This was released today by the Prime Minister's Office.
You should share it as much as possible on social media.
Let's go to the videotape.
RETWEET THIS: The Palestinian Authority pays convicted terrorists hundreds of millions of dollars. The more they kill, the more they get. pic.twitter.com/onrhdNDvl6
It goes to the core of the question of whether there CAN be a 'peace process.' Right now, the answer is clearly 'no.'
And the Trump administration - unlike its predecessor - seems to get it:
If you want to stop terrorists, you shouldn’t be rewarding them or their families for their heinous acts.
The White House seems to get that: On Wednesday, Al-Quds
reported that Team Trump will demand the Palestinian Authority end its
practice of paying terrorists and their families and stop funding Hamas.
The demand is part of a White House plan to restart
Israel-PA peace talks — the subject of a May 3 meeting between Trump and
PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
Peace talks or not, Trump is right to demand an end to
rewards for those who slaughter innocents. However fair Palestinians’
political gripes might be, it doesn’t justify terror.
Plus, as we’ve noted before, US taxpayers fund the PA — and they surely don’t want their cash rewarding terrorists.
Stopping those payments won’t be easy. The PA has dodged
past efforts to halt them, and Abbas himself regularly encourages terror
attacks.
If only American Jews got it half as much as the White House does.
Bibi Baby what took you so long? Netanyahu to finally cut off terrorist 'salaries'
If you find it incredible that the United States and the European Union have long been supporting a 'Palestinian Authority' budget that includes 'salaries' to imprisoned and 'martyred' terrorists, please consider this: Money is fungible. Israel also gives money to the 'Palestinian Authority' and is therefore also supporting 'Palestinian' terrorism. Today - finally - after yet another terror attack, Prime Minister Netanyahu has taken the first tentative steps in changing that equation.
The deceased man was named as named as Miki Mark, director of a nearby yeshiva, and the Ynet news site reported that he was a cousin of Mossad chief Yossi Cohen.
Hospital staff said a 40-year-old woman was seriously wounded, a
14-year-old girl suffered moderate-to-severe wounds, and a 15-year-old
boy was lightly wounded. The wounded are believed to be his wife and
children.
...
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered after the attack that "the
entire amount of support for terrorists and their families be deducted
from the tax revenues that Israel transfers monthly to the Palestinian
Authority" to counteract money transfers from the Palestinian Authority
commonly given to attackers' families.
Yes, but money is fungible, and clearly paying terrorist salaries is a priority for the 'Palestinians.' The only way to stop it is for all governments everywhere to cut off all aid to the 'Palestinian Authority' until the terrorist salaries stop. That won't happen. But this is at least a first step.
Sunday Mail discovers how British tax money is funding 'Palestinian' terrorism
The 'Palestinians' are building the palace above for 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen using £8,000,000 (about $11,310,000) of British aid money, and after visiting the site, London's Sunday Mail Online has finally exposed it.
The shocking revelation that thousands of Palestinian terrorists, including men who have masterminded suicide bombings and murdered children, are given cash handouts from aid money will cause anger and disbelief, particularly in the wake of the Brussels massacres.
In the West Bank and Gaza, despite promises by the ruling Palestinian Authority (PA) to end the practice of paying aid money to convicted terrorists, our investigation revealed that they had simply duped the West by allowing the Palestine Liberation Organisation to hand out the cash instead.
Britain gives £72 million a year to Palestine, more than one-third of which goes straight to the PA. It openly admits supporting terrorists whom it hails as heroes for fighting illegal occupation, awarding lifetime payments that rise depending on time spent in jail and the seriousness of crimes.
One Hamas master bomber has reportedly been given more than £100,000. Other ‘salaries’ go to the families of suicide bombers and even teenagers involved in the latest upsurge of deadly attacks on Israel.
DFID and the European Union are still effectively supporting these payments to thousands of terrorists – despite claims to have ended such links two years ago. This was confirmed to the MoS by former prisoners and families receiving the cash, and in official statements by the PA.
In fact, the 'Palestinians' are the main subject of the Mail's 'expose,' most of which could have been written by combing the archive of this blog and several others.
Ahmad Musa sits beside me, a convicted double murderer sentenced to life in prison. As we talk, I ask him if he did indeed kill the two men. ‘Yes, I shot them dead,’ he replies.
Yet we do not meet in a jail cell. Musa is free, released after just five years. For he is a Palestinian terrorist and he was liberated under a peace deal.
