Press Release: EMET Strongly Applauds U.S. Senator Dan Coats’ Legislation That Cuts Off Aid to Palestinian Terrorists and their Families

EMET Strongly Applauds U.S. Senator Dan Coats’ Legislation That Cuts Off Aid to Palestinian Terrorists and their Families

(June 30, 2016, Washington, DC) Today, the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) praised U.S. Senator Dan Coats (R-IN) for including a provision into the 2017 State, Foreign Operations Appropriations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act that will cut U.S. aid to the Palestinians that is equivalent to the amount expended by the Palestinian Authority (PA), or the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), and any successor or affiliated organizations toward the salaries of terrorists and/or their families.

On Tuesday, the State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs subcommittee passed the legislation, and the full committee passed the legislation Wednesday, June 29th, 2016. The legislation states that U.S. aid toward the PA will be cut “by an amount the Secretary [of State] determines is equivalent to the amount expended by the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization and any successor or affiliated organizations, as payments for acts of terrorism by individuals who are imprisoned after being fairly tried and convicted for acts of terrorism and by individuals who died committing acts of terrorism during the previous calendar year.”

Palestinian terrorists that are arrested and imprisoned by Israel are glorified by the PA as heroes and treated as employees of the PA government. While in prison, these terrorists and their families are paid salaries and receive benefits as rewards for their service. Since 2014, there have been at least 45 terrorist attacks in Israel that killed 86 people, including U.S. Army veteran Taylor Force, who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist in March.

Says EMET Founder and President, Sarah Stern, “For far too long, the Palestinian Authority has deified and extolled the virtues of terrorism. That has been the very core of the problem for why there is no peace. A culture of glorification of terrorism has been part of the zeitgeist of the areas under PA control. The more heinous the act of terrorism, the more innocent civilians who have been killed, the greater the salary that has been paid out by the PA to the families of the prisoners of the terrorists. This is simply morally unconscionable.”

In 2014 Senator Coats co-sponsored legislation that was signed into law that called for the reduction of budgetary support for the PA “by an amount…expended by the Palestinian Authority as payments for acts of terrorism…” In order to avoid any foreign aid cuts, that same year PA President Mahmoud Abbas issued a presidential decree that moved the payment system for terrorists from the PA to the PLO. Senator Coats’ new provision will ensure that the PA does not move the payment system to another subsidiary to avoid a reduction in U.S. aid.

“Payments that reward and encourage terrorism must stop,” said Senator Coats. “I am glad the subcommittee included this morally imperative provision in the bill. These payments by the PLO under Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas provide rewards and motivations for brutal terrorists, plain and simple. To provide U.S. taxpayer money to Abbas and his government so that they can treat terrorists as heroes or glorious martyrs is morally unacceptable. It ends with this legislation,” the Senator added.

Sarah Stern, the founder and president of EMET, said: “The Palestinians need to understand that there are serious consequences for their moral, political, and material support of terrorism. I strongly applaud Senator Coats for his provision, which sends a very strong message to the PA and all would-be terrorists that America will not turn a blind eye towards Palestinian terrorism. For far too long, people throughout the world have been fooled by the PA’s double message when it comes to terrorism, one to their own people in Arabic, and another in English to foreign diplomats and journalists. Fortunately, there are still members of the United States Senate, such as Dan Coats, who are not willing to allow American tax payers’ dollars be a party to this culture of deification of terrorism.”

About The Endowment for Middle East Truth
Founded in 2005, EMET’s mission is to educate policymakers in Washington and the general public about the importance of Israel to the United States in their common struggle against radical Islam. For more information, please visit www.emetonline.org. Follow EMET on Twitter and Facebook.

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