Former minister of prisoner affairs: Prisoner Salaries prevent violence

Headline: “Al-Ajrami denied to Amad the statements attributed to him about the PA’s payment of the prisoners and released prisoners’ salaries”

“Former [PA] Minister of Prisoners and Released Prisoners’ Affairs Dr. Ashraf Al-Ajrami denied that he had made statements against the PA’s payment of the prisoners and released prisoners’ salaries (rawatib) and had said that these salaries increase the violence. He emphasized that what he said is the complete opposite of this, and said that there is no connection between the payment of the prisoners and released prisoners’ salaries and violence, and that these salaries are their right.

Al-Ajrami said in a conversation with [the independent Palestinian news website] Amad today, Friday [Sept. 15, 2017], that the center that held the conference is an Israeli research center known for its right-wing orientation, and the conference discussed two topics, the first of which was the topic of the prisoners and the fact that the PA is supporting them through the payment of salaries, meaning the encouragement of terror and violence by it…

Al-Ajrami added: ‘I refuted the first Israeli topic that was raised, and I completely rejected what was said in it. My position regarding the payment of the prisoners and released [prisoners’] salaries is known, and I emphasized before them that there is no connection between the payment of the prisoners and released prisoners’ salaries and violence. I also emphasized that since the government of [former PA Prime Minister] Dr. Salam Fayyad approved the payment of the prisoners and released prisoners’ salaries, a marked decrease in violence has occurred. If the payment of the salaries did indeed encourage violence, the released prisoners would be carrying out many more operations (i.e., terror attacks) than is happening.’”

[Amad, independent Palestinian news website, Sept. 15, 2017]