Taylor Force’s Father Urges Joe Biden Not to Resume Funding for Palestinian Terrorists

Stuart Force, whose son Taylor was killed by Palestinian terrorists during a visit to Israel, is urging former Vice President Joe Biden not to resume assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA) if elected in November.

In a campaign launched by the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) on Monday, Force defended the Taylor Force Act, named after his son. The law, passed by Republicans in 2018, prevents the PA from receiving economic assistance from the United States until it dismantles the Palestinian Authority Martyr’s Fund. Known as the “Pay to Slay” policy, the fund gives monthly-payments to the family of individuals killed committing terrorist acts against Israeli or American citizens.

“Our son, Taylor, was stabbed to death, while visiting Israel by a Palestinian terrorist. The terrorist’s family became eligible immediately for a monthly payment, for life, for killing an Israeli or American,” Force says in a new ad. “U.S. taxpayers sent hundreds of millions of dollars to the PA, which they use to fund those payments.”

“There is talk that some politicians want to resume sending U.S. tax dollars to the PA, even though they have refused to end their ‘Pay to Slay’ policy,” Force says, as a photo flashes across the screen of Biden shaking hand with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority.

The ZOA’s campaign comes after Biden promised to restart economic and security assistance to the PA as part of his policy for the Middle East. Biden, in particular, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in May that aid was vital to resuming “dialogue with the Palestinians and pressing Israel not to take actions that make a two-state solution impossible.”

“I will reopen the U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem, find a way to re-open the PLO’s diplomatic mission in Washington, and resume the decades-long economic and security assistance efforts to the Palestinians that the Trump Administration stopped,” the former vice president said at the time.

President Donald Trump’s administration stopped such aid in mid-2018 after the Taylor Force Act went into effect. Since then the PA has lost out on $60 million annually for its security services and more than $200 million in direct economic aid.