The U.S. House of Representatives has approved legislation that includes the Taylor Force Bill, which freezes aid to the Palestinian Authority until the Ramallah government ends its “pay to slay” policy.
The bill is named after the late American veteran Taylor Force, an MBA student at Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University who was stabbed to death while visiting Israel as a tourist in March 2016 in a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv.
The family of the killer, who was eliminated by Israeli police, has received a monthly reward payment due the “family of a ‘martyr'” from the Palestinian Authority government since the attack.
The legislation enjoys strong bipartisan support for ending the Palestinian Authority government’s policy of paying monthly salaries to terrorists serving time in Israeli prisons, and the families of those who were killed in the attempt to attack and kill Israelis.
“U.S aid to the Palestinian Authority is important, but must never be carte blanche,” American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris said, praising lawmakers for their passage of the bill. “The House has taken a crucial step towards ending the PA’s intentional misuse of foreign assistance to financially reward Palestinian terrorists and their families.”
AJC urged the U.S. Senate to move “expeditiously” in approving the Taylor Force Act, so the measure can be signed into law by President Trump.
The organization is also calling on the members of the European Parliament to launch a public inquiry into the “pay to slay” policy of the Palestinian Authority government as well.
The UK government last month authorized a grant of 20 million pound British Sterling to the general budget of the Palestinian Authority government, a decision that is likely to contribution to the incitement to violence and “pay to slay” policy, rather than to end it.
The Taylor Force Act legislation, meanwhile, does not call for a total cutoff of U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority, but rather would freeze financial assistance provided by the U.S. – aside from aid allotted for security cooperation and some humanitarian relief – until the PA has ended the practice of terror payments and taken “credible steps” to end violence against American and Israeli citizens.
The measure also calls on other all donor countries take similar action against the PA, and requires the U.S. State Department to produce annually a report detailing the PA’s terror payments.
According to a recent Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs report, the PA allocated $344,313,451 for payments to Palestinian inmates in Israeli prisons, their families, and to the families of deceased terrorists in 2017. This number is equal to half of the amount of foreign aid directed toward the PA budget ($700 million).
The Palestinian Authority claims U.S. lawmakers are misinformed, saying its payment program supports families who “lose their breadwinners during Israel’s occupation” of Judea and Samaria.