oints of view
Commentary
Funding Fiasco: U.S. Fans Flames Of Mideast Conflict
Washington (JTA)
A
s the current round of Israeli-
Palestinian peace talks
flounder and seek to regain
momentum, many are wondering what
America can do with its prodigious eco-
nomic resources to encourage peace
and reconciliation between the parties.
For this reason, it may astound many
that American taxpayers already are
deploying significant dollars in Israel
not to pay for peace, but to fungibly
fund terrorism. Each year, U.S. aid and
financial programs fungibly fund ter-
rorist salaries paid by the Palestinian
Authority (P.A.). For the past half
decade or so, the level has reached
hundreds of millions of dollars annu-
ally.
The fact that the Palestinian
Authority devotes much of its fis-
cal resources to rewarding terrorists
with generous salaries is an astonish-
ing financial dynamic known to most
Israeli leaders, Jewish media editors
and Western journalists in Israel. But
it is still a shock to most in Congress,
who are unaware that U.S. money
going to the Palestinian Authority is
regularly diverted to a program that
systematically rewards terrorists with
cash benefits.
Equally astonished are the voters
whose money is being used in this
fashion. These transactions squarely
violate American laws prohibiting U.S.
Dry Bones
GREAT
IDEAS
T-7 THE 2_0TM
The Scheming Process
Here's how the system
works: When a Palestinian is
convicted of an act of terror
against the Israeli govern-
ment or innocent civilians,
such as a bombing or a
murder, the convicted ter-
rorist automatically receives
a generous salary from the
Palestinian Authority. The
salary is specified by the
Palestinian Law of the Prisoner and
administered by the P.A.'s Ministry of
Prisoner Affairs.
A Palestinian watchdog group, the
Prisoners Club, ensures the P.A.'s com-
pliance with the law and pushes for
payments as a priority expenditure.
This means that even during frequent
budget shortfalls and financial crisis,
the P.A. pays the terrorists' salaries
first and foremost — before its other
fiscal obligations.
The Law of the Prisoner nar-
rowly delineates just who is entitled
to receive an official salary. In a
recent interview, Ministry of Prisoners
spokesman Amr Nasser read aloud
the definition: "A detainee is each and
every person who is in an Occupation
prison based on his or her participa-
tion in the resistance to
Occupation." This means
crimes against Israel or
Israelis. Nasser was care-
ful to explain, "It does
not include common-law
thieves and burglars. They
are not included and are
not part of the mandate of
the Ministry."
NEVER AGAIN WOULD
AN ANTISEMITIC MASS
MOVEMENT DRAG THE
PLANET INTO A
WORLD WAR
THERE WOULD BE THE UNITED NATIONS.
32
December 5 • 2013
GLI TI CALCARTOON S. COM
DRY BON ES. COM
CE- ► rruRY
funding from directly or indirectly ben-
efiting terrorists. More than that, such
monies grandly incentivize murder and
terror against innocent civilians.
O
Terrorism Pays
Under a sliding scale care-
fully articulated in the
Law of the Prisoner, the
more heinous the act of
terrorism, the longer the
prison sentence — and,
consequently, the higher
the salary. Detention for
up to three years fetches
a salary of nearly $400
per month. Prisoners
incarcerated from three to
five years are paid about
$560 monthly — a com-
pensation level already
higher than that for many
ordinary West Bank jobs.
Even greater acts of terrorism, pun-
ished with sentences between 15 and
20 years, earn almost $2,000 per
month.
These are the best sala-
ries in the Palestinian ter-
ritories. The Arabic word
ratib, meaning "salary," is
the official term for the
compensation. The law
ensures the greatest reward
for the most egregious acts
of terrorism.
In the Palestinian com-
munity, the salaries are no
secret — they are publicly
hailed in public speeches
and special TV reports. From time to
time, the salaries are augmented with
special additional financial perks. For
example, in 2009, a $150-per-prisoner
bonus was approved to mark the reli-
gious holiday of
Eid al-Adha. P.A.
President Mahmoud
Abbas also directed
that an extra $190
"be added to the
stipends given to
Palestinians affili-
ated with PLO fac-
Mahmoud
tions in Israeli pris-
Abbas
ons this month."
Reporting on the
additional salary, the Palestinian news
service Ma'an explained, "Each PLO-
affiliated prisoner [already] receives [a
special allocation of] $238 per month,
plus an extra $71 if they are mar-
ried, and an extra $12 for each child.
The stipend is paid by the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) each
month."
Prisoners Bring Joy
About 6 percent of the Palestinian
budget is diverted to prisoner salaries.
All the money comes from so-called
"donor countries" such as the United
States, Great Britain and Denmark.
Palestinian officials react with defi-
ance to any foreign governmental
effort to end the salaries.
Deputy Minister of Prisoners Affairs
Ziyad Abu Ein declared: "If the finan-
cial assistance and support to the
P.A. are stopped, the [payment of]
salaries (rawatib) and allowances
(Mukhassasat) to Palestinian prisoners
will not be stopped, whatever the cost
may be. The prisoners are our joy. We
will sacrifice everything for them and
continue to provide for their families."
Ironically, one Jewish media edi-
tor asked this question: If the United
States is fungibly funding terrorist
salaries with payments to the P.A., is
not Israel doing the same when it sup-
plies and transfers cash to the P.A.?
The uncomfortable answer is yes. The
only difference is Israel does so when
it has no choice due to international
pressures. That doesn't change the
piercing reality that in America we pay
for terrorism abroad and Israel pays
for it at home.
Understandably, many argue that
the United States and its allies are in
a no-win situation. Unless the West
continues to fund the Palestinian
Authority, Israel has no "partner for
peace," and indeed Jerusalem itself
has strongly advocated that the P.A.
is its sole partner for peace. Indeed,
without foreign funding, the P.A. would
collapse.
But by continuing to financially
reward the scourge of terrorism, the
West ensures a stalemate since ter-
rorism is an institution in the P.A. —
judging by the popular prisoner salary
law, its priority in P.A. spending, and
the enthusiastic social mandate of the
Palestinian people who support such
terrorist acts and the salaries that
arise from them.
Another Angle
There is another view that could
win. At the moment, Western aid
is catering to and bolstering the
basest instincts and impulses of the
Palestinian people — the burning
rage to commit acts of terrorism
against Israelis. However, nearly
100,000 Palestinians come into Israeli
territory to work side by side with
their Jewish colleagues at jobs across
the country. They work under equal
conditions, equal pay, enjoy equal
company outings, and advance their
Palestinian families through peaceful
coexistence and normal employment.
If the United States and other
Western donor countries abruptly
halted all funding of the P.A. — like
a slammed door — until the prisoner
salary program was eliminated, and
conditioned all future funding on joint
Arab-Israeli economic and develop-
ment projects, then the world could
give peace a chance. As it is now,
peace does not pay and terrorism
does. E
Edwin Black is the award-winning author of
the international bestseller "IBM and the
Holocaust." This article is drawn from his
just-released book, "Financing the Flames:
How Tax-Exempt and Public Money Fuel a
Culture of Confrontation and Terrorism in
Israel."