Israel trims funds to Palestinians over militant casualties

By Dan Williams

 

FILE PHOTO: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attends the funeral of former senior Fatah official Ahmed Abdel Rahman, in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank December 4, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman

 

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel will withhold around $43 million in tax handovers to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority (PA) over its financial support for the families of slain or wounded Palestinian militants, the Israeli security cabinet said on Sunday.

 

The decision followed Israel's similar trimming in February of funds to offset PA payouts to jailed Palestinian militants, for which the PA retaliated by boycotting all tax handovers for more than half a year, stirring worries it could go bankrupt.

 

Under interim peace deals from the 1990s, Israel collects taxes on behalf the Palestinians, who put the current sums at $222 million a month. With diplomacy stalled since 2014, Israel has at times withheld money as a measure of protest or pressure.

 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, though hit by steep U.S. aid cuts by the Trump administration, has held to paying stipends to the families of Palestinians jailed on security charges and of those killed or wounded by Israeli forces.

 

Israel and the United States say the policy, which is scaled to give greater monthly payouts for prisoners serving longer sentences, invites violence. Abbas describes the Palestinian inmates and casualties as “heroes” of a national struggle.

 

"This (Israeli decision) will cost us a lot," Abbas told members of his Fatah party in the Palestinian hub city of Ramallah. "But we have rights and we will not be afraid."

 

Saying Abbas’ administration had paid 150 million shekels ($43.37 million) in stipends for militant casualties in 2018, the Israeli security cabinet said the same amount would be garnished from within the taxes collected for the PA over the coming year.

 

The sum Israel said it would trim as of February was $138 million - reflecting prisoner payouts by the PA during 2018.

 

The total amount of money withheld now equals some 6.8% of tax funds due to the PA. The full remittances make up around half of the budget of the PA, which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

 

"For too long, we allowed the PA to pay salaries to terrorists. That party is over," Deputy Israeli Defence Minister Avi Dichter said on Twitter.

 

The United States passed legislation last year to sharply reduce aid to the PA unless it stopped the stipends. The measure, known as the Taylor Force Act, was named after a 29-year-old American military veteran fatally stabbed by a Palestinian while visiting Israel in 2016.

 

Washington has further slashed hundreds of millions of dollars to humanitarian organizations and U.N. agencies which aid the Palestinians as it seeks to pressure Abbas to come back to the negotiating table.

 

Abbas has shunned the Trump administration, accusing it of pro-Israel bias.

 

(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta; Writing by Dan Williams; editing by Nick Macfie)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-12-30

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If people invaded my home, I too, would never stop fighting back. 

and wonder why there is a rise of anti semitism

 

When will this tribalist/religionist <deleted> ever stop. Another 4000 years or whatever?

8 hours ago, malibukid said:

and wonder why there is a rise ;of anti semitism

 

And a very Merry Chanukah to you too.

People -- the above post is clearly racist hate speech.

Jew haters throughout history always have an excuse to be Jew haters.

Recently in the U.S. there has been an increase in violent attacks by Jew haters including Pittsburgh, the biggest massacre of Jews in American history.

Post such as above are literally encouraging such hatred and violence against Jewish people just for being Jewish people. 

This is truly sick and disgusting, and amazing, that garbage got multiple likes.

 

Of course it's perfectly fine to criticize Israeli government policies just as you would criticize any government policies.

I'm sickened that the above pro Jew hating post stood for several hours without any pushback!

The sickness is clearly spreading.

 

Imagine if someone posted a similar comment about black people.

 

But inciting violence and hatred against Jewish people all over the world because you supposedly disagree with Israel government policies is OK?

 

This kind of Jew hatred USES Israel as a COVER to justify Jew hatred just as Jew haters throughout history have used other excuses before Israel existed.

 

If Israeli ceases to exist, the Jew haters will still be out there with new or old excudes. It's not about Israel. It's the ancient sickness rearing it's ugly head yet again, 

 

Edited December 30, 20196 yr by Jingthing

7 hours ago, rhyddid said:

Full genocide from the Zionist Israel government against the Palestinians civilians, what will be the millions of USD when the racist Zionist are keep slaughtering children, women and old people!!!

Zionist are doing the same what the Nazi did to the innocent Jews of Europe.

The only real reason of this is that Zionist are trying to kill whatever living Palestinians, even if there is a good part od Israelis that are against the genocide sadistically committed everyday against the Palestinians population, as the ONLY one terrorist are the Israeli Army and Security forces!