Like thousands more Palestinian prisoners, including jihadi bombers and killers of children, Musa enjoys his freedom after being awarded a ‘salary’ for life.
He gets £605 every month, others get far more. If they die, the cash goes to their family. These men are seen as terrorists, certainly by Israel, and many in the West.
But, astonishingly, the money behind these payments – described by some as ‘rewards for murder’ – flows from British and European taxpayers.
For the record, that 'salary' is about 150% of the average teacher's salary in the 'Palestinian Authority.'
The UK cash comes from the Department for International Development, which will give up to £25.5million this year to the ruling Palestinian Authority (PA) as part of a £72million aid package. Our investigation discovered that the PA passes millions on to the infamous Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) – which in turn gives it to convicted terrorists locked up in Israeli prisons and their families.
Among them are Amjad and Hakim Awad, cousins who killed Ehud and Ruth Fogel and their three children in their West Bank home in 2011. It is estimated that Amjad alone may have been paid up to £16,000 from the fund so far.
Yes, those are the Fogels HY"D (May God Avenge their blood) in the pictures above. Hakim was 18 and Amjad was 19 when they murdered the Fogels. Unfortunately, they're unlikely to die the slow and painful deaths they so richly deserve. Instead, they are being supported by British and European taxpayers.
Also on the payroll is Abdallah Barghouti, the Hamas bomb-maker who was sentenced to life after attacks in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It is thought he has received payments totaling £106,000.
Barghouti prepared the Sbarro suicide bombing (pictured above).
Dfid confirms that the PLO makes such payments, calling them ‘social welfare’ provisions for prisoners’ families.
It denies, however, that any British cash reaches terrorists, with the PLO taking over such payments two years ago from the PA after an international outcry.
But a Mail on Sunday investigation has found that Britain funded the PLO until last year and that the PA openly boasts of still funding salaries of convicted terrorists, even in its own official statements.
Former prisoners and the families of terrorists we have spoken to also confirmed receiving cash from both the PA and the PLO.
British aid money is supposed to be rebuilding and developing the Palestinian territories. However a devastating new report to be released this week by Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli NGO, suggests that Western donors have been duped by assertions that the Authority no longer funds terrorists.
Some Hamas terrorist masterminds have reportedly been given more than £100,000.
Other ‘salaries’ go to relatives of suicide bombers and even teenagers involved in the latest upsurge of deadly attacks on Israel. Several ex-prisoners confirmed to me that they were paid monthly stipends that started in jail.
One said they also received a ‘bonus’ on leaving prison and lucrative civil service job offers, the most senior posts going to those serving more than 15 years behind bars, even though they are not qualified.
PA officials openly defend such stipends. Amr Nasser, adviser to the minister of social affairs, said: ‘It is not a crime to be fighting occupation. These people are heroes.
‘We could be giving them much more money and it would not be enough.’ Nasser added that, if Palestine won independence, the government would seek reparations from Britain for its historic role in encouraging Zionism, saying ‘You should pay us more money.’
Cash is fungible.
There is no difference between the 'Palestinian Authority' and the PLO. It's a shell game.
And lest you think the Mail actually gets that they're doing something wrong other than wasting British taxpayer money... they don't.
The four million Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza receive the highest aid support per head in the world. Few would deny they face unique problems given checkpoints, tough crackdowns and disputed settlements.
Their 'unique problems' are entirely of their own making. They could have had a peace agreement 22 years ago and more. They didn't want one.
I don't buy the claim made throughout this article that the 'Palestinians' are 'fooling' the West. They're not. Itamar Marcus, the author of the report on which the part of this article that deals with the 'Palestinians' is based, agrees.
Itamar Marcus, the report’s author, said: ‘There is wilful blindness by the UK and EU, who were happy not to even carry out the simplest investigation.’
Indeed.
But what's most astounding about this article is that it was supposed to be a report on how British foreign aid is wasted in general. There are about two paragraphs about other places in the world, and much, much more about the 'Palestinians,' who are Europe's (and Britain's) pet project. You don't think that has anything to do with rampant anti-Semitism in Britain and Europe, do you?
Abu Bluff turns down tax money as Israel sets off unpaid bills
'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen has turned down tax revenues that were to be turned over by Israel because the Israeli government set off from the money amounts owed by the 'Palestinian Authority' for electricity and other utilities and for hospitalization.
