Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs confirms the changes to Palestinian terrorist and prisoner’s salaries
Video posted on the website of the independent Palestinian news agency Wattan
Wattan host: “Are there really news items about transferring these allowances [for released prisoners] to the social development institution according to the prisoner’s living conditions, and not according to the number of years of his sentence?”
Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr: “This was perhaps heard more in the American media. At the beginning an American paper [The New York Times] published it, and [so did] the Israeli papers. Unfortunately we [Palestinians] have adjustedourselves to them and echoed the same things…
Many of the Europeans have said: ‘We are not against you paying salaries. How much are you paying one [prisoner], 3,000 [Israeli shekels]? Give him 6,000, but through the [PA Ministry of] Social Affairs. The Europeans have been proposing these things for eight years already.”
Host: “Not according to the number of years of his sentence?”
Qadri Abu Bakr: “They [the prisoners] have no problem [with that].”
Host: “This is how they want it.”
Qadri Abu Bakr: “That it [will] not be a political matter. We are paying salaries and they (I.e., the prisoners) are considering this a policy and a prize, but we have explained to them that everyone who spends longer terms in the prisons of course deserves [more money]. In other words, someone who enters prison married and with children who have grown up and the like, and they go to schools and universities – of course their expenses will be higher.”
…
Host: “Let us move to the point about the solution that you have spoken about, which is the banks. [You have said] that there is going to be a [new] bank.”
Qadri Abu Bakr: “The national bank. Its name is Independence Bank.”
Host: “when will it start to be active?”
Qadri Abu Bakr: “It will start to be active at the beginning of next year [2021]. I sat with clerks and they said that on Jan. 1 [2021] the work will begin,.”
Host: “It will 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 (refers to the application of much of Israel's Anti-Terror Law to the West Bank, including rendering banks liable to punishment for facilitating PA terror salaries -Ed.). All the other banks’ money is within the Green Line (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel; the Green Line is the ceasefire line between Israel and the neighboring Arab countries, 1949-1967) and in the Bank of Israel.”
Host: “And the deducted money and the like? (refers to Israel’s Anti “Pay-for-Slay” Law to deduct PA terror salaries; see note below –Ed.).”
Qadri Abu Bakr: “The daily [matters] and the deducted money and the like. This bank has no connection with Israel and has no connections abroad.”
“If there are proceedings against it, the PA is the one that will bear [responsibility] for this. Because it is only [run] 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.”
Host: “I asked you about the tax return money, in other words, there is talk about accepting them, accepting them again once more after [the PA] stopped accepting them for a while. Regarding this tax return money, the occupation (I.e., Israel) created a condition that it would not transfer it without deduction, and that it would deduct from it the prisoners’ salaries. Those that the PA is paying the released prisoners or those who are in prison. Okay, currently on what basis will the tax return money be accepted? Will these allowances be deducted from it? Do you know if the prisoners’ salaries will be deducted from it or not? Because that was the condition that the occupation set, and accordingly the PA refused to accept it.”
Qadri Abu Bakr: “The [Israeli] Hebrewpress that mentioned the issue also said that the tax return money will be transferred to the PA – with European intervention of course – without deducting a single shekel. They themselves have said-”
Host: “On what basis? Because that was their condition that-”
Qadri Abu Bakr: “As a result of European pressure. First they informed us after a year of deducting the prisoners’ [money] from the tax returns: ‘We have stopped.’ A year, the decision was for a year, but we also did not accept the amount. Here, for 4-5 months already they are deducting- they are not deducting, they are stopping the transfer or the PA stopped accepting it, because there is talk that maybe they want [security] coordination and the like.”
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Host: “ we hope that the prisoners’ issue will remain fundamental and a non-negotiable national issue. This is what you said, and that is of course a promise and commitment to our prisoners.”
Qadri Abu Bakr: “Indeed, that is of course my promise, and that has also been emphasized by our brother [PA President] Mahmoud Abbas... he said that the prisoners’ issue is a political issue of the highest order. It is national, it is [an issue] of struggle, and we won’t renounce it.”