PLO official: Prisoners had a “right” to kill – a “right to resist the occupation”; paying them is "sacred"

PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Spokesman Hassan Abd Rabbo: "The legislation that passed the Israeli Parliament is racist legislation and is tantamount to organized state terror, which targets the Palestinian people’s values of struggle and morals, and attempts not only to steal the Palestinian people’s money, but also to target the history of our people’s struggle and its right to resist the occupation and to extract itself from this occupation. This is the heart of the matter - the political aspect and the historical aspect of the struggle between the Palestinian people and the Israeli occupation. What is demanded [by the Israelis is] that the [Israeli] law defines the [Palestinian] national struggle as a crime, considers it terror, and considers the Palestinian people’s fighters and its Martyrs terrorists, criminals, and murderers. This is what we absolutely oppose. The issue of paying allowances (mukhassasat) to the families of the Martyrs, prisoners, and wounded is a sacred national obligation of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian leadership."
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Law to deduct terrorist salaries from PA tax money - Israeli law to deduct and freeze the amount of money the PA pays in salaries to imprisoned terrorists and families of "Martyrs" from the tax money Israel collects for the PA. Should the PA stop these payments for a full year, the Israeli government would have the option of giving all or part of the frozen money to the PA. The law was enacted on July 2, 2018.

During the parliamentary vote, the law’s sponsor Avi Dichter said: “The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee received much help in its deliberations… from Palestinian Media Watch who provided us with authentic data that enabled productive and professional deliberations, nuances that are very difficult to achieve without precise data.” [Israeli Parliament website, July 2, 2018]