Israel withheld the collected tax revenues beginning in January after
P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas signed requests in late December to join
the International Criminal Court and other international conventions as a
result of the failure of the United Nations Security Council to pass a
Palestinian statehood proposal.
The Palestinians are believed to owe millions of dollars to Israel
for utilities provided by Israel as well as for visits to Israeli
hospitals, Reuters reported.
Abbas rejected the returned funds saying Israel had deducted one-third of the money owed to them.
“We are returning the money. Either they give it to us in full or we
go to arbitration or to the (International Criminal) Court. We will not
accept anything else,” he said Sunday.
The P.A. said last week its public employees would receive 60 percent
of their salaries for the month of March, the Wafa Palestinian news and
information agency reported.
Israel has never signed the Rome Protocol and has never submitted to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. As a sovereign nation, it cannot be hauled into court without its consent. Good luck suing us there.
'Palestinian unity government' sworn in; US okays payments to terrorists
The 'Palestinian' unity government was sworn in on Monday after a last minute disagreement over a 'prisoners affairs' minister was sorted out.
At the inauguration ceremony, Abbas said the new government would
abide by commitments made by previous Palestinian administrations and by
agreements ratified by the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization, a
reference to interim accords with Israel.
The unity government
had appeared to be in danger earlier Monday when Hamas informed Fatah it
would not recognize a unity government that did not have a Ministry for
Prisoners Affairs.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said his
movement would consider the Palestinian Authority president's
announcement of the new government a "unilateral" step. Hamas, he
added, "will not recognize this announcement."
But Hamas official
Salah Al-Bardaweel later said it was agreed that the ministry would be
given to Prime Minister Rami Al-Hamdallah, "and the dispute between
Hamas and Fatah has been resolved."
The reason Abu Bluff suddenly didn't want a ministry of 'prisoner affairs' was that he was afraid of how it would look to the West if his new junta was paying monthly 'salaries' to Hamas terrorists. As if they hadn't been paying until now or as if the Fatah terrorists are any better.
Despite the overwhelming evidence, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Ambassador Anne W. Patterson, defended the PA practice of paying salaries to terrorists in jail before Congress last week, saying "they have to provide for the families."
'Palestinians' accuse Netanyahu of preveting a 'constructive solution' to the 'crisis'
Responding to Prime Minister Netanyahu's decision to cut off contacts with the 'Palestinian Authority,' a 'Palestinian' spokesman has accused the Prime Minister of preventing a 'constructive solution' to the current 'crisis' in the 'peace talks.'
"This decision undermines all international efforts ... to revive the
negotiations, to proceed with a constructive solution to the challenges
facing the peace process," said PA spokesman Ehab Bseiso.
Israeli and Palestinian officials cooperate on civilian issues such as
the environment, water and energy, but Bseiso said this usually does not
entail face-to-face meetings.
A spokesman for the Palestinian Authority said Israeli-Palestinian
ministerial meetings were rare but voiced concern that the step could be
followed by economic sanctions.
Your taxes at work: 'Cash strapped' 'Palestinian Authority' gives freed terrorist murderers $50,000 each
Israel has thus far released 52 of the 104 terrorist murderers it promised to release as a bribe to the 'Palestinians' to return to 'peace talks' sponsored by Obama-Kerry. Israel Radio reports this morning that 'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen has given each of his released heroes a sum of $50,000 as a reward. Of course, since the 'Palestinian Authority' is perpetually broke, that's $2.6 million of your taxes so far, with $2.6 million to go. Aren't you glad that Obama and Kerry are facilitating such a wise use of your taxes?
According
to Israel Radio, upon their release, each of the freed Palestinians
received a $50,000 payment from the Ramallah government. In addition,
they are also given a monthly stipend that ranges from NIS 8,000 –
14,000 in addition to other state benefits and perks.
A senior
Palestinian official told Israel Radio that the goal of the largesse is
to enable the newly-released men to “begin their lives anew” and
re-acclimate themselves to society.
Two years ago, a right-wing
NGO issued a report detailing a PA-law that granted monthly salaries to
Palestinians and Israeli Arabs imprisoned for terrorism.
The
report by Palestinian Media Watch found that those serving sentences of
more than 20 years will receive higher salaries. Salaries are to be paid
from the day of arrest until release.
The PMW report points out
that more than 6,000 Palestinians are currently serving time in Israeli
prisons for terror-related offenses.
