“There is no smoke without fire,” as the saying goes. And in regard to the millions transferred to the Palestinian Authority, the State of Israel is spreading very thick smoke.
“For reasons concerning harm to the security of the state and its foreign relations, the State is prohibited from providing all information,” the State says in its response to the High Court.
But if everything is kosher, if this is clean money, that is not going either to terrorism or to illegal activities, and is not suspected of money laundering – why the secrecy? If everything being done has the “kosher stamp” – what foreign relations might be harmed? And what security might be breached, if we were to know the truth about the payments to the Palestinians? Soldiers will die, God forbid? What is there to hide, for God’s sake?
But if it is all so transparent, why did Alfasi not tell the MKs about the “extra-budgetary fund”? Why was this fund not mentioned in countless debates, previously held both in the Knesset and in the courts?
Without being an accountant – the answer is clear. The Defense Ministry, the Finance Ministry, the Civil Administration, and possibly also the Shin Bet security agency, are deceiving both the public and its elected representatives.
Why? Because they know that any financial tie with the Palestinian Authority exposes Israel to the risk of involvement in money laundering, and even funding terrorism. Yes, money that the State of Israel transfers to the Palestinians is eventually rolled over to encourage terrorist attacks, because many murderers go out on their missions because they know that their family will receive a terrorist allowance for the rest of their lives.
In addition, corruption in the Palestinian Authority is rampant and that is why even the Europeans minimized their economic ties with them, according to international law, any financial entity that dealt with money that was later used to fund terrorist attacks, or for corrupt purposes, exposes itself to lawsuits for supporting terrorism and money laundering.
This is what is being concealed from the public. This is why Discount Bank and Bank Hapoalim no longer want to be the channels for these transfers. This is also the reason for the governments’ attempts, both of Netanyahu and Bennett, to open the “Correspondence Society” – a government company whose founding law stipulates in advance that its illegal actions will become legal. And we haven’t even talked about the undeclared capital and cash on which the Palestinian economy is run.
The defense institutions continue to support all these “illegal moves” because they fear the collapse of the Palestinian Authority. This concern does not align with what is actually happening in Judea and Samaria. But even if it was real, is the Israeli public not entitled to know the truth about what the authorities are doing on its behalf? And more importantly, if the Palestinian Authority is truly on the verge of an economic collapse, shouldn’t the Minister of Defense tell Abu Mazen, “stop funding terror – and your Authority will not collapse”?
{Reposted from the Israel Hayom site}
