Adopting PMW recommendation, Republicans seek to label the [PLO] Commission of Prisoners Affairs a “terrorist organization”
Headline: “Republicans in the American Congress recommend placing Qadri Abu Bakr on the terror list”
“In coordination with the Israeli Parliament members who submitted a racist bill to consider the [PLO] Commission of Prisoners and Released Prisoners’ Affairs as a ‘terror organization,’ American Congressman of the Republican Party and head of the association that supports Israel inside Congress Doug Lamborn sent a letter to the American President Donald Trump [on July 30, 2020] in which he demanded to put the Director of [PLO] Commission of Prisoners and Released Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr on the terror list and impose sanctions against him, on the pretext of ongoing support of ‘terror’ by continuing to pay money and provide aid to the prisoners and their relatives (Lamborn called to designate Abu Bakr and the Commission as sponsors of terrorism –Ed.).
It should be noted that Congressman Lamborn is the one behind the Taylor Force Act that was approved by Congress in 2018, which connects the transfer of aid to the PA to stopping the allowances (mukhassasat) of the families of the Martyrs and the prisoners (see note below –Ed.).
In response to these American demands, in a statement issued to the press today, Sunday [Sept. 13, 2020], the Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs confirmed its steadfast holding onto its national message, regardless of the Israeli and American pressures, and its perseverance in defending the freedom of the prisoners of the occupied State of Palestine and their legitimate rights as a central part of defending the Palestinian people’s right to their self-determination, and to allow them to live in freedom, dignity, and peace in their land of Palestine.”
(See US congressman cites PMW report in call to designate PA leader as sponsor of terror https://palwatch.org/page/18144)
The Taylor Force Act - US law named after US citizen Taylor Force who was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in Tel Aviv on March 8, 2016, which cuts almost all funding to the PA if it continues paying salaries to terrorists and allowances to families of "Martyrs."
Article 98 of the Fourth Geneva Convention applies only to “internees,” and not to terrorists who are standing trial, convicted, or released from prison, and likewise not to the families of dead terrorists. The only “internees” held by Israel are Palestinian terrorists held in administrative detention in accordance with Article 98 of GCIV, and Israel fulfills all its obligations vis-a-vis these “internees.” The sections of Article 98 cited in the article are as follows in the source text: “Furthermore, internees may receive allowances from the Power to which they owe allegiance, the Protecting Powers, the organizations which may assist them, or their families… The Detaining Power shall open a regular account for every internee, to which shall be credited the allowances named in the present Article, the wages earned and the remittances received, together with such sums taken from him as may be available under the legislation in force in the territory in which he is interned.”