SWC Backs Capitol Hill and the Knesset Initiatives Demanding End to Palestinian Authority’s Financial Incentives to Murder Jews

“The greater the crime, the higher the payout” 

SWC Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper traveled to Israel’s Knesset and Capitol Hill to add the SWC’s support for Israeli and U.S. bills demanding an end the Palestinian Authority's payments to Palestinian terrorists and their families.

“The American people do not want their financial aid to be used to reward terrorism,” Congressman Doug Lamborn (R-CO), pictured, told Cooper.

Lamborn is a key House sponsor of the Taylor Force Act that would cut funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA) linked to stipends paid to Palestinian terrorists who have murdered innocent Israelis and others. Taylor Force, a former member of the U.S. military, was killed in a terrorist attack while touring Israel.

The U.S. provides $300 million to the PA annually. Currently, the Palestinian Authority pays out monthly stipends to terrorists being held in Israeli jails and to their families. Some of the worst terrorists make more money than many Palestinian workers.

In Israel, Cooper met with former IDF Major General, Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid party), a respected centrist Knesset member, who has won broad support across Israel’s political spectrum for authoring a bill that would withhold tax revenues from the PA.

“The amount withheld will equal the payouts to the terrorists and their families,” Major General Stern explained, adding that current Palestinian law incentivizes more killings and martyrdom. The greater the crime, the higher the payout,” he told Cooper. General Stern scoffed at the idea that the PA would implode if US funds and the tax revenues are withheld.

“Putting these penalties into place, hopefully will begin the process of defunding the culture of death that has been nurtured by the Palestinian leadership for decades,” Rabbi Cooper noted. “It’s time to end this outrageous status quo.”