Cabinet approved: NIS 150 million will be deducted from terrorist taxes

At the end of a discussion, the ministers in the political-security cabinet approved the report presented by Bennett regarding the amount the Palestinian Authority gives to "shaheeds" and their families from the tax money that Israel is transferring. So far, Israel has only offset the salaries transferred to Palestinian prisoners and their families

Cabinet approved: NIS 150 million will be deducted from terrorist taxes

The Political-Security Cabinet confirmed on Sunday the report presented by Defense Minister Naftali Bennett regarding the NIS 150 million that the Palestinian Authority is giving to wounded terrorists, "shaheeds" and their families. In accordance with the resolution, which was approved by cabinet ministers at the end of a hearing today, the amount of tax money Israel will transfer to the Palestinian Authority will be deducted.

The last time Israel announced the offsetting of money from the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian Authority refused to accept the rest of the money and ran into an economic crisis that Israel itself sought to resolve. At that time, long negotiations were underway to persuade the PA to receive the remainder of the sum anyway, partly because the economic crisis did not result in a complete economic collapse and so did the rise in terror. Finally, the authority agreed to receive the rest of the amount without the money offset.

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The Cabinet approved the report he presented. Bennett (Photo: Ohad Zugenberg)

Defense Minister Naphtali Bennett at a government meeting, November 17, 2019 (Photo: Ohad Zugenberg, Paul Photographers)

So far, Israel has only offset the salaries transferred to Palestinian prisoners, released prisoners and their families, which reached NIS 500 million in 2018. The new amount will be added to the previous amount, and will amount to NIS 650 million for that year. The move is being added to a series of actions led by Minister Bennett in the economic sphere against terrorism, after he signed initial orders of its kind in recent weeks to chase terrorists around the world and last week signed the same order that decides money from Israeli Arab terrorists.

According to the Palestinian Freeze Fund for Terrorism Law, approved in July 2018, at the end of each year, the Minister of Defense will approve a Cabinet report detailing the total amount of PA paid to terrorists and their families in the past year. The following year, an amount of 1/12 of the total amount stipulated in the report will be frozen each month, out of the tax money that Israel transfers to the Palestinian Authority. The report of the National Headquarters for Counter-Terrorism (MLA) in the Ministry of Defense in coordination with the GSS, the IDF, the Israeli police and the IPS.

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