Ministers approve slashing $138 million from Palestinians over terror payments
Amid anger over murder of teen in Jerusalem, security cabinet backs implementation of law to deduct amount equal to PA payments to attackers and families
By TOI staff 17 February 2019, 8:45 pm
https://www.timesofisrael.com/ministers-approve-slashing-138-million-from-palestinians-over-terror-payments/
138 Million??
He deleted it. Edit coming.
Full article:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/ministers-approve-slashing-138-million-from-palestinians-over-terror-payments/
Ministers approve slashing $138 million from Palestinians over terror payments
Amid anger over murder of teen in Jerusalem, security cabinet backs implementation of law to deduct amount equal to PA payments to attackers and families
By TOI staff 17 February 2019, 8:45 pm 5
The security cabinet on Sunday approved the implementation of a law to cut over half a billion shekels in funds to the Palestinian Authority over its payments to terrorists and their families.
Applying the law has faced opposition from the security establishment, who worry it could destabilize the situation in the West Bank.
A statement from the security cabinet said that ministers agreed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could withhold NIS 502,697,000 ($138 million) in PA tax revenues, the amount Israeli officials say the PA paid out in stipends to attackers and their families in 2018.
Netanyahu also instructed security authorities to examine additional payments the PA is making in relation to terrorists and their families, the statement said.
“The amount frozen will be adjusted accordingly,” it noted.
The $138 million will likely be deducted incrementally over a 12-month period, according to local media reports.
Senior Palestine Liberation Organization official Ahmed Majdalani accused Israel and the United States, which has cut hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian aid, of an attempt at blackmail.
“The occupation government is seeking to destroy the national authority in partnership with the US administration of Donald Trump,” Majdalani said in a statement.
He described the move as “piracy.”
Acting Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah responded to the cabinet decision by calling the witholding of funds “collective punishment.”
Economy and Industry Minister Eli Cohen, a member of the security cabinet, welcomed the decision.
“It can’t be that the families of terrorists who murdered Jews in cold blood, enjoy a stipend or wage for those acts of terror,” he said. “Today, in the cabinet, we stopped that absurdity.
following the murder of 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
The security cabinet on Sunday approved the implementation of a law to cut over half a billion shekels in funds to the Palestinian Authority over its payments to terrorists and their families.
Applying the law has faced opposition from the security establishment, who worry it could destabilize the situation in the West Bank.
A statement from the security cabinet said that ministers agreed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could withhold NIS 502,697,000 ($138 million) in PA tax revenues, the amount Israeli officials say the PA paid out in stipends to attackers and their families in 2018.
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Netanyahu also instructed security authorities to examine additional payments the PA is making in relation to terrorists and their families, the statement said.
“The amount frozen will be adjusted accordingly,” it noted.
The $138 million will likely be deducted incrementally over a 12-month period, according to local media reports.
Senior Palestine Liberation Organization official Ahmed Majdalani accused Israel and the United States, which has cut hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian aid, of an attempt at blackmail.
“The occupation government is seeking to destroy the national authority in partnership with the US administration of Donald Trump,” Majdalani said in a statement.
He described the move as “piracy.”
Acting Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah responded to the cabinet decision by calling the witholding of funds “collective punishment.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L), Zvi Hauser (C) and Moshe Ya’alon attend the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem on March 10, 2013. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
Economy and Industry Minister Eli Cohen, a member of the security cabinet, welcomed the decision.
“It can’t be that the families of terrorists who murdered Jews in cold blood, enjoy a stipend or wage for those acts of terror,” he said. “Today, in the cabinet, we stopped that absurdity.”
Israel collects around $127 million a month in customs duties levied on goods destined for Palestinian markets that transit through Israeli ports, and then transfers the money to the PA.
The law withholding the tax revenues, passed by the Knesset last year, is opposed by Israeli security officials who say further cuts to the PA budget could hurt security cooperation and destabilize the West Bank.
The government has refused to implement the measure, though politicians have faced public pressure to crack down on the PA’s payments, which are viewed as incentivizing terror attacks.
At the meeting, security officials warned ministers that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would not halt the payments but rather cut funding for the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the Hamas terror group, Channel 12 television reported. Officials cautioned that a further cut to services in the enclave, already ravaged by economic and humanitarian difficulties, could ignite violence directed at Israel.
