PA officials blast Israeli bill slashing funds over terrorist payouts

A spokesperson for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says an Israeli law passed yesterday that aims to penalize the PA for sums it pays out to the families of prisoners, including terrorists, and slain attackers is a “declaration of war.”

The law, under which the sums the PA pays out will be deducted from customs on Palestinian-bound goods traveling through Israeli ports, is a violation of the Oslo accords, Nabil Abu Rudeineh says, according to a report in the PA’s official Wafa news agency.

Another Palestinian official, Issa Qaraqe, director of the Palestinian Prisoners Commission, tells Voice of Palestine radio that withholding the funds, which Israel committed to transferring under the Oslo accords, is tantamount to “piracy.”

Still, he says, the PA won’t abandon its “martyrs” and prisoners.

“This is part of our culture and resistance,” he says. “This law intends to delegitimize our national struggle for independence.”