Palestinian minister confirms PA ploy to continue terrorist salaries

Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Issa Karake: "‎[Incorporating the Commission of Prisoners' Affairs] into the PLO may give ‎‎[the prisoners' issue] new power and new momentum, even with the relations with the ‎international community and with several parties that have attempted to exert pressure ‎on the PA in recent years, claiming that the Palestinian government has been ‎allocating some of its funds for the prisoners’ families. This is a result of Israeli ‎pressure and Israeli propaganda, [which claims] these funds are being earmarked - of ‎course, according to the claim of the Israelis and some countries - for the benefit of the ‎families of the prisoners, whom they accuse of terrorism. There has been a lot of ‎pressure. This issue must not be abandoned. It must not be subjected to the ‎stipulations [of the international community] and the Israeli pressure...‎"

Interviewer: "Would you say this formal change, in quotation marks, was done or ‎devised to avoid international pressure, which Israel pushed for?"

Karake: "‎[That’s] one of the reasons, yes. We’re speaking honestly. There was ‎‎[international] pressure and a kind of war, an intense war, and monetary and financial ‎threats towards the PA. The Palestinian leadership was subject to real pressure, but of ‎course it refused to submit to all this pressure. We told them [international donors] it ‎was a matter of freedom, a matter of fighter-prisoners, a matter of a national liberation ‎movement, and so the idea that it would be part of the PLO was conceived... The ‎Palestinian leadership, President Abbas and the members of the [PLO’s] Executive ‎Committee confirmed that this change would in no way affect the importance and ‎significance of the prisoners’ issue, neither in terms of politics and the struggle nor in ‎terms of the services [provided to the prisoners].‎"
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