Israel freezes funds over Palestinian prisoner payments

Palestinians accuse Israel of 'piracy' after law passes to freeze tax money over payments to prisoners' families.

TEL AVIV - Israel's parliament has passed a law to freeze money transferred to the Palestinian Authority over its payments to the families of Palestinians jailed for attacks on Israelis.

The legislation was approved late Monday and gives the Israeli government powers to deduct money that Palestinians allocate to the families of prisoners and others killed by Israeli occupation forces.

Israel collects around $127 million a month in customs duties levied on goods destined for Palestinian markets that transit through Israeli ports and then transfers it to the Palestinian Authority.

A sponsor of the legislation says the PA pays around $330 million a year to prisoners and their families, amounting to seven percent of its budget.

Israel has withheld payments in the past, notably in response to the Palestinians' 2011 admission to the UN cultural agency UNESCO as a full member.

When Israeli ministers first backed the new legislation in February, the Palestinian government called it "piracy and theft" as well as a breach of international law.

Issa Qaraqe, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission, said that the funding freeze is "piracy of Palestinian money as well as an arbitrary and racist law."

Qaraqe said the PA will never give up on the Palestinian “martyrs”.

“This is part of our culture and resistance,” he said. “This law intends to delegitimize our national struggle for independence.”

Israel says the payments to the families of Palestinians jailed or killed by Israeli forces encourages further violence.

Many Palestinians view the prisoners as heroes in the struggle against Israel's occupation, its policies of apartheid and its theft of Palestinian land and resources.

The payments are also often a vital source of income for families who have in many cases lost their main breadwinner.

Heavy pressure

"This is a very dangerous decision that amounts to the cancellation of the Palestinian Authority and is piracy and theft," said Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

"Israel is stealing the land and money of the Palestinian people, and that is a result of the decisions of (US) President (Donald) Trump, who supports Israel."

The spokesman for PA President Mahmous Abbas,  Nabil Abu Rudeina, said the Palestinian leadership was planning a response to the move, which he said would cross "one of the red lines" if implemented.

Rudeina said Abbas "condemned" the passing of the law, adding "this is a declaration of war on the Palestinian people and a severe blow to the Oslo Accords."

Abbas would face heavy pressure among Palestinians if he would move to cut the payments.

The PA, which has limited sovereignty in parts of the occupied West Bank, relies heavily on outside financial aid.

It is also facing what is sees as blatant bias from Trump's administration and froze relations with the White House after he recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital last year.

US legislation that became law in March also withholds some aid to the Palestinian leadership over the payments to prisoners' families and the families of those killed while carrying out attacks.

But while the prisoner payments have sparked outrage among Israelis, Israeli authorities also benefit from security coordination with the PA and may be reluctant to see financial cuts that significantly affect that.

Palestinian officials say some 850,000 people have spent time in Israeli prisons in the 50 years since Israel seized the Palestinian territories in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Israel currently detains some 6,500 Palestinians.

International law

The original draft of the law specified that the funds withheld would be appropriated by the Israeli government “for the welfare of all the residents of Judea and Samaria.”

The bill was changed after Israel's attorney general advised the government that using the money would be legally problematic.

“Judea and Samaria” is how nationalists in the Israeli government refer to territory in the West Bank, which is recognised internationally as occupied Palestinian territory. 

Around 400,000 Jewish settlers live in the occupied West Bank under Israeli military protection, with their presence considered illegal under international law.

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who himself lives in a Jewish settlement, hailed the passing of the new law saying: "Every shekel (president) Mahmud Abbas will pay for terrorists and assassins will be automatically withdrawn from the Palestinian Authority's budget.

"An effective war on terrorism also passes through the pocket -- of the terrorists, of their families and of Mahmud Abbas."

But senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi accused Israel of "piracy". 

"They are stealing Palestinian funds, it's not theirs to decide what to do with it. If we were free we wouldn't need Israel to collect customs."

The law had passed after a heated exchange in Israel's parliament in which Jewish and Palestinian members clashed and hurled accusations.

Jamal Zahalka, of the Joint List of Arab parties, said the bill was "despicable" and called the bill's co-sponsor, Avi Dichter of the ruling Likud party, a "terrorist".

"You are stealing from the Palestinian people," Zahalka shouted.