PLO Department for Negotiation Affairs releases report defending the PA’s payments to terrorist prisoners, claiming Israel should be the one paying them
Headline: “[PLO] Department for Negotiation Affairs report titled The Colonialist Occupation System and the Palestinian Prisoners”
“The [PLO] Department for Negotiation Affairs yesterday [March 8, 2018] published a document under the title The Colonialist Occupation System and the Palestinian Prisoners regarding the prisoners and that which concerns their salaries (rawatib) and the salaries of their families according to international law, in comparison to what Israel is doing.
The following are the main points of the report (PMW was unable to locate the full report –Ed.):
…
The law to deduct the prisoners’ allowances (mukhassasat, “law” refers to a new Israeli bill; see note below –Ed.) is a racist law that violates Israel’s obligations as the one holding the prisoners in everything regarding their allowances, which is anchored in articles 81 and 98 of the Fourth Geneva Convention that Israel is blatantly violating (sic., the Fourth Geneva Convention does not apply. Those articles explicitly refer to interned protected persons – not convicted terrorist prisoners; see note below).
Article 81 determines that the body that imprisons protected persons needs to sustain them and provide them with medical treatment, and that it must not deduct anything to cover these expenses from the prisoners’ allowances, their salaries, and payments to which they are entitled.
The state that is holding the prisoners must also sustain the people that they [the prisoners] provide for, if they do not have sufficient means of subsistence or are unable to sustain themselves.
Article 98 determines that the state that is holding the prisoners must provide them with allowances, as this is part of its responsibility towards them. The prisoners can also receive aid from the state in which they are citizens, from states that grant them protection, or from any party that aids them, and the state that is holding the prisoners needs to provide them with everything to facilitate sending aid to their families and to the people who are financially dependent on them…
Israel is giving itself the right to provide social protection aid to the Israeli prisoners’ families, regardless of what crime they were convicted of, but bans Palestine from doing this. The Israeli occupation government is also providing financial, social, morale-building, and political aid to the Israeli soldiers and settler murderers who committed crimes against the Palestinian people.
Israel is providing money to the Israeli prisoners and the prisoners’ families through the National Insurance Institute, and is providing monthly allowances, compensation, annual grants, and permanent allowances to Israeli citizens who were killed or wounded in ‘acts of hostility.’
Israel also has a program called Prisoners of Zion and Families of the Fallen, which provides monetary aid to fighters who sacrificed their freedom, health, and sometimes also their lives in order to return to the land of ‘Zion.’
…
In addition, the occupation government is providing direct and indirect monetary aid to an organization called Dr. Goldstein, which named itself after terrorist criminal Baruch Goldstein who committed a terror attack at the Ibrahimi Mosque (i.e., Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hebron in 1994 (sic., PMW could find no evidence that such an organization exists).
…
At a time in which Palestine is subject to a strong attack by Israel and the world because it provides allowances to the Palestinian prisoners who were arbitrarily arrested by the occupation authority, it clarifies the following: The State of Palestine is paying the financial price of the occupation, in light of the fact that Israel is evading its obligations and is not paying allowances to the prisoners. It is also paying the price of the international community’s failure to demand an accounting from Israel and that it adhere to the law. In this case – and even though this financial burden that the occupation has caused weighs heavily on the Palestinian government – our national responsibility and the natural obligation of our government to the members of our people forces us to aid the prisoners and their families, as they are a central and basic component of our people and one of the Palestinian sectors that has absorbed the greatest damage from the occupation at all levels – human, social, financial, and psychological – and it is impossible to abandon them.
The fact that the State of Palestine is paying allowances to the families of the prisoners, Martyrs, and wounded is a legal obligation and human and national duty, in order to provide aid and protection to these families that are suffering from the results of the administrative detention policy, to guarantee their dignity, and not to abandon them to their fate.
…
The State of Palestine demands that Israel, the occupying power, obey the principles of international law, immediately cancel its racist legislation, and commit itself to paying the prisoners’ allowances and sustaining their families, because the overwhelming majority of the prisoners are the main providers of their families, and this is according to article 98 of the Fourth Geneva [Convention].
The State of Palestine also demands that Israel, the occupying power, compensate the victims from among the members of our people for the occupation state’s organized terror, including granting compensation for all of the prisoners’ allowances and salaries that it has stolen for 50 years.”
Bill to deduct terror salaries from PA tax money - On Feb. 18, 2018, the Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved a bill proposed by the Israeli Ministry of Defense that would deduct the amount of money the PA pays imprisoned terrorists and families of "Martyrs" from the tax money Israel collects for the PA. The bill would enable the deducted money to be used for infrastructure benefitting all West Bank residents, compensation awarded to terror victims in lawsuits against the PA or individual terrorists, and projects aimed at eliminating terror.
The Fourth Geneva Convention stipulates that an occupying power that holds protected persons as internees has certain obligations regarding their livelihood and the livelihood of those dependent upon them. However, it also explicitly states that a person who is “suspected of or engaged in activities hostile to the security of the State… shall not be entitled to claim such rights and privileges under the present Convention.” This definition clearly disproves the claim that Israel has financial obligations to provide for convicted Palestinian terrorist prisoners who are not considered “internees,” and likewise those held in administrative detention are “suspected of… activities hostile to the security of the State.”
Cave of the Patriarchs massacre - On Feb. 25, 1994, Baruch Goldstein, a member of an Israeli far-right movement, opened fire on Muslims praying inside the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, known to Muslims as the "Ibrahimi Mosque," murdering 29 and wounding 125. Following the attack, which was widely condemned by Israeli leaders and Jewish communities abroad, the Israeli government took concrete steps to prevent similar attacks from occurring by dividing the area of worship into Muslim and Jewish sections and designating several extremist movements, including Goldstein’s, as illegal terrorist groups.
