Holland became the first European country to cut funding to the Palestinian Authority because it funds terrorists.
By: United with Israel Staff
The Dutch Parliament, in a vote of 94-56, decided on Monday to cut seven percent of its funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA).
The Dutch motion is binding unless the PA stops these payments.
The vote took place just three weeks after Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) director Itamar Marcus discussed the issue with Dutch lawmakers. PMW, which documents Palestinian incitement to terrorism, showed that the PA spends seven percent of its budget on payments to terrorists in jail and to families of dead terrorists, considered “martyrs” by Palestinian society.
In its 2018 budget, the PA increased the funding and allocated $360 million for the Prisoners and Martyrs Fund, which disperses payment to imprisoned terrorists, released terrorists and the families of dead terrorists.
“The need for such steps by foreign donors is as relevant as ever,” PMW stated.
Most recently, the PA added four new families of terrorists to its growing terror rewards payroll.
One terrorist shot a pregnant woman, forcing an emergency delivery, but the newborn son died a few days later. Another murdered two Israeli co-workers at the Barkan Industrial Park in Samaria. The other two were killed while attempting to kill Israelis. The families of the four terrorists will now receive monthly allowances for life.
In July 2014, the Dutch parliament voted 148-2 to cut funding to the PA if it continued paying salaries to terrorists. However, the cut never happened because the PA deceived Western donors by closing the Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs and claiming the payments were made by the PLO from non-donor money.
When PMW exposed the PA fraud in 2016, the international community was outraged.
The PA’s continued payments led to the US Taylor Force Act, passed in March 2018, which freezes aid to the PA as long as it continues to incite and fund terror, and to the Australian government’s decision in July 2018 to cut direct aid to the PA.
This is the first time that a European country has legislated a cut in PA funding. “Hopefully, the Dutch decision will serve as a precedent for other European parliaments,” said PMW senior analyst Nan Zilberdik.