On Tuesday, Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge Brende, who is touring the Middle East, met with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, and told him that the “extensive support program” of his government, making payments to security prisoners (terrorists) in Israeli jails, is unacceptable and should stop, Dagen reported Wednesday.
The payment program was first exposed by PMW in 2011.
Ignoring the basic financial concept of “fungibility”, Abbas responded that the program is not using Norwegian funds, which Brende confirmed, but reiterated that, nevertheless, the PA must stop the payments, “for their own good.”
As PMW has pointed out in the past, Abbas’s response inadvertently confirmed that it is the Palestinian Authority and not the PLO, as they previously claimed, who is paying the jailed terrorists.
The issue had been raised in the Norwegian parliament by Hans Olav Syversen (Christian Democrati), during last week’s oral question period, and Brende promised then to put further pressure on Abbas at the next opportunity. Brende now confirmed that the security prisoners’ salaries were discussed during his meeting in Ramallah.
Syversen alleged that for years, the Palestinian Authority has been paying wages to terrorists sentenced to prison, and the worse their crime, the more money they get. In reality, the payment amounts may be directly tied to the amount of time the terrorist spends in jail as opposed to the actual crime.
Brende met with Prime Minister Netanyahu earlier on Tuesday, in Jerusalem.