“The [PLO] Department for Negotiation Affairs yesterday [March 8, 2018] published a document under the title The Colonialist Occupation System and the Palestinian Prisoners regarding the prisoners and that which concerns their salaries (rawatib) and the salaries of their families according to international law, in comparison to what Israel is doing.
The following are the main points of the report (PMW was unable to locate the full report –Ed.):
…
The law to deduct the prisoners’ allowances (mukhassasat, “law” refers to a new Israeli bill; see note below –Ed.) is a racist law that violates Israel’s obligations as the one holding the prisoners in everything regarding their allowances, which is anchored in articles 81 and 98 of the Fourth Geneva Convention that Israel is blatantly violating (sic., the Fourth Geneva Convention does not apply. Those articles explicitly refer to interned protected persons – not convicted terrorist prisoners; see note below).
Article 81 determines that the body that imprisons protected persons needs to sustain them and provide them with medical treatment, and that it must not deduct anything to cover these expenses from the prisoners’ allowances, their salaries, and payments to which they are entitled.
The state that is holding the prisoners must also sustain the people that they [the prisoners] provide for, if they do not have sufficient means of subsistence or are unable to sustain themselves.
Article 98 determines that the state that is holding the prisoners must provide them with allowances, as this is part of its responsibility towards them. The prisoners can also receive aid from the state in which they are citizens, from states that grant them protection, or from any party that aids them, and the state that is holding the prisoners needs to provide them with everything to facilitate sending aid to their families and to the people who are financially dependent on them…
Israel is giving itself the right to provide social protection aid to the Israeli prisoners’ families, regardless of what crime they were convicted of, but bans Palestine from doing this. The Israeli occupation government is also providing financial, social, morale-building, and political aid to the Israeli soldiers and settler murderers who committed crimes against the Palestinian people.
Israel is providing money to the Israeli prisoners and the prisoners’ families through the National Insurance Institute, and is providing monthly allowances, compensation, annual grants, and permanent allowances to Israeli citizens who were killed or wounded in ‘acts of hostility.’
Israel also has a program called Prisoners of Zion and Families of the Fallen, which provides monetary aid to fighters who sacrificed their freedom, health, and sometimes also their lives in order to return to the land of ‘Zion.’
…
In addition, the occupation government is providing direct and indirect monetary aid to an organization called Dr. Goldstein, which named itself after terrorist criminal Baruch Goldstein who committed a terror attack at the Ibrahimi Mosque (i.e., Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hebron in 1994 (sic., PMW could find no evidence that such an organization exists).
…
At a time in which Palestine is subject to a strong attack by Israel and the world because it provides allowances to the Palestinian prisoners who were arbitrarily arrested by the occupation authority, it clarifies the following: The State of Palestine is paying the financial price of the occupation, in light of the fact that Israel is evading its obligations and is not paying allowances to the prisoners. It is also paying the price of the international community’s failure to demand an accounting from Israel and that it adhere to the law. In this case – and even though this financial burden that the occupation has caused weighs heavily on the Palestinian government – our national responsibility and the natural obligation of our government to the members of our people forces us to aid the prisoners and their families, as they are a central and basic component of our people and one of the Palestinian sectors that has absorbed the greatest damage from the occupation at all levels – human, social, financial, and psychological – and it is impossible to abandon them.
The fact that the State of Palestine is paying allowances to the families of the prisoners, Martyrs, and wounded is a legal obligation and human and national duty, in order to provide aid and protection to these families that are suffering from the results of the administrative detention policy, to guarantee their dignity, and not to abandon them to their fate.
…
The State of Palestine demands that Israel, the occupying power, obey the principles of international law, immediately cancel its racist legislation, and commit itself to paying the prisoners’ allowances and sustaining their families, because the overwhelming majority of the prisoners are the main providers of their families, and this is according to article 98 of the Fourth Geneva [Convention].
The State of Palestine also demands that Israel, the occupying power, compensate the victims from among the members of our people for the occupation state’s organized terror, including granting compensation for all of the prisoners’ allowances and salaries that it has stolen for 50 years.”
Bill to deduct terror salaries from PA tax money - On Feb. 18, 2018, the Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved a bill proposed by the Israeli Ministry of Defense that would deduct the amount of money the PA pays imprisoned terrorists and families of "Martyrs" from the tax money Israel collects for the PA. The bill would enable the deducted money to be used for infrastructure benefitting all West Bank residents, compensation awarded to terror victims in lawsuits against the PA or individual terrorists, and projects aimed at eliminating terror.
The Fourth Geneva Convention stipulates that an occupying power that holds protected persons as internees has certain obligations regarding their livelihood and the livelihood of those dependent upon them. However, it also explicitly states that a person who is “suspected of or engaged in activities hostile to the security of the State… shall not be entitled to claim such rights and privileges under the present Convention.” This definition clearly disproves the claim that Israel has financial obligations to provide for convicted Palestinian terrorist prisoners who are not considered “internees,” and likewise those held in administrative detention are “suspected of… activities hostile to the security of the State.”
Cave of the Patriarchs massacre - On Feb. 25, 1994, Baruch Goldstein, a member of an Israeli far-right movement, opened fire on Muslims praying inside the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, known to Muslims as the "Ibrahimi Mosque," murdering 29 and wounding 125. Following the attack, which was widely condemned by Israeli leaders and Jewish communities abroad, the Israeli government took concrete steps to prevent similar attacks from occurring by dividing the area of worship into Muslim and Jewish sections and designating several extremist movements, including Goldstein’s, as illegal terrorist groups.