U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman slammed the Palestinian Authority’s practice of rewarding those who attack Israelis after a Palestinian official announced that the Palestinian teen who killed an Israeli-American earlier this week can receive a monthly stipend.
“The Palestinian Prisoner Affairs Commission has confirmed that the family of the terrorist who murdered Ari Fuld is ‘eligible to receive a monthly salary’ as compensation for his incarceration,” Friedman posted on Twitter. “This practice is unconscionable and must stop if there is to be any hope for peace.”
U.S. envoy for international relations Jason Greenblatt echoed Friedman’s sentiment on Twitter.
“OUTRAGEOUS! Some people are complaining about US cutting funds to the Palestinian Authority,” said Greenblatt. “But the PA continues to pay terrorists—in this case the terrorist who on Sunday murdered in cold-blood Ari Fuld, an Israeli-American father of four.”
Fuld, 45, was stabbed to death on Sunday by 17-year-old Khalil Jabarin as he stood outside a shopping mall in Gush Etzion Junction, south of Jerusalem. Israeli media praised Fuld as a hero for chasing after Jabarin and shooting him—despite bleeding from a stab wound—and crediting him with preventing Jabarin from attacking anyone else.
Jabarin’s family will receive a monthly stipend of $392, Prisoner Affairs’ Commission spokesman Hassan Abd Rabbo told The Times of Israel. These payments are expected to occur over a three-year period.
Abd Rabbo added that the amount will increase the longer Jabarin remains in jail.
Congress passed the Taylor Force Act in March to halt U.S. assistance to the P.A. for its so-called “Martyrs Fund,” which rewards terrorists and their families.