The Palestinian Authority’s “pay for slay” program, which rewards terrorists with a salary for killing Israelis, has always been horrific, but Israel is taking action to slow it down. Under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s order, the Israeli government “has deducted more than $180 million from the funds it collects for the Palestinian Authority” because the PA refuses to stop paying terrorists and their families, according to jns.org. Last May the Jerusalem District Court attributed a number of terror attacks to the PA, and it placed a lien on nearly $140 million in PA tax revenues. The PA has been internationally recognized as being responsible for terror attacks, such as the International Criminal Court’s 2019 report that said the PA could be found guilty of war crimes because of their payments to terrorists.
While it’s hard to fathom how the pay for slay program was ever able to see the light of day, it’s encouraging that the new Israeli government is wasting no time in penalizing the PA for this atrocity. It never made sense that the PA could accept money from other countries and turn around and use that money to fund racially-motivated murder against Jewish Israelis. This significant deduction is the first sign that Israel is showing its teeth in it’s approach to the PA’s violence. It’s this type of response that is needed to show the PA that Israel won’t be pushed around and lined up for slaughter at the hands of dangerous enemies.
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