Fox News reports on PMW documentation: PA to give $46 million to released terrorist-prisoners

The Palestinian Authority reportedly is set to give an additional $46 million a year to released prisoners—many of whom are convicted terrorists.

The money would be in addition to tens of millions already given by the Authority in salaries and benefits to both imprisoned and released terrorists, according to Palestinian Media Watch.

At the same time, the Authority had a budget shortfall in 2013 and needed hundreds of millions of dollars from Western donors with a sizeable amount of that going into bank accounts of terrorists, according to the blog.

The Authority’s Minister of Prisoners' Affairs, Issa Karake, was quoted as saying in a report last week his group was not able to fund support for prisoners released in 2013 because of its “large budget deficit.”

Various countries in the West have laws or regulations that prohibit support for former and current terrorists. The U.S., as well as many countries in the European Union, have either proposed or passed laws against giving the Authority money that could end up in terrorist hands.

Palestinian Media Watch first reported on the high salaries that were given to imprisoned terrorists in 2011. Since the release of the report, many European countries have condemned the Authority’s use of money to pay terrorists.

"The Europeans want their money that comes to us to remain clean - not to go to families of those they claim to be 'terrorists,' Karake reportedly said during an official Authority television report last November.

“[They] need to renounce this occupation (Israeli) mentality. These [prisoners] are heroes, self-sacrificing fighters (fedayyeen), and fighters who fought so that we could live in dignity... These heroes, whom you [the audience] are applauding, must live in dignity, so that we will continue to hold our heads high. We appreciate the people of the revolution and are proud of them."