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Close The PLO Office In D.C.

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September, an arm of the PLO, murdered
ritish exchange student Hannah
11 Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich.
Bladon was stabbed to death on
The PLO has committed acts of horrific
a Jerusalem light rail train last
terror in Israel — including massacring
month. Her murderer was identified
bus drivers and their families on holiday.
as an East Jerusalem resident who had
Twenty-five adults and 13 children were
previously been convicted of molesting
killed and 71 others wounded. The
his daughter and had tried to
PLO has also committed acts of war
commit suicide. Failing at that,
against the United States by killing
he apparently opted for terror-
American diplomats in Sudan.
ism, on the assumption that
In the 1970s and ’80s, the U.S. gen-
the police would kill him. They
erally knew what it was looking at.
didn’t.
During the Reagan-to-“Bush
“This,” the Shin Bet said in a
41”-transition, however, the U.S.
statement, “is another case, out
dropped its ban on officially talk-
of many, where a Palestinian
who is suffering from personal, Shoshana Bryen ing to then-PLO Chairman Yasser
mental or moral issues chooses Jewish Policy Center Arafat.
Talking was not the same as
to carry out a terror attack in
opening an office; that move
order to find a way out of their
was still prohibited by the Anti-
problems.”
Terrorism Act of 1987. However, in the
“Suicide by cop” is not unheard of, but
post-Oslo Accords euphoria, Senate
the real incentives need to be spelled out.
legislation permitted the PLO an official
Jamil Tamimi, 57, knew that if he com-
mission in Washington “to implement
mitted an act of terror, he would be lion-
ized by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the accords,” and it allowed President
Bill Clinton to waive the law barring U.S.
— perhaps more importantly — that, if
funds to international organizations
he were killed or sent to prison, his family
that gave money to the PLO. The House
would be taken care of financially.
passed similar legislation. Rep. Howard L.
To take the PA leader, Mahmoud
Berman (D-Calif.) said at the time: “This
Abbas, at his word, the PA itself does not
legislation provides a limited, temporary
pay salaries or pensions to terrorists in
and conditional waiver of restrictions in
Israeli jails or to their families; the money
United States law that would seriously
— instead! — comes from the Palestine
impede the ability of Israel and the PLO to
Liberation Organization (PLO). That
sleight-of-hand would make this a perfect proceed with negotiating and implement-
ing their landmark peace agreement.”
time for the United States to take a step
It was “conditional” on the PLO meet-
it has been avoiding for more than 25
ing its Oslo Accords obligations, including
years: close the PLO office in Washington
refraining from terrorism and renouncing
— preferably before the planned visit by
international moves that would impede
Abbas in May.
bilateral agreement on final status issues.
The PLO was once understood to be
While the legislation was, as Berman said,
a terrorist organization and a terror
“temporary,” it came with the usual waiver
umbrella. It hijacked airplanes and threw
provision, ultimately allowing presidents
an elderly disabled man in a wheelchair
to do as they wished.
overboard from a cruise ship. Black

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Presidents, therefore, beginning with
Clinton, did exactly that, even as the
Palestinian Authority supplanted the PLO
as the “peace partner” and ignored the
Oslo Accords at will.
In 2003, the height of the so-called
“second intifada,” the Palestinian terror
war against Israel, Colin Powell, by then
Secretary of State, waffled through a
statement suggesting that the Palestinians
kindly refrain from killing so many Jews.
“We need to see a more concerted effort
against the capacity for terrorist activity
on the Palestinian side … It’s not enough
just to have a cease-fire.”
He then noted “progress in reducing
attacks against Israelis” — but without
mentioning that the IDF and Shin Bet had
reduced them; not the PA. Nevertheless,
President George W. Bush exercised the
waiver.
In 2011, a Palestinian bid for recog-
nition as a full member of the United
Nations failed, but the waiver remained.
Over U.S. objections, “Palestine” joined
the International Criminal Court in 2015.
President Barack Obama waived the sanc-
tions every six months — right through
two Hamas wars against Israel.
Largely through the work of Palestinian
Media Watch (PMW), the question of pay-
ments to terrorists and their families has
come to the fore. Worried about foreign
aid payments from the U.S. and the EU, in
2014, the Palestinian Authority claimed
it stopped paying salaries and that future
money would come from a new PLO
Commission of Prisoner Affairs.
However, PMW reported from
Palestinian sources: “The PLO
Commission was new only in name. The
PLO body would have the same responsi-
bilities and pay the exact same amounts
of salaries to prisoners; the former PA
Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs, Issa Karake,

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became the director of the new PLO
Commission and PA Chairman Mahmoud
Abbas retained overall supervision of the
PLO Commission.”
Tower Magazine reported that in 2015,
a year after the PA “officially” transferred
authority over Palestinian prisoners to the
PLO, it also transferred more than $116
million to the PLO — nearly the same
amount that the PA had allocated in the
previous years to its now-defunct Ministry
of Prisoners’ Affairs.
Citing PMW, Tower wrote that the
transfer to the PLO was meant to evade
pressure from Western governments that
demanded an end to terrorist salaries —
specifically the United States and the UK,
which froze payments to the PA in 2016
over the problem.
In the end, perhaps, it does not mat-
ter whose bank account transfers the
money to whose bank account: In 2016,
Bashar Masalha, who murdered U.S.
Army veteran Taylor Force and wounded
several others, was hailed on official PA
media outlets as a “martyr.” A few months
later, Abbas said on PA TV, “We welcome
every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem.
This is pure blood, clean blood, blood on
its way to Allah. With the help of Allah,
every martyr will be in heaven, and every
wounded will get his reward.”
Abbas has not said much about Jamil
Tamimi, Hannah Bladon’s murderer, and
it is time to stop encouraging, threaten-
ing or demanding that he do so. Rather,
the U.S. government should let the PLO
and PA know that we are onto their game.
Disincentivizing terrorism by closing the
PLO office in Washington would be a
good first step.•

Shoshana Bryen is an analyst of U.S. defense policy
and Middle East affairs and senior director of the
Jewish Policy Center.

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