U.S. taxpayers subsidize monthly payments to terrorists
Author: Rabbi Jonathan Greenberg | September 4, 2012
The Park Hotel in Netanya, site of the March 27, 2002 Passover massacre (Photo: Dr. avishai teicher/ Wikicommons)
After the seder, someone turned on the television and the celebratory mood ended as we watched the horrifying scenes being shown from the Park Hotel in Netanya. As many hotels in Israel do, the Park had hosted a Passover seder for its mostly older guests. With 250 people in attendance, a male suicide bomber disguised as a woman checking into the hotel passed the security guard, walked into the dining hall, and detonated a suitcase full of explosives. Thirty people died and 140 were wounded. Most of those killed were in their 70s and 80s.
The man who planned that bombing, Abbas al-Sayyeed, sits in an Israeli prison. For services rendered, he receives a $3000/month salary from the Palestinian Authority (PA). In fact, he’s one of many mass murderers sitting in Israeli prisons who receives a salary. Surviving family members of suicide bombers also receive monthly payments.
According to the above-linked article, the PA spends 6% of its annual budget on such payments. They spend $4.5 million monthly on jailed terrorists and $6.5 million monthly incentivizing future suicide bombers by paying the families of past ones. $11 million dollars per month is $132 million per year.
Incidentally, for FY ’13, the PA is getting $370 million in Economic Support Funds from U.S. taxpayers, and $70 million in security training funds.
In other words, American taxpayers are helping to subsidize a practice that encourages people to become terrorists and suicide bombers. Most of our aid money goes to health, education, social services, and economic development programs. Obviously, if the PA has enough cash for a terrorist rewards program, they shouldn’t require as much help from the American taxpayer.
