U.S. taxpayers are subsidizing payments that the Palestinian Authority uses to reward individuals who carry out terrorist attacks in Israel, according to congressional Republicans who want to cut off the funding.
“If you serve 25 years in jail for committing an act of terrorism in Israel, you will get paid equivalent to a major-general in the Palestinian security forces,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters Tuesday.
That money comes from American coffers because the State Department provides $300 million annually to the Palestinian Authority, Graham and other lawmakers said while touting the Taylor Force Act. That bill is named after former Army officer Taylor Force, who was murdered by Palestinian terrorists while traveling in Israel.
The bill would cut off funding from the PA until the Palestinians change the laws providing financial support for the families of terrorists.
“We are going to make sure that the record that he put together is remembered by Americans and is a positive force for change in this world,” a visibly emotional Sen. Tom Cotton, who is also an Army veteran, said as Force’s parents looked on. “Taxpayer dollars are no longer going to subsidize the murder of American citizens or Israeli citizens.”
The PA has established “a so-called martyrs schedule” that dictates how much funding a terrorist receives based on the nature of the attack.
“[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,” said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. “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. But the Palestinian Authority formed a unity government that includes Hamas in 2014.
Cotton, Graham, and Blunt are leading the defunding effort in the Senate. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., and Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., are carrying the companion legislation in the House. Although only Republican lawmakers attended the press conference, the proponents of the bill predict it would have broad bipartisan support if it were to receive a vote.
“Not one of the communications or expressions of sympathy that we received over the last year have the label of Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, independent,” Stuart Force, the father of Taylor Force, said Tuesday. “This is not a partisan issue. This is the right thing to do.”
Under pressure from international donors, Palestinian leaders have made bureaucratic changes to the funding program but they have not ended the practice altogether. “Some evidence indicates that the formal change in the organization responsible for the payments did not significantly alter the actual practice of how the payments were made,” according to the CRS report.
The lawmakers were joined by Force’s parents, as well as a pair of Israeli citizens who described terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of their family members. “I flew here today to beg you to use all your power to take action for our sake and for the sake of the world, to put an end to Arab terrorism and killing as a profession that you get paid nicely for,” Jesheren Gavish said in prepared remarks.
Israeli leaders and AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group, have opposed past efforts to defund the PA, but Graham said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders now favor the legislation.
“This is institutionalized terrorism,” Graham said. “To my friends at AIPAC: This is a chance to get on board with a piece of legislation that is good for America — because we’re not going to use your hard-earned dollars, the American citizen, to invest in a legal system that has an absurd outcome — and it will be a real good chance to tell the Palestinians that if you don’t change your behavior, you’re going to lose something.”