Given the current exchange rate of about NIS 3.52 to the dollar, NIS 8,000 - NIS 14,000 per month may not sound like a lot of money. But since that payment is net(to), it's more than most Israelis bring home every month.
World complains about every apartment built in Israel but is silent on 'Palestinian' incitement
After a translation showed that 'Palestinian' radio told its listeners ten days ago that 'one day there will be no Israel,' Prime Minister Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev said on Monday that the world complains about every announcement of 'settlement' construction, but has nothing to say about 'Palestinian' incitement.
Regev’s comments,
just days before a second round of peace talks expected in
Jericho, were in response to comments made by an announcer on the Palestinian
Authority’s official Voice of Palestine, who said that “one day” there will be
no Israel and “Palestine will be Palestine again.”
Regev also cited a
drama running on Palestinian television which he said showed Palestinians –
after a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation – attacking a Jew and cutting off his ear-locks. “While this incitement is happening, we hear a deafening silence from
the international community,” he said.
“When Israel builds in areas which
everyone understands will remain part of Israel in a final-status agreement,
this is somehow perceived as a problem for peace. When Palestinians indoctrinate
their people with hatred for Israel, and thereby directly undermine
reconciliation, this is ignored.
“What is required of leadership at this
time is to prepare the public for respect and reconciliation. But what we
are seeing from the Palestinians is the opposite: continued demonization, stress
on maximalist goals and that Israel is an illegitimate creation that will
eventually disappear.”
The United States has responded by making another donation of $148 million to the 'Palestinian Authority' on behalf of the American taxpayer. And there are $4 billion more where that came from.
The aid was delivered “to help the Palestinian Authority avert
a budget crisis and to support US efforts to achieve a two-state solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” a US official told The Jerusalem Post.
In
his memorandum to Secretary of State John Kerry issuing the waiver of
restriction of funds, President Barack Obama said that the aid “is important to
the national security interests of the Unites States.”
The waiver is in
line with previous waivers exercised by this and previous administrations, the
official said.
“Direct budget support to the PA is the most immediate and
efficient means of helping the PA maintain and build the foundations of a
viable, peaceful Palestinian state,” the official added.
“There has been
a recurring budget crisis in the PA, year in and year out, for as long as anyone
can remember,” said David Pollock, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute
for Near East Policy. “But even though the PA is short of cash, the Palestinian
economy in the West Bank is showing pretty good signs of life.”
Roughly
half of the PA budget is spent on Gaza, which provides the government with
little return but is required to continue its linkage with the troubled
Palestinian strip. The $148 million will likely be spent on PA salaries, Pollock
said.
Obama's personal Ramadamadan gift to the 'Palestinian Authority'
The Friday before last, when all was quiet, President Hussein Obama announced that he would once again ignore Congressional restrictions on aid to the 'Palestinian Authority.'
By the authority vested in me as President
by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America,
including section 7040(b) of the Department of State, Foreign
Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2012 (Division I,
Public Law 112-74) (the "Act") as carried forward by the Further
Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 (Division F, Public Law 113-6) (the
"CR"), I hereby certify that it is important to the national security
interests of the United States to waive the provisions of section
7040(a) of the Act as carried forward by the CR, in order to provide
funds appropriated to carry out chapter 4 of part II of the Foreign
Assistance Act, as amended, to the Palestinian Authority.
Citing the United States’ “national security interests,” the
president signed an executive order providing $148 million to the
Palestinian Authority. That is in addition to the $500 million Obama
authorized just four months ago, also in apparent violation of
congressional authority. At that time, Secretary of State John Kerry
said he would like to see an additional $200 million go to the
Palestinian group, according to The Washington Times.
“Some lawmakers oppose the aid, both because of sequestration budget
cuts and the Palestinian Authority’s ties to the terrorist organization
Hamas,” the Times reported.
...
Section 3 of the Palestinian Accountability Act provides in part, “No
funds available to any United States Government department or agency to
carry out the provisions of chapter 4 of part II of the Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961 for any fiscal year may be obligated or expended
with respect to providing funds to the Palestinian Authority.”
...
An administration official referred to the $148 million in aid as, “the
most immediate and efficient means of helping the PA maintain and build
the foundations of a viable, peaceful Palestinian state.”
Yeah, sure. Paying salaries to imprisoned terrorists is “the
most immediate and efficient means of helping the PA maintain and build
the foundations of a viable, peaceful Palestinian state.” And the sun will rise in the West tomorrow morning.
