A bipartisan panel of House lawmakers voted to threaten to defund the Palestinian Authority over support for terrorism, following the murder of an American man in Israel.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the Taylor Force Act unanimously on Wednesday, as lawmakers hope to force the Palestinian Authority to scrap support for terrorists. The bill is named for a former Army officer whose murderer was celebrated by Palestinian leaders. Congress hopes to crack down on those assaults by threatening to withdraw the $300 million in foreign aid to the Palestinian leadership.
“With this legislation, we are forcing the PA to choose between U.S. assistance and these morally reprehensible policies, and I am pleased to see this measure move forward in both chambers with so much support,” committee chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., said Wednesday.
Specifically, the legislation requires the end of a practice notorious on Capitol Hill as a “pay-to-slay” program. Under current law, the Palestinian Authority agrees to provide stipends to the families of individuals who are arrested or killed in Israel. Taylor Force’s parents have been working for months for Congress to coerce the Palestinian Authority into changing the policy.
“[The PA] actually has a schedule of what you do, and how you do it, and the level of success, that is then commensurate with the level of payment to you and/or your family,” Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said in a press conference with the Force family in February. “It’s an outrageous concept to be in law anywhere; it’s an even more outrageous thing to be in law of an authority that we give money to.”
U.S. foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority is intended to meet “humanitarian needs,” foster civil society, and “promot[e] the prevention or mitigation of terrorism against Israel from the Sunni Islamist group Hamas and other militant organizations,” according to a recent Congressional Research Service report. Pro-Israel lawmakers, however, have noted that the Palestinian Authority formed a unity government with Hamas in 2014.
“We expect the Palestinian Authority to firmly reject terrorism, cease this program that encourages attacks and killings, and commit to resuming direct negotiations with the Israelis toward a two state solution,” Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., said as the committee passed the bill.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved similar legislation in August, while retaining some U.S. commitment to humanitarian issues in the locale. “We exempt a hospital from this conflict, because what good is there in punishing women and children for something they did not do,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said at the time.
