The Palestinian Authority will no longer received direct financial aid from Australia because donations could increase the self-governing body’s ability to financially reward terrorist violence.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Monday that funding to a World Bank’s trust fund was cut after she wrote to the Palestinian Authority in late May seeking assurance that Australian funding was not being handed directly to the families of deceased terrorists.
She said in a statement she’s concerned that providing further funds allows the authority to use its own budget to spend on anti-Israel terrorist activities that “Australia would never support.”
As Breitbart Jerusalem reported, the Palestinian Authority has in the past been accused of dispersing stipends or “martyr payments” of up to $US3500 ($4600) a month to the families of those killed while attacking Israel.
In 2017 alone, the Palestinian Authority’s budget showed a “huge increase” in the funding of salaries for imprisoned terrorists and the families of “martyrs,” according to an Israeli research institute.
Palestinian Media Watch said the amount of money allocated by the PA for payments to terrorists jailed in Israel in 2017 rose 13 percent to $158 million — compared to $135 million in 2016. During the same time frame, disbursements for family members of dead terrorists increased by 4 percent — to $197 million from $183 million.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said such payments are in conflict with Australian values and while she was confident no money already given had been misused the time had come to make a change.
“I am concerned that in providing funds for this aspect of the PA’s operations there is an opportunity for it to use its own budget to activities that Australia would never support,” she said.
“Any assistance provided by the Palestine Liberation Organisation to those convicted of politically motivated violence is an affront to Australian values, and undermines the prospect of meaningful peace between Israel and the Palestinians.”
The money will now be redirected to the United Nations Humanitarian Fund for the Palestinian Territories. Ms Bishop said this fund helped 1.9 million people, with about three quarters of the money to be spent in Gaza.
Follow Simon Kent on Twitter: Follow @SunSimonKent or e-mail to: skent@breitbart.com
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