The Prime Minister’s Office strongly rejected claims of a secret agreement with Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat that would allow the Palestinian leadership to continue granting stipends to Palestinian security prisoners and their families.
The agreement is “another Palestinian invention, which never happened, and was intended to further incite the discourse away from the demand to stop the Palestinian Authority’s financing of terrorism,” stated the Prime Minister’s Office.
Israel Radio reported statements from senior Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) official and adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Ahmad Majdalani claiming that Netanyahu’s negotiator Yitzchak Molcho and Erekat ratified a document in 2014 permitting the PLO’s treasury to be responsible for paying the stipends instead of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
According to Majdalani, this was done under the sponsorship of former Secretary of State John Kerry prior to the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas of that same year.
Traditionally, the defense establishment in Israel has been opposed to harming the Palestinian aid budget for fear that it would lead to the further undermining of Mahmoud Abbas and to the collapse of the PA. However in 2014, in light of growing international criticism on the issue, Abu Mazen implemented a technical change in which he closed the PA’s Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs and transferred the payment mechanism to the Prisoners Affairs Committee under the PLO.
The Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO provided for the establishment of the PA as the civil governing body of the emerging Palestinian autonomous regions (the Gaza Strip and Areas A and B of Judea and Samaria). While legally separate, Mahmoud Abbas is both president of the the Palestinian Authority, chairman of the PLO, and leader of Fatah.
The PA budget is divided between Israeli monthly transfers to the PA from Palestinian tax money collected by Jerusalem and international aid funding. According to Israeli estimates, the PA pays both directly and indirectly through the PLO about USD 300 million a year for the financing of security prisoners in Israeli jails, released prisoners, and families of terrorists killed, representing about 6% to 7% of the PA budget.
This controversy follows several statements made by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu criticizing the Palestinian Authority for its financing of terrorism. According to the prime minister this matter will constitute the true test for peace for the Palestinians, a topic reportedly raised during President Abbas’s first official meeting with US President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
“It is abundantly clear that it does not matter whether the document [of an agreement between Israel and the PLO] actually existed,” said Zionist Union MK Amir Peretz. “Netanyahu has been in power long enough to find a way to stop the financing of terrorists and their families, but decided not to do so.”
“One thing for sure is that the terrorist organizations grew significantly stronger during the Netanyahu era, especially Hamas, which got the best deal and most generous offer ever made by an Israeli prime minister with the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange,” asserted Peretz.
Netanyahu said after the Abbas-Trump meeting that he looked forward to discussing with President Trump the best ways to advance peace. However, Netanyahu rejected Abbas’s claims that Palestinians educate their children in a culture of peace.
“That’s unfortunately not true,” the Prime Minister argued in an official statement. “They name their schools after mass murderers of Israelis and they pay terrorists. But I hope that it is possible to achieve a change and to pursue a genuine peace. This is something Israel is always ready for.”