PA to establish new bank to pay terror rewards

Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr: “[The New York Times] published it, and [so did] the Israeli papers. Unfortunately we [Palestinians] have adjusted to them and repeated the same things… Many of the Europeans have said: “We are not against you paying salaries. How much are you paying one? 3,000? Give him 6,000, but via the [Ministry of] Social Affairs.” The Europeans have been proposing these things for years.”
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Host: “About the solution you have mentioned [to pay prisoners’ salaries], which is the banks. [You said] that there is going to be a bank.”

Qadri Abu Bakr: “The national bank. Its name is Independence Bank… It will begin its services at the beginning of next year [2021]” …

Independent Palestinian news agency Wattan host: “Will it be designated only for the prisoners?”

Qadri Abu Bakr: “It is for everyone.  But especially for the prisoners, because this bank is not subject to blackmail like the other banks [that are closing terrorists’ accounts] … If there are [legal] proceedings against it, the PA is the one that will bear [responsibility] for this. Because it is only through the PA.”

Host: “And the prisoners’ money will be transferred through this bank?”

Qadri Abu Bakr: “They will receive it through this bank and not through [the Ministry of] Social Affairs.”

Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr made these statements after the New York Times reported that he had said that the PA was going to change the salaries of the prisoners (i.e., terrorists) to be paid according to need only, and not according to the length of the prison sentence (i.e., the severity of the crime). Abu Bakr has since denied having made such a statement and vowed that the PA will continue paying salaries to prisoners as it has done for years.