The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and the Palestinian Authority issued a joint statement in which they launched a $350 million appeal to “address critical humanitarian needs of Palestinians.” In doing so, they called “upon the international donors’ community to help us in securing the requested funds for 2019 in order to maintain the humanitarian interventions.”
Palestinian Media Watch can reveal that the sum that the United Nations and the P.A. are asking the international community to donate—$350 million—is equivalent to the $355 million the P.A. allocated in its 2018 budget to fund its payments rewarding terror. This includes payments to terrorist prisoners, released terrorist prisoners and to the families of the so-called “martyrs”—i.e., terrorists killed while carrying out attacks, including suicide bombers.
“Instead of the U.N. asking donor countries to contribute $350 million to provide for Palestinian ‘humanitarian needs,’ the U.N. should be joining the unequivocal call from many governments that the P.A. immediately stop squandering the $355 million of its own funds on its ‘Pay for Slay’ policy that incentivizes and rewards terrorism, and instead spend that money on needy Palestinians. Were the U.N. to adopt this basic and elementary moral requirement, it would strengthen the international forces that are mobilizing against the P.A.’s terror support,” remarked Maurice Hirsch, head of legal strategies at PMW.
Abolishing the “Pay for Slay” policy would re-open the door for the P.A. to receive the approximately $215 million of U.S. aid to the P.A. withheld by the Taylor Force Act. Abolishing the P.A.’s”Pay for Slay” policy would also avert the imminent deduction by Israel of the P.A.’s expenditure on the salary program from the tax revenues Israel collects and transfers to the P.A. Moreover, it would ensure that the P.A. would not lose its Australian funding and part of its funding from the Netherlands.
The so-called Palestinian “humanitarian” crisis is a self-imposed crisis, created by Palestinian Authority leaders.
Hirsch continued: “While the leaders of the P.A. have repeatedly made their moral bankruptcy crystal clear by saying, that even if they only have one penny left in the bank, they will spend it on the terrorists before any other Palestinians, it is altogether unclear why the U.N.’s OCHA has decided that it is appropriate to assist the PA in raising the funds it needs to support its pugnacious policy of financially rewarding terrorists.”
As if the payment of these terrorist salaries wasn’t enough, the P.A. spends money on terrorists in yet additional ways. One of them is building houses for terrorists.
As a deterrent it is Israeli policy in certain cases to demolish houses of terrorists.
It is P.A. policy to spend money on rebuilding such houses.
P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas has just given orders to rebuild the home of the family of terror mom Um Nasser Abu Hmeid. Abu Hmeid is the mother of four convicted terrorist murderers who are serving 18 life sentences combined; another terrorist son whom the P.A. refers to as a “martyr” was killed while resisting arrest after he murdered a member of the Israeli security forces. The Abu Hmeid family’s house was demolished on Dec. 15, 2018, after a sixth son, now standing trial, admitted to the murder of Israeli staff-sergeant Ronen Lyubarsky.
Now the P.A. will spend money on rebuilding their house on orders from Abbas:
Fatah Central Committee member and Head of Civil Affairs in the P.A. Hussein Al-Sheikh: “President Abbas has given direct orders this morning [Dec. 15, 2018] to quickly and immediately rebuild the home of the Abu Hmeid family. This is a fighting family. We bow to this family, its history of struggle, and their heroism (i.e., terrorists who murdered at least 10). Therefore, the minimum that can be provided to this family is to stand by it and immediately rebuild its demolished home.” [Official P.A. TV News, Dec. 15, 2018]
In response, Hirsch said: “Forcing the P.A. to spend its own funds on the ‘critical humanitarian needs’ of the Palestinians, rather than using them to incentivize and reward terrorism, will both promote peace and help wean the Palestinians from their self-imposed reliance on international aid. In contrast, requesting the international community to step in and fund the humanitarian needs of the Palestinians allows the P.A. to continue to waste its own resources on programs that distance peace and deepen the dependence of the Palestinians on aid.”