Gas stations shut off pumps for 'Palestinian' security
This is rich. Gas stations across Judea and Samaria are no longer accepting 'Palestinian Authority' vouchers to fill the tanks of 'Palestinian security' vehicles. It seems that the 'Palestinian Authority' hasn't paid its bills in months, and the gas stations have decided that enough is enough.
The PA Finance Ministry has not reimbursed fuel vouchers for five
months, and on Tuesday a network of fuel distributors announced it would
stop letting the security forces fill up for free.
They say the security services will be able to fill up their tanks until Thursday, after which they will be refused.
Ma'an
has learned that the Finance Ministry only started paying January's
fuel vouchers on Sunday. On Tuesday, they were expected to pay
February's bills.
But the owners of gas stations say they will
not let them take fuel after Thursday if the ministry does not pay all
its debts by then.
A Finance Ministry spokesman declined to comment.
Hey morons - stop paying the terrorists and start paying your bills!
'Palestinian Authority' says they're $4.2 billion in debt
New 'Palestinian' 'Prime Minister' Rami Hamdallah has no experience in government or politics, and he's starting out facing a 'more than difficult' financial crisis caused by skyrocketing debt.
Mustafa, who was speaking to reporters in
Ramallah following the new PA government’s first weekly meeting, said that the
PA’s local debts were estimated at $1.2 billion - $600 million to banks and $480
million to the Palestinian Petroleum Authority.
Mustafa serves as deputy
prime minister for economic affairs – a job that makes him the de facto finance
minister.
Until his appointment last week, Mustafa served as director of
the PLO’s Palestine Investment Fund.
The PA’s external debts, he said,
have reached $1 billion. Failure to pay this debt has resulted in fines
estimated at $100 million, Mustafa added.
The PA also owes another $1
billion to the Palestinian Pension Fund, he said.
He said that the PA was
in need of financial aid to pay salaries to its employees in the coming
months.
The PA will have to increase tax collection, cut expenses and
seek additional funding from donor countries, Mustafa said.
There are some obvious ways for the 'Palestinian Authority' to cut expenses. One is to stop paying salaries to terrorists and their families, including to those who belong to Hamas. That would cut 6% of the budget right there. Then if they laid off some of their ubiquitous 'security services' and consolidated the rest like they were supposed to do years ago, that would cut the budget more. Of course, to do that without leaving people to starve, they'd have to develop an economy, and the 'Palestinians' have done nothing on that front in the nearly 20 years since Oslo.
Norway and UK foreign ministries lied: Wife of imprisoned 'Palestinian' terrorist confirms 'Palestinian Authority' pays salaries
In an interview with 'Palestinian Authority' Television, the wife of a 'Palestinian' terrorist has confirmed that the 'Palestinian Authority' pays salaries to terrorists imprisoned in Israel, and that the foreign ministries of Norway and the United Kingdom lied to their respective governments, when they claimed that the money was going to support the terrorists' families on the outside.
Yet for nearly two years, the British and Norwegian Foreign Ministries
have told their MPs that PMW's documentation was incorrect. They argued
that the PA does not pay salaries to security prisoners, which would be a
reward for terror, but gives "social aid to the families" like other PA
social welfare programs. This, they have now explained, was what the PA
assured them.
In spite of all PMW's documentation, Norway and the UK have justified
their continued funding of the PA, saying that none of their support
money was going into a funding program specifically for terrorists, but
was going to the wives and children. (See quotes below.)
PMW is now releasing a recent interview with a wife of a Palestinian
prisoner that verifies the accuracy of PMW's reports. In the interview,
the prisoner's wife and mother of five children complains repeatedly
that the prisoner, her husband, has not given her and their children control of his salary, but instead gave it to his brother.
Let's go to the videotape.
If that's not rewarding terrorism, I don't know what is.
World Bank doing what 'Palestinian Authority' should do
Only the 'Palestinians' get these kinds of individualized benefits from the 'international community.' Since the 'Palestinian Authority' is too busy spending its budget on salaries for imprisoned terrorists, the World Bank is going to step in and do what every other government in the world does, or is supposed to do: The World Bank is creating real jobs for 'Palestinians.'
The World Bank wants to help provide 55,000 new part-time job opportunities over
the next five years for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza through an
emerging online phenomenon called microwork.
