“This is another step in the campaign against terrorists, we are working so that Jewish blood will no longer be financially lucrative,” the Defense Minister said.
Defense Minister Naftali Bennett has signed an order to prevent convicted terrorists with Israeli citizenship, and their families, from receiving payments from the Palestinian Authority.
In what are known as “pay-for-slay” payments, the PA guarantees financial support to Palestinians and Arab-Israelis who carry out attacks against Israeli citizens and are convicted or killed.
“We’ve moved to facts. This is another step in the campaign against terrorists, we are working so that Jewish blood will no longer be financially lucrative,” Bennett said in a statement. He pledged to employ all the legal tools available to prevent terrorists to receive financial support.
According to the statement, this is the first time that Israel implements such a measure.
The order was signed after work led by the National Counter Terrorism office in the Ministry of Defense, in cooperation with the Shin Bet, the Israel Police, the Israeli Prison Service, the Anti-Money Laundering Authority and other entities.
The order targets eight people serving sentences in Israeli prisons for attacks that killed dozens of Israelis. Five of them are serving life-sentences, among them Yasin Hassan Salah Bakri who assisted the suicide bomber who attacked a bus at Meron Junction in August 2002, killing nine people and injuring 38.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post