PLO official: Proposed Israeli legislation against PA salaries to imprisoned terrorists "defines the Palestinian national struggle as ‘terror’”, “resistance against the occupation” has “legal and humanitarian” foundations
Excerpt of op-ed by Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Issa Karake
Headline: “Israel can confiscate our money by force”
“The fact that on June 14, 2017, the Israeli Ministerial Committee approved a bill to confiscate the Palestinian tax money on the pretext that it is paid as aid to the families of the prisoners, Martyrs (Shahids), and injured is more terrible and unethical than the war itself, because it skins the Palestinian people alive and legislates laws whose sole goal is to grind its flesh under the cover of law. The Israeli, American, and European goal behind this blackmail and pressure against the PA is not material to the same extent as that it wants to define the Palestinian national struggle as ‘terror’ and a ‘crime,’ and deprive the Palestinian resistance against the occupation - represented by the prisoners, Martyrs, and injured - of its legal and humanitarian foundations and the international legitimacy that allows every people subjected to occupation to resist this occupation in order to achieve its freedom and dignity…
We must explain to those who have fallen for this Israeli deception that the government of Israel has turned the prisoner sector into a financial market that directs large amounts of money to the coffers of the Israeli treasury, without the cost of the imprisonment of thousands of them costing them anything. It has presented the prisoners with a fait accompli in which it shirks the legal and ethical responsibility for their lives and livelihoods on the medical and financial levels, and on the level of services and education, but is very happy to receive the canteen allowances of the prisoners in the prisons, who in this pragmatic instance are no longer considered ‘terrorists.’ …
Every state or authority that respects itself, its values, and its culture in every democratic society that respects the rule of law cannot abandon the families of its prisoners, Martyrs, and injured, but rather must strengthen its role in taking care of them and protecting them from need and poverty as victims of the occupation… The Israeli goal behind the pressure to stop the allowances (mukhassasat) of the prisoners, Martyrs, and injured is to create an obedient Palestinian society. This is because it thinks that if it changes the values and principles of the Palestinians, and their national concepts, it will guarantee their absolute and permanent subordination to the occupation.”
Headline: “Israel can confiscate our money by force”
“The fact that on June 14, 2017, the Israeli Ministerial Committee approved a bill to confiscate the Palestinian tax money on the pretext that it is paid as aid to the families of the prisoners, Martyrs (Shahids), and injured is more terrible and unethical than the war itself, because it skins the Palestinian people alive and legislates laws whose sole goal is to grind its flesh under the cover of law. The Israeli, American, and European goal behind this blackmail and pressure against the PA is not material to the same extent as that it wants to define the Palestinian national struggle as ‘terror’ and a ‘crime,’ and deprive the Palestinian resistance against the occupation - represented by the prisoners, Martyrs, and injured - of its legal and humanitarian foundations and the international legitimacy that allows every people subjected to occupation to resist this occupation in order to achieve its freedom and dignity…
We must explain to those who have fallen for this Israeli deception that the government of Israel has turned the prisoner sector into a financial market that directs large amounts of money to the coffers of the Israeli treasury, without the cost of the imprisonment of thousands of them costing them anything. It has presented the prisoners with a fait accompli in which it shirks the legal and ethical responsibility for their lives and livelihoods on the medical and financial levels, and on the level of services and education, but is very happy to receive the canteen allowances of the prisoners in the prisons, who in this pragmatic instance are no longer considered ‘terrorists.’ …
Every state or authority that respects itself, its values, and its culture in every democratic society that respects the rule of law cannot abandon the families of its prisoners, Martyrs, and injured, but rather must strengthen its role in taking care of them and protecting them from need and poverty as victims of the occupation… The Israeli goal behind the pressure to stop the allowances (mukhassasat) of the prisoners, Martyrs, and injured is to create an obedient Palestinian society. This is because it thinks that if it changes the values and principles of the Palestinians, and their national concepts, it will guarantee their absolute and permanent subordination to the occupation.”