Bill would cut National Insurance payments to convicted terrorists

The Knesset’s Labor and Welfare Committee on Monday passed, on second and third readings, a bill that would limit National Insurance Institute payments to convicted terrorists.

The bill, which is expected to pass in the Knesset plenum soon, would cut in half the NII payments for unemployment, disability, old age, work accidents and more for Israeli citizens convicted of terrorism and sentenced to 10 years or more in prison.

Yisrael Beiteinu MK David Rotem, the bill’s author, had originally aimed to cut all NII payments to all convicted terrorists, but said that the MInistry of Justice ordered changes to the bill.

“Citizenship means loyalty,” Rotem said after the committee debate on the bill. “So, this absurd practice, in which the State of Israel pays, from our own pockets, to those who have harmed and murdered Israeli citizens, will cease.”

In 2001, Israeli citizen Muhammad Shaker Habeishi blew himself up at a train station in Nahariya, killing three and wounding dozens more. His family received thousands of shekels in NII payments each month thereafter.