The State Department on Monday denounced proposed Israeli legislation that would use tax revenue collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority to defray the legal expenses of Hamas terrorists captured on Oct. 7.
“We have been clear that the Palestinian Authority’s clearance revenues belong to the P.A. and should be transferred in full,” said a State Department spokesperson.
“Effective counterterrorism policy upholds the rule of law while respecting human rights,” the statement continued.
The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee on July 15 advanced an amendment to the Public Defender’s Office Bill stipulating that legal fees for those charged with terrorism be deducted from funds intended for the P.A.
Those charged with or suspected of nationalistically motivated crime, and who are not citizens or residents, would not be eligible for state funding with regard to legal representation under the amendment.
The bill passed in first reading with the support of committee chair Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party), Avraham Betzalel (Shas Party) and Matan Kahana (National Unity Party). Labor Party Knesset member Gilad Kariv was present but refrained from voting, according to the Knesset website.
Under agreements signed in the 1990s, Israel’s Finance Ministry collects taxes and customs duties on behalf of the P.A. Ramallah earmarks an estimated 275 million shekels, or $73 million, for Gaza each month.
“The Palestinian Authority receives money from the State of Israel based on tax revenues, some of it connected to Judea and Samaria and some of it connected to the Gaza Strip,” Rothman explained to JNS on Sunday.
“You cannot get the benefits of receiving the taxes for Gaza but not be responsible for the atrocities that came from Gaza,” he continued. “For that reason and many more, the P.A. should be held accountable for what happened on Oct. 7.”
Ramallah also pays monthly “salaries” to captured Oct. 7 terrorists under its “pay-for-slay” policy, and its police officers have been involved in acts of terror in Judea and Samaria, Rothman told JNS.
“This ... should come with some price tag, and that’s the offer on the table right now,” he concluded.
Some 3,000 terrorists, from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah, along with unaffiliated Gazans, infiltrated the Jewish state on Oct. 7. Israeli security forces killed approximately 1,000 of the terrorists and captured many others.
Roughly 1,200 Israelis were murdered on Oct. 7, with thousands more wounded and over 250 others abducted. One hundred and fifteen hostages, both living and dead, remain captive in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli government has already allocated around a million shekels (approx. $275,000) to the legal defense by private attorneys of terrorists who invaded Israel on Oct. 7, the Israel Courts Administration revealed earlier this month.
The government body said the initial funding would go toward paying 79 private attorneys who agreed to represent the terrorists, including suspected members of Hamas’s Nukhba Force, which led the mass infiltration and massacre.