Stop inciting hatred. Another case where the word Zionist is used as a cover for irrational Jew hatred. Genocide? Really? How is that possible when 20 percent of Israeli citizens are Arabs? How about posting in an objective non-inflammatory way about criticisms of Israeli government policies? Instead of posting sick lies as above? Not all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic but some of it is. Above clearly is.

29 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Stop inciting hatred. Another case where the word Zionist is used as a cover for irrational Jew hatred. Genocide? Really? How is that possible when 20 percent of Israeli citizens are Arabs? How about posting in an objective non-inflammatory way about criticisms of Israeli government policies? Instead of posting sick lies as above? Not all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic but some of it is. Above clearly is.

Stop defending Israeli Apartheid & violent oppression of the Palestinians and your argument would carry some weight.

I don't agree with Malibukid's post but rhyddid's post is 100% correct. Zionism is used to describe Israel's religious excuse for stealing more & more Palestinian land & is a correct description.

The Op is a description,  once again, of Israel acting as the overriding bullyboy by withholding money that belongs to the Palestinians and they, not Israel, have the right to decide how to spend it.

Edited December 30, 20196 yr by khunken
spelling

8 hours ago, rhyddid said:

Full genocide from the Zionist Israel government against the Palestinians civilians,

Stop being silly . the Palestinian population is increasing , I believe it has one , if not the THE worlds biggest population growth rate .

  How on Earth can the people who have the worlds biggest population growth, being going through  a "genocide ?"

A post violating Fair Use Policy has been removed.  

 

Jews around the world need stand up and speak out against the atrocities committed by Israel. Until then, unfortunately, they will be viewed as complicit in the crimes against humanity. Being against the policies of Israel is not ‘anti semitic’. Jews who speak out against the terrorism that Israel commits are not ‘self hating Jews’. Stand up and speak out or risk being viewed as oppressors. 

4 hours ago, Evobase said:

Jews around the world need stand up and speak out against the atrocities committed by Israel. Until then, unfortunately, they will be viewed as complicit in the crimes against humanity. Being against the policies of Israel is not ‘anti semitic’. Jews who speak out against the terrorism that Israel commits are not ‘self hating Jews’. Stand up and speak out or risk being viewed as oppressors. 

This is wrong on so many levels that it's hard to know where to start.

 

But I will do a  list to break this down.

 

-- First of all the vast majority of people reading posts as above that blatantly promote and rationalize hating Jews, where are you? 

 

-- It's not only wrong to promote racism and Jew hating whenever it occurs, it's also wrong to hear and not confront the people spouting it.

 

-- How is the above post Jew hating? Do I really have to ask?The post assigns COLLECTIVE GUILT to all Jews all over the world for Israeli government policy unless they meet some kind of mysterious acid test of trashing Israel that meets the EXTREMIST views of this one person.

 

-- What does he propose? Difficult to tell. Perhaps all Jewish people all over the world (that mostly would not even be Israeli if not living in Israel) wear some kind of yellow Jewish star with a flashing button saying ANTI-ZIONIST?

 

Are Jewish children exempt? If so, at what age does the Jew need to be to be exempt from the acid test needed to not be guilty of complicity with so called crimes against humanity?

 

And this totally unreasonable Jew hating promoting acid test only addressers part of the Jew hating disease, the part coming from the far left and or Islamist based Jew hating.

 

Once the Jew has passed THAT acid test how is the Jew supposed to meet the demands of Jew haters influenced by the alt-right, white supremacists, and traditional Christian based Jew hating (often related)?

 

Why stop at the Jew

 

How is some fourth generation Chinese American going to prove she isn't complicit with China's human rights abuses?

 

It would be reasonable to make them wear a flashing anti China button too? 

 

Again, criticism of Israeli government policies is totally legit the same as towards any government that deserves criticism. Such as the government of Gaza. 

 

But posts such as above assigning collective guilt to all the Jews in the world are the opposite of reasonable and indeed actively promote Jew hatred. 

 

 

Edited December 31, 20196 yr by Jingthing
1

This is Jew hatred, made bare.

The belief in the International Jew conspiracy.

 

A secret, sinister, evil network working behind the scenes, unaccountable and powerful.

This hate comes straight out of Mein Kampf.

 

Here is a man consumed with hatred for Jews.

 

The fake quote at the end is typical of this type of compulsive Jew conspiracist.

 

 

 

Edited December 31, 20196 yr by toast1

Some inflammatory and offensive posts and replies have been removed. 

>Stand up and speak out or risk being viewed as oppressors. 

 

This is the sick and twisted world of the Jew hater.

 

Unless a Jew in Sweden, who has never been to Israel, condemns it, then he must be seen as an oppressor.