Ori Ansbacher (Courtesy)
Such a development would shatter a fragile calm which has settled on the Israel-Gaza border following months of violent protests.
Netanyahu, who is seeking reelection this April, has come under increasing pressure to act in the wake of the brutal murder of an Israeli teen in a terrorist attack earlier this month.
Last week, he told ministers that he would deduct the payments immediately after he received permission from the security cabinet.
Arafat Irfaiya, charged with the murder of 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher, at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s court on February 11, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)
A West Bank-based Palestinian man, Arafat Irfayia, 29, was arrested the day after the body of 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher was found in a southern Jerusalem wood on February 7.
The case has sparked outrage across the country. Irfayia, who reenacted the events for investigators, claimed he murdered Ansbacher for Palestinian nationalistic reasons. Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said that during interrogation, he admitted also raping Ansbacher.
John Hudson
Verified account @John_Hudson
SCOOP: U.S. authorities have made the first arrest in the mysterious raid of North Korea’s embassy in Spain in which masked assailants tied up staff, escaped with computers, and fled to the U.S.
John Hudson
Verified account @John_Hudson
Apr 19
Story keeps getting wilder:
-The man who was arrested is a former U.S. marine and member of Free Joseon. He is expected to appear in the Central District of California today.
-Meanwhile, federal authorities searched the apartment of Free Joseon's leader Adrian Hong, sources say
John Hudson
Verified account @John_Hudson
Apr 19
Christopher Ahn, who is expected to appear in court today, helped evacuate the nephew of Kim Jong Un from Macau in 2017 after the regime assassinated the nephew's father, Kim Jong Nam, according to Lee Wolosky.
John Hudson
Verified account @John_Hudson
Apr 19
I'm getting nothing but crickets from the Spanish but I'm told this shouldn't be a surprise: It's Good Friday, Madrid government basically shut down
John Hudson
Verified account @John_Hudson
Apr 19
Update: Ahn appeared in a federal district court in Los Angeles on Friday where his attorney requested that the case be sealed. The court ruled in the attorney’s favor over the government’s objections, a Justice Department spokesperson said. The case will remain secret for now
Government of Mexico: U.S. Vigilantes Are Violating Human Rights of Migrants
By
Jennie Taer -
April 21, 2019
https://saraacarter.com/government-of-mexico-u-s-vigilantes-are-violating-human-rights-of-migrants/
U.S. authorities are warning citizens not to take the law into their own hands after a group patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border stopped hundreds of migrants when they crossed into southern New Mexico this week.
This Saturday, as soon as the news spread of U.S. citizens forming armed vigilante groups, to protect their southern border, the Government of Mexico expressed deep concerns and pointed out to the “abuse of human rights for those who want to migrate or ask asylum in U.S.” This is the full press release:
The Government of Mexico expresses its deep concern regarding the actions of vigilante groups on the border with New Mexico that have been intimidating and extorting migrants.
These practices can lead to abuses of the human rights of people who migrate or request asylum or refuge in the United States.
For Mexico, patrols and security operations not covered by US federal legislation constitute a risk to the migrants’ human security.
This condemnation comes after FBI arrested on Saturday a member of an armed group of U.S. citizens who have been stopping migrants illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in southwestern state of New Mexico.
Larry Hopkins was arrested in Sunland Park, N.M., on federal charges of possession of firearms and ammunition, FBI said in a statement. He had declared himself as the commander of the United Constitutional Patriots (UCP), a volunteer vigilante group whose members were holding migrants, and their objective as described by them was to “assist U.S. Border Patrol to manage the increased influx of illegals.”
In 2016, according to Pew Research Center estimates there were 12.0 million immigrants from Mexico living in the United States, 45% were in the country illegally. Mexico is the United State’s largest source of immigrants, making up 26.6% of all U.S. immigrants.
For decades the Mexican Government has failed to contain the number of migrants and illicit drugs pouring into the U.S. from their territory.
Unfortunately the Government of Mexico never mentions or condemns the way Central American migrants are treated inside their territory. How Mexican cartels and criminal organizations are profiting from these caravans. How tens of thousands of migrants disappear inside Mexican territory before reaching the U.S. southern border.