PMW salary report leads Congressman to condemn PA salary rewards to terrorists
PMW salary report leads Congressman to condemn PA salary rewards to terrorists
Just a week after PMW director Itamar Marcus met with Congressman Ed Royce and gave him PMW's new salary report, Royce questioned Assistant Secretary of State Anne Patterson about US aid to the PA:
Transcript:
Congressman Ed Royce: "For some years now you have a system [in the PA] where basically there's been an inducement to pay human assassins to seek out innocent people and kill them, and then a stipend is given for the time that those [Palestinian] individuals serve in custody [in Israeli prisons] for their crime... You were before the committee before [April 2014] and were asked about this and at the time you indicated, 'well that is being,' what were your words at the time, I think, 'phased out' ... There's a stipend upon a stipend if you're an Israeli [Arab] and commit an act against another Israeli. This is a very perverse creation. Unbelievably perverse. And I'd like your response there. And second... Did you know they [the PA] were going to simply transfer this to the PLO? In that sense, they were phasing it off their books, but they weren't phasing it out. They were simply disguising the funding..."
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Anne Patterson: "No I didn't know that. What I was basing that on was my own discussions with Palestinian members who said they had been phasing it out for financial and the other reasons that you discussed. And I totally agree with you that this is an egregious practice. But let me also stress, Mr. Chairman, that I think that our assistance to the PA does many beneficial things in maintaining security, promoting entrepreneurship, promoting better health standards and infrastructure development and is absolutely essential for the stability in this part of the world. So we will continue to press them on this issue, which I entirely agree with you, which is an unacceptable one..."
Congressman Ed Royce: "The donor community is helping the PA basically pay people to slay other people. So here is my point. I want us to use our considerable leverage to end that practice. And second, I would really like the European community in our dialogue with them to fully comprehend what's going on in this process of the [PA’s] inducements of paying people to get them to go out and slay other human beings. Can you do that? ..."
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Anne Patterson: "None of our money goes to this. It's not fungible in that respect. Our money goes essentially to pay PA debts to Israel and to other creditors. So the budget reliefs, the budget support [from the US] that you see in the budget, goes to creditors and cannot be diverted to these stipends."
Congressman Ed Royce: "But the reality is that the donor community is coming together internationally to fund the PA... Since the donor community is putting money into that pot in order - in one way or the other - to help the Palestinian people - regardless how we perceive it - we have to use our leverage to cut this out. And now is the time to do it..."
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Anne Patterson: "Mr. Chairman, rest assured that this will be a subject of discussion with the rest of the donor community. We see Europeans and other donors all the time and rest assured your points will be conveyed with our full concurrence."
[House Foreign Affairs Committee YouTube Channel, April 13, 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCoWMB3xMNo&feature=youtu.be]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCoWMB3xMNo&feature=youtu.be]