based on the severity of the crime and the amount of time the terrorist serves in prison.

A study published in July showed that PA payments to families of those jailed by Israel, including many terrorists, equals half of what the PA receives in budgetary aid from foreign donors.

Although President Donald Trump told PA President Mahmoud Abbas in May that “peace can never take root in an environment where violence is tolerated, funded and even rewarded,” the PA has insisted that it will not stop the payments to families of terrorists and has criticized the legislation.

In August, after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the legislation by a vote of 17-4, a branch of Fatah, the party led by Abbas, called the legislation an “unacceptable act” that will “negatively affect everything that is connected to the Palestinians’ rights.”

By: The Tower