Should Sudanese living in Bangkok be seen as oppressors unless they condemn the Sudanese government? Of course not.

 

This is the crazy world of Jew hate. 

8 hours ago, Evobase said:

Jews around the world need stand up and speak out against the atrocities committed by Israel. Until then, unfortunately, they will be viewed as complicit in the crimes against humanity. Being against the policies of Israel is not ‘anti semitic’. Jews who speak out against the terrorism that Israel commits are not ‘self hating Jews’. Stand up and speak out or risk being viewed as oppressors. 

Yes while the entire wold should bend over backwards not to offend Muslim’s no matter what they do or where they do it ????

There is a difference between criticisms and race hate

On 12/30/2019 at 3:33 PM, rhyddid said:

Full genocide from the Zionist Israel government against the Palestinians civilians, what will be the millions of USD when the racist Zionist are keep slaughtering children, women and old people!!!

Zionist are doing the same what the Nazi did to the innocent Jews of Europe.

The only real reason of this is that Zionist are trying to kill whatever living Palestinians, even if there is a good part od Israelis that are against the genocide sadistically committed everyday against the Palestinians population, as the ONLY one terrorist are the Israeli Army and Security forces!

As I've mentioned before the Jew hating posts here are coming from the type of antisemitism from the left. Of course Jew hating also comes from Islamist extremists, the right, fascists, and traditional European Christian type. They are different flavors of the same sickness.

 

If you see posts as above suggesting Israel is the same as Nazi Germany you know where that flavor of Jew hating rhetoric is coming from.

 

Quote

The rise of anti-Semitism on the left

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/13/rise-anti-semitism-left/

In Syria, millions have been slaughtered, and millions are refugees, I don't think anyone cares and certainly no one's particularly upset about it.

No Jews.

Edited December 31, 20196 yr by toast1

Israel seems to be always putting itself in a position where it gets harder and harder to defend its actions in a fair-minded court of public opinion. The actions of its gov't are causing me to feel more and more compassion and sympathy for the strife of the Palestinians. 

 

Edited December 31, 20196 yr by Inn Between

What's the use, for years now there's many on these pages that continue to post disgusting and ubhorant options ( if you can call it so) of hate and vilify jews zionism and Israel in the same breath, under the guise of sympitying with the Palestinians, the internet become the new way of shameless jews bashing and persecution that gives the energy to criticize and accuse jews and Israel of many absurd dark ages mentality that no matter how the minds evolves, those haters need someone to hate and blame, so the charade of the boorish imbecile way of thinking privales...

Edited December 31, 20196 yr by ezzra

No, your a ss will not be deleted if you mildly criticise something PC. Thousands of anti-Israel posts have been made on this site, and no one complains.

But if you're a Jew hating idiot with a conspiracy theory about evil Jews and their secret powers, then yes, you need to be deleted. Because you are vermin.

 

Jew haters often use the word 'Juden', instead of Jew. As if German words give them the power of Hitler's 3rd Reich.

 

There is no reason to write "Achtung Juden", when English will do. The reason is this is upsetting to Jews, harks back to Jew hatred of the 1940's, and signals to other Jew haters that the poster is one of them.

 

Complaining about PC when promoting Jew hate - not clever. 

 

Edited January 1, 20206 yr by toast1

A troll post reported and removed.

What's in a name? One man's terrorist is another's freedom and resistance fighter.

The state of Israel itself was established by Jewish terrorist gangs. Two of Israel's Prime Ministers, Begin and Shamir, were once wanted by British Mandate authorities for the murder of soldiers and civilians.

 

Israel's illegal occupation of the West Bank is a war crime, a terrorist act in itself, currently being investigated by the ICC.

 

Palestinians are entitled by international law to resist an illegal occupation.

 

Perhaps if Israel did not commit yet another war crime that of collective punishment..blowing up the homes of families simply because they are related to an allegedly convicted Palestinian, there would be no need for  payments to those families left without breadwinners and homes.
A collective punishment that Israeli intelligence has warned politicians is actually counter productive, inciting resentment and radicalization.

 

And of course the blowing up of homes by the IDF is not applied equally to Israeli Jews who have been convicted of terrorism and hate crimes, such as burning to death whole families
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duma_arson_attack
 and kidnaping, torturing and murdering an innocent Palestinian teenager on his way to pray.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_and_murder_of_Mohammed_Abu_Khdeir

 

>The state of Israel itself was established by Jewish terrorist gangs.

 

No it was not.

There was a small amount of terrorism by a small number of people, but the state was not founded on this. 

 

Egypt does exactly the same thing, blowing up houses of terrorists. But no Jews, no one cares. 

