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PMW sends letter to Israeli Defense Ministry asking why anti-Pay-To-Slay law hasn’t been implemented

Gil Hoffman  |
PMW sends letter to Israeli Defense Ministry
asking why Pay-To-Slay law hasn’t been implemented



Headline: "PA To Pay Family Of Fuld’s Murderer NIS 1,400 A Month For 3 Years"
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"The family of Khalil Yusef Ali Jabarin, the terrorist who murdered 45-year-old father of four Ari Fuld on Sunday, will receive NIS 1,400 a month for the next three years from the Palestinian Authority, as part of its policy of funding what they call “martyrs” for the Palestinian cause, according to information supplied by the PA. The PA’s terror-reward budget for 2017 and 2018 amounted to NIS 1.2 billion for each year, according to its Finance Ministry’s website.

In an effort to pressure the PA to end this policy, Israel passed the “Pay for Slay Law” by an 87 to 15 vote on July 2, but The Jerusalem Post has learned that the new law has yet to be implemented.

According to the law, which was backed by every party except for the Joint List and Meretz, Israel will deduct the amount of money that the PA gives to terrorists and their families from the taxes and tariffs Israel collects for the authority on a monthly basis.

Immediately after the law’s passage, the Defense Ministry established the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing, which is responsible for implementing the new law as well as coordinating and synchronizing law enforcement agencies, security agencies, regulators and government ministries in the struggle against the financing of terrorism and its proliferation.

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman hired as the bureau’s director attorney Paul Landes, who transferred over from the Prime Minister’s Office. Landes previously served as head of the Justice Ministry’s Prohibition of Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority (IMPA) and is regarded as an international expert in appraising compliance of regimes in combating financing of terrorism.

The Defense Ministry declined a request by the Post to interview Landes, who received a letter last week from Palestinian Media Watch complaining that the Pay for Slay Law has not been applied to payments made in 2017.

PMW director Itamar Marcus suggested that implementing the law could have discouraged Fuld’s murderer. 'Had the government acted as required to implement the law and started deducting the terror-reward finances, it would be much harder for the PA to reward the murderer of Ari Fuld and the hundreds of murderers and other terrorists with a high salary,' Marcus said. 'Every month that the Israeli government violates the new law, the PA has 100,000,000 shekels supplied by Israel from which it can reward terror.'

Marcus said there is nothing in the law that postpones implementation until 2019, and therefore it should be implemented immediately. He said that the PMW has supplied the Defense Ministry with ample information to calculate how much the PA has spent on payments rewarding terror in 2017.

The letter to Landes, written by Marcus and PMW’s head of legal strategies Maurice Hirsch, lists how in addition to the monthly payments, the PA provides expensive benefits to the terrorists and their families, including university studies for them and their children and school tuition in PA-operated schools.
It details how much the terrorists receive upon leaving prison and how long they can continue receiving benefits after their release. They also receive training courses and assistance finding work.

The writers urged Landes to withhold the money for such benefits immediately, along with the sum granted to the terrorists and their families in monthly payments. Landes had not responded to the letter by press time."
[https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/PA-to-pay-family-of-Fulds-murderer-
NIS-1400-a-month-for-3-years-567467]

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