Smotrich freezes NIS 100 million in PA funds over ‘incitement to terror’
Finance minister says freezing funds is part of Israel’s battles against terrorism, will divert cash to families of terror victims instead
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich ordered the seizure on Sunday of around NIS 100 million ($26 million) of tax funds meant to be transferred to the Palestinian Authority, saying that the money would instead be given to the families of terror victims.
The move was aimed at punishing the PA for the payments it has made to families of Palestinian terrorists, Smotrich wrote in a post on X.
“The struggle against terror is not just a military struggle, but also a fight that includes a war against the wild incitement of the Palestinian Authority and the terrorist funds which it directs from its budget to the families of terrorists,” the head of the ultranationalist Religious Zionism party wrote.
“We will continue to protect the safety of Israel’s citizens and fight with all the tools available to us against terrorism and its supporters.”
Since the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught and the outbreak of war with the Gaza terror group, Israel has withheld funds from the PA that were earmarked for Gaza. The money came from the tax revenue Jerusalem collects on behalf of the PA under the 1993 Oslo Accords.
Smotrich halted the transfer, worsening the authority’s already harsh financial crisis, in light of what he said was the PA’s support for Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught and its actions against Israel on the international stage.
In May, Smotrich suspended transfers altogether, accusing the PA of working against Israel after three countries said they would recognize an independent Palestinian state and as the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said he would seek arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
The financial pressure on the PA comes as economic and security conditions in the West Bank have deteriorated sharply, further eroding support for Abbas’s administration, which last held parliamentary elections 18 years ago and which many Palestinians view as wholly corrupt.
The IDF has warned the government that cutting off funds to the PA could push the West Bank into another “intifada” — the name used for two violent Palestinian uprisings between 1987 and 2005 — at a time when there is already more unrest in the region than usual.
Since October 7, troops have arrested some 4,400 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,850 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 590 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 25 Israelis, including security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another five members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.