The sophisticated web-based
assembly lines allow people anywhere in the world to work from home for global
companies by completing micro tasks on the Internet.
The World Bank plans
to hold a microwork pilot study in the Palestinian territories, but no exact
date has been set.
“Palestinian youth are increasingly tech-savvy, so the
potential for IT-based forms of economic engagement, which can cross virtual
borders, can be an exciting leap forward,” said Mariam Sherman, the World Bank
country director for the West Bank and Gaza.
On Wednesday the bank
publicly released a feasibility study, “Microwork for the Palestinian
Territories,” that explored the pros and cons of such global
outsourcing.
It explained that microwork provides mass employment for
people in developing countries, particularly young people and women.
The
jobs can be done anywhere at anytime by people with computers or smart phones,
according to the report.
“Microwork’s unique value proposition is that it
can be performed anywhere at any time across geographical boundaries, using
commonly available computers and Internet connections,” said Siou Chew Kuek, ICT
policy specialist at the World Bank.
“It is particularly relevant to the
Palestinian territories, as it enables local youth and women to access jobs in
the global knowledge economy.”
Microwork by day and terrorists by night (or vice versa). Maybe they can even provide jobs for terrorists in Israeli prisons so that they can increase their income beyond their 'Palestinian Authority' salaries.
Netanyahu resumes terrorist funding transfers to 'Palestinians'
Prime Minister Netanyahu has decided to resume the transfer of tax moneys to the 'Palestinian Authority.' Some of the tax moneys are used to pay salaries to terrorists held in Israeli jails.
Since, Israel has evaluated the transfer of the tax revenues to the PA on a month-by-month basis. Monday's directive appeared to normalize the tax transfers, cancelling the monthly reviews.
The
aid-dependent Palestinian Authority has been in a financial crisis
fueled by a drop in assistance from Western and wealthy Gulf backers,
renewed tensions with Israel and a need to meet an expanding public
sector payroll.
The International Monetary Fund warned earlier
this month that the Palestinian Authority's fiscal situation was
"increasingly precarious."
The IMF called for urgent action to help it close a gaping budget deficit and to stabilize the economy.
The United States confirmed over the weekend that it was releasing nearly $500 million in aid which had been frozen to the PA.
However, a PA official consequently warned that the financial crisis in the West Bank was not over despite the US aid.
"Only
$200 million of the $480 million from the United States will go to the
Treasury, and the rest will be go to USAID-funded projects," the
Bethlehem-based Ma'an News Agency quoted PA Labor Minister Ahmad
Majdalani as saying on Saturday.
He added that of the $1.3
billion in aid pledged to the PA from various donor countries in 2012,
only some $800 million had actually been transferred.
The IMF
urged the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority to draw up contingency
plans that include spending cuts. It also said the Authority should look
at ways to boost growth, which is forecast at roughly 4.0 percent
between 2013 to 2016.
The IMF said unemployment had increased to
almost a quarter of the labor force by the end of 2012, with
unemployment among the youth particularly high.
In the past few
months, the Authority has failed to pay full salaries to its 160,000
employees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territory controlled by the
rival Hamas Islamist movement.
QUESTION: Can I ask on Palestinian aid? There’s reporting out
of the region that the funds have actually been unblocked kind of a bit
quietly over the last couple of weeks, the 200 million that was held up
in Congress, and that’s now been received by the Palestinian Authority.
MS. NULAND: Jo, I don’t – I’m just finding it here. I did go
through this about a week ago in some detail. I can do it again for you.
To date, we have moved $295.7 million in Fiscal Year 2012 money, 200
million of that – see, this – numbers don’t – oh, and 200 million in
Fiscal Year 2013 assistance. So breaking that down again, 200 million in
FY2013 ESF money was direct budget support for the Palestinian
Authority; 195.7 million in FY12 Economic Support money went for
development and humanitarian assistance implemented by USAID; 100
million in FY2012 for International Narcotics Control and Law
Enforcement; and then in February – at the end of February we notified
Congress about another 200 million that we’d like to move.
QUESTION: So you’ve moved the 295 --
MS. NULAND: Total of 295.7 in FY12 and 200 in FY13. Why don’t we go through it again afterwards if you need to?
QUESTION: That’s been moved, okay.
MS. NULAND: Mm-hmm.
QUESTION: And then 200 is still – you want another further 200?
