Director of PLO Prisoners’ Commission: Prisoners' “rights” (i.e., salaries) will continue

Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr: “This is of course my message to all the prisoners and their families inside and outside [of Palestine], the released prisoners and those not released: There are regulations and laws and strict instructions from [PA] President [Abbas] to continue this path, and that the rights (i.e., salaries) of our detainees and prisoners won’t be harmed.” [Official PA TV News, Aug. 5, 2018] The PA Law of Prisoners (2004) and Regulations (2006, 2010, and 2013) guarantee monthly salaries to all terrorist prisoners. Abu Bakr’s statement came after several countries announced they will end their funding to the PA unless the PA stops rewarding terrorists with salaries. The Taylor Force Act - a bill named after US citizen Taylor Force who was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in Tel Aviv on March 8, 2016, which calls to cut almost all funding to the PA if it continues paying salaries to terrorists and allowances to families of "Martyrs." On March 23, 2018, the bill was approved by the American Congress and signed into law by US President Donald Trump. Law to deduct terrorist salaries from PA tax money - Israeli law stating that the PA payments to terrorists and the families of dead terrorists is a financial incentive to terror. The law instructs the state 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]