Next door in Syria millions have been killed. But no Jews, no one cares.

 

 

The hatred of Jews and Israel by some on this site is pathalogical.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 20206 yr by toast1

54 minutes ago, toast1 said:

>The state of Israel itself was established by Jewish terrorist gangs.

 

No it was not.

There was a small amount of terrorism by a small number of people, but the state was not founded on this. 

 

Egypt does exactly the same thing, blowing up houses of terrorists. But no Jews, no one cares. 

Next door in Syria millions have been killed. But no Jews, no one cares.

 

 

The hatred of Jews and Israel by some on this site is pathalogical.

 

 

 

 

 

What is really pathological is defending the indefensible.

Land grabs and mass killings by radical Zionists keep the pot boiling in the Middle East.

If the Israelis wanted peace they would live within their internationally recognized 1967 borders.

The history of Israel since it's founding in 1948 has been one of rapacious expansion at the expense of the Palestinians.

The whole world is against what Israel is doing to it's neighbours. 

 

1 hour ago, toast1 said:

>The state of Israel itself was established by Jewish terrorist gangs.

 

No it was not.

There was a small amount of terrorism by a small number of people, but the state was not founded on this. 

 

Egypt does exactly the same thing, blowing up houses of terrorists. But no Jews, no one cares. 

Next door in Syria millions have been killed. But no Jews, no one cares.

 

 

The hatred of Jews and Israel by some on this site is pathalogical.

 

 

 

 

 

Denial and deflection. I suggest that you research not revise the history of the creation of the state of Israel

 

"Specifically the organization [Irgun] "committed acts of terrorism and assassination against the British, whom it regarded as illegal occupiers, and it was also violently anti-Arab" according to the Encyclopædia Britannica
Irgun's tactics appealed to many Jews who believed that any action taken in the cause of the creation of a Jewish state was justified, including terrorism.
The Irgun was a political predecessor to Israel's right-wing Herut (or "Freedom") party, which led to today's Likud party."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgun

 

..How ironic..their cause was to resist "illegal occupiers"! But when the indigenous Palestinians do so, they are labeled "terrorists".

 

"Lehi [aka Stern gang]split from the Irgun militant group in 1940 in order to continue fighting the British during World War II. Lehi initially sought an alliance with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, offering to fight alongside them against the British in return for the transfer of all Jews from Nazi-occupied Europe to Palestine."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehi_(militant_group)

 

And what did the state of Israel do with its own home grown terrorists? Not just pay them salaries when they absorbed them into the IDF, but rewarded them by making them Israeli Prime Ministers, and
"In 1980, Israel instituted a military decoration, an "award for activity in the struggle for the establishment of Israel", the Lehi ribbon"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehi_(militant_group)

 

And btw, I challenge you to quote a single instance of anti-Semitism in the whole history of my posts. Do not conflate my criticism of the current right wing government of Israel, its brutal treatment of Palestinians and the racist supremacist ideology of Zionism with real anti Semitism..the irrational hatred of a person just because they were born into or converted to a religion. I agree with you there:  that really is pathological insanity as are all forms of racism.

Only when Jews are involved.

 

Millions killed in Syria, no Jews no one cares

Tens of thousands killed in Iran, no Jews, no one cares

 

 

And btw, I challenge you to quote a single instance of angry posts from you about the millions killed and millions of refugees in non-Jew Syria.

 

Jew hatred, an irrational hatred of Jews and Israel  just because they are Jewish is a pathological insanity.

Edited January 2, 20206 yr by toast1

1 hour ago, DeaconJohn said:

What is really pathological is defending the indefensible.

Land grabs and mass killings by radical Zionists keep the pot boiling in the Middle East.

If the Israelis wanted peace they would live within their internationally recognized 1967 borders.

The history of Israel since it's founding in 1948 has been one of rapacious expansion at the expense of the Palestinians.

The whole world is against what Israel is doing to it's neighbours. 

 

How does the World feel about Chinese expansion into Tibet ?

1 hour ago, DeaconJohn said:

Land grabs and mass killings by radical Zionists keep the pot boiling in the Middle East.

Could you highlight those "mass killings" ?

I dont recall there ever being any "mass killings "

1 hour ago, DeaconJohn said:

 

The whole world is against what Israel is doing to it's neighbours. 

 

No they are not .

Palestinians have sided with Iran and are aligned with Hezbollah , Irans military wing  .

  Saudi are concerned about Irans influence and expansion , as is Israel and the USA .

  The power struggle is between Iran and Saudi and their allies , Israel are now allies with Saudi and Saudi oppose the Palestinians and Iran