Palestinian Leaders Agree to Continue Rewarding Acts of Terror

The Palestinian leadership’s continued support of terrorism leaves very little hope for peace in the future. 

By: United with Israel Staff

The Palestinian leadership continues to glorify terrorism and financially reward terrorist murderers, even after the US passed a law to combat this heinous practice.

Israel is preparing to follow the US’ lead, with the Knesset voting this week on a bill that would permit the annual deduction of hundreds of millions of dollars from Palestinian Authority (PA) tax revenues, funds which the PA earmarks to reward terrorist prisoners and their families.

In response, senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi condemned Israel for “defining the resistance as a crime.”

The word “resistance” is frequently a Palestinian euphemism for violence and terror, and PA leaders claim consistently that Palestinians have the right under international law to murder Israelis because it is legitimate “resistance.”

According to Ashrawi, Palestinian terrorist prisoners deserve their monthly financial rewards because murdering Israeli men, women and children is not a “crime.”

“The organized and deliberate theft of the Palestinian people’s money reflects the occupation state’s method, which is based on defining the resistance as a crime,” Ashrawi stated, reported the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida on Tuesday, according to a translation by  Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).

PA head Mahmoud Abbas’ deputy chairman of Fatah, Mahmoud Al-Aloul, the man who may replace Abbas, likewise glorified terrorist murderers as “heroes” and “freedom fighters.”

At an event honoring Palestinian terror leader Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison for planning terror attacks, Al-Aloul emphasized the PA’s commitment to continue to pay salaries to terrorists, at any cost.

“We will continue to support them and struggle for their freedom, and we will refuse to bargain over this. We oppose the American Congress‘ decisions [to stop funding the PA until it stops rewarding terror] on this matter,” he said on official PA TV in April. “Even if we are left with only a few pennies, we will allocate them only to the families of the Martyrs and to the prisoners.”

Abbas himself vowed earlier this year that the PA won’t stop the terror salaries, and this policy was reiterated by several PA leaders following the American enactment of the Taylor Force Act, which cuts almost all aid to the PA if it continues paying salaries to terrorists and allowances to families of dead terrorists.

“‘Even if I have to leave my position, I will not compromise on the salary of a Shahid (martyr) or a prisoner, as I am the president of the entire Palestinian people, including the prisoners, the Martyrs, the injured, the expelled, and the uprooted,” Abbas said last July.

Palestinian Consensus: Murdering Israelis is Justified

Also responding to this week’s Israeli parliamentary vote, the PA’s national unity government glorified the terrorists and justified their receiving financial rewards.

“The [PA] national unity government emphasized that there is no power in the world that is capable of obligating us to abandon our prisoners and our people’s heroic Martyrs,” Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reported. “Official [PA] Government Spokesman Yusuf Al-Mahmoud said: ‘Our Palestinian people and its leadership are loyal like no other to our prisoners and our people’s Martyrs, who have sacrificed the years of their lives and their souls so that the members of our people would live and for their homeland’s freedom and independence.”

PMW, a media watchdog that monitors Palestinian terror incitement, noted that “given the general consensus among Palestinian Authority leaders that murdering Israelis is justified and heroic, and that terrorist murderers should be presented as role models for Palestinian youth, the likelihood of a new truly moderate PA leader who would work for peace after Abbas leaves office is very slim.”

“Will a more moderate Palestinian lead the Palestinian Authority after 82-year-old Mahmoud Abbas leaves office? When observing the continued outspoken glorification of terrorists by other PA leaders, including their support for financially rewarding terrorist murderers, it is clear that the potential successors to Abbas likewise will support terror,” PMW added.