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Bill to cut funding to PA reintroduced in US Congress

March 1, 2017 at 6:42 pm

US Congress in session [Lawrence Jackson/Wikipedia]

A bill was reintroduced by US Republican lawmakers yesterday seeking to cut funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA) over the so-called “martyrs” compensation programme which provides payments to families of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces or held in Israeli prisons.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the bill was initially introduced by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina during a Congress session last year and would eliminate funding to the PA unless it ceased providing funds to families of slain Palestinians and prisoners.

“If a young Palestinian is convicted in a court in Israel of being a terrorist, the longer they’re in jail, the more their family receives from the Palestinian Authority,” the Jerusalem Post reported Graham as saying.

The bill was named the Taylor Force Act after a US army veteran who was killed during an attack in Jaffa last year.

According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the bill would necessitate that the PA follow certain conditions in order to receive funds from the US government, including taking “credible steps” to end violence by its citizens under its “jurisdictional control”, publicly condemning and punishing Palestinians who have committed acts of violence against Israelis, and “terminating payments” to individuals and their families who have been killed after carrying out an attack.

Rights groups have claimed that Israeli authorities use prison and detention raids – which often erupt into violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces – as a tool to disrupt Palestinian life in the occupied territory, as many families suffer financially when Israeli forces kill, wound, or imprison Palestinians.