An Israeli bill that allows the Israeli government to slash funds to the Palestinian Authority (PA) because of salaries paid to Palestinian prisoners and their families was approved on Sunday in a move condemned by activists as “an act of piracy.”
Israel’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved the bill which calls for deducting welfare payments paid to the prisoners and their families from the tax revenues that Israel transfers to the PA.
The bill will have to pass three readings in the Knesset plenum before it becomes law.
According to Israeli news outlets the bill would see Israel cut around NIS 1 billion ($285 million) from the annual tax revenues it allegedly hands over to the PA.
The bill was initiated by opposition Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern.
The funds that Israel is planning to deduct would be funneled to Israeli settlers and settlement projects across the occupied Palestinian territories.
Reacting to the decision of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation many activists denounced the move as an act of piracy and flagrant theft of money.
The approval of the bill comes in the context of the campaign of incitement and hostility waged by the occupation government against the prisoners and the families of the martyrs and wounded anti-occupation protesters.