MS. NULAND: Correct. We’ve notified.
Aren't you glad that the President has his priorities straight? The 'sequester' is cutting control towers at 149 airports, but priorities man, priorities. The 'Palestinian Authority' really needs their aid money for those terrorist salaries. What the.....
Norway 'discovers' that its money is funding terrorism
Surely Norway is not the only European country whose aid money to the 'Palestinians' is being used to fund terrorism. But they were probably the most righteously indignant about it.
The Palestinian Authority misled Oslo when it claimed Norwegian aid
money was not used to reward the murderers of Israelis, Norway’s foreign
minister said.
Espen Barth Eide said Monday in a statement that “it is unfortunate
that the incorrect information obtained from the Palestinian Authority
was communicated to the Parliament.” The statement was quoted in an
article by the daily Dagen.
Anders Anundsen, a lawmaker for the Progress Party, said the
government has long claimed that Norwegian aid did not go to
Palestinians who are incarcerated in Israeli jails for murders and
terrorist activities. The Palestinian Authority has pledged monthly
payments to Palestinian prisoners in Israel since 2003 and raised
payments by as much as 300 percent in 2011, according to Israel’s
Channel 2 television network.
Eide’s statement came after the ministry received new information
that revealed “major difference to what we have assumed, according to
earlier information we received from the P.A.,” the minister's statement
said.
Norway's foreign ministry brought up the subject last week during a
meeting between its representatives and Palestinian Authority Prime
Minister Salam Fayyad, according to Eide.
"In this meeting we also took up the dispensation and the level of
subsidy for the prisoners, and we clearly expressed that we found this
to be problematic," Eide said. "We also noted the new information on
this issue differs from earlier information provided by the P.A. We also
stated that we find this unfortunate.”
They can't say they weren't warned.
Money is fungible, so any country that is giving money to the 'Palestinians' is funding the payments to terrorists highlighted in the excerpt above. And many more countries are probably financing the terrorist payments directly.
This is rich: PA 'borrowing' money to pay 'salaries'
The 'Palestinian Authority' is 'borrowing' money to pay 'salaries' at the end of the month.
The Palestinian Authority announced, Thursday, that it intends to
borrow about $100 million from PA banks to pay some of the November
salaries it owes its employees. A senior treasury official said half the
salary will be paid in the coming week.
The leadership in
Ramallah is demanding the convening of an emergency meeting of Arab
foreign ministers at the end of the month to discuss the PA's financial
distress.
When has the PA ever done anything other than borrow or schnorr to pay anything? It's not like they produce anything on their own other than terrorists.
And the salaries will undoubtedly include a huge chunk for the 'prisoners' and the 'martyrs.'
Israel gives 'Palestinians' NIS 200 million reward for UN gambit
The government of Israel has decided to give the 'Palestinian Authority' a NIS 200 million reward for their UN gambit by transferring that amount of 'tax money' to the 'Palestinian Authority' just two days before the UN vote. Of course, as usual, much of that money will go to pay the salaries of the PA's 'employees' in Gaza (you know, the ones who bragged that they shot 516 rockets at Israel last week), to pay Hamas, and to pay the 'salaries' of 'Palestinian' terrorists in Israeli jails.
The transfer of the money, 200 million shekels, took place just two
days before the vote in the United Nations General Assembly on the PA’s
unilateral bid to become a non-member observer state.
Army Radio noted that Israel has said it would not take
extreme steps in response to the PA’s statehood bid but has continued to
threaten to freeze the funds it transfers to the PA each month. Despite
this threat, however, and despite PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s
statements that he does not intend to back down from the move, Israel
transferred the funds on Tuesday.
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, who has also threatened the PA with sanctions if it goes ahead with its bid, told Army Radio on Wednesday that Israel would respond to the move at the correct time and place.
“If the Palestinian Authority thinks it will attack us in the UN in
such a harsh way and will continue to benefit from the cooperation with
us, I think that some surprises await it,” said Steinitz.
If only our politicians had the courage of their convictions....
The Israel Air Force struck the National Islamic Bank in Gaza City overnight Monday, Al Jazeera reported.
According to the report, Hamas uses the bank to pay its employees
Four people were injured in the air strike, Al Jazeera reported.
How will the 'Palestinian Authority' transfer all its 'salaries' to Gaza this month? For that matter, how will the government of Israel and the 'international community' transfer money to Gaza? Boo. Hoo.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
