Where does all that aid to Palestinians go? About 16% goes to funding terrorism

President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority celebrates with
convicted murderers released from Israeli prisons 

Where does all that aid to Palestinians go?

TZIPI HOTOVELY

Wall Street Journal Jan 24

Note: Canada spends about $27 million a year in aid to the Palestinian territories. The Palestinian Authority spends 16% of its budget supporting terrorists, so if Canadian aid went directly to the Palestinian Authority, $4 million of it would be spent on terrorism. However, Canada puts its money into to specific projects, mainly the development of a legal system to try to improve the rule of law in the Palestinian territories – an aim any thinking person can support. But of course any money spent by Canada in the Palestinian territories is money that the PA does not have to spend itself, allowing it to divert more money into terrorism. ~ Brian

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One often-cited key to peace between Israel and the Palestinians is economic development. To that end, there seems to be broad agreement about the importance of extending development aid to help the Palestinians build the physical and social infrastructure that will enable the emergence of a sustainable, prosperous society. But few have seriously questioned how much money is sent and how it is used.

Such assistance will only promote peace if it is spent to foster tolerance and coexistence. If it is used to strengthen intransigence it does more harm than good—and the more aid that comes in, the worse the outcome. This is exactly what has been transpiring over the past few decades. Large amounts of foreign aid to the Palestinians are spent to support terrorists and deepen hostility.

For years the most senior figures in the Palestinian Authority have supported, condoned and glorified terror. “Every drop of blood that has been spilled in Jerusalem,” President Mahmoud Abbas said last September on Palestinian television, “is holy blood as long as it was for Allah.” Countless Palestinian officials and state-run television have repeatedly hailed the murder of Jews.

This support for terrorism doesn’t end with hate speech. The Palestinian regime in Ramallah pays monthly stipends of between $400 and $3,500 to terrorists and their families, the latter of which is more than five times the average monthly salary of a Palestinian worker.

According to data from its budgetary reports, compiled in June 2014 by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the PA’s annual budget for supporting Palestinian terrorists was then roughly $75 million. That amounted to some 16% of the foreign donations the PA received annually. Overall in 2012 foreign aid made up about a quarter of the PA’s $3.1 billion budget. More recent figures are inaccessible since the Palestinian Authority is no longer transparent about the stipend transfers.

Embarrassed by public revelations of the misuse of the foreign aid, in August 2014 the Palestinian Authority passed the task of paying stipends to terrorists and their families to a fund managed by the Palestine Liberation Organization, also led by Mr. Abbas. Lest there be any doubt as to the purely cosmetic nature of the change, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah made assurances as recently as September 2015 that the PA will provide the “necessary assistance” to ensure these terror stipends.

This procedural ruse apparently calmed the consciences of donor governments that continue to transfer aid. It is difficult to think of another case in which such a forgiving attitude would be taken regarding foreign aid to an entity that sponsors terror.

This situation is particularly disturbing given the disproportionate share of development assistance the Palestinians receive, which comes at the expense of needy populations elsewhere. According to a report last year by Global Humanitarian Assistance, in 2013 the Palestinians received $793 million in international aid, second only to Syria. This amounts to $176 for each Palestinian, by far the highest per capita assistance in the world. Syria, where more than 250,000 people have been killed and 6.5 million refugees displaced since 2011, received only $106 per capita.

A closer look at the remaining eight countries in the top 10—Sudan, South Sudan, Jordan, Lebanon, Somalia, Ethiopia, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo—is even more alarming. CIA Factbook data show that these countries have a combined population of 284 million and an average per capita GDP of $2,376. Yet they received an average of $15.30 per capita in development assistance in 2013. The Palestinians, by comparison, with a population of 4.5 million, have a per capita GDP of $4,900.

In other words, though the Palestinians are more than twice as wealthy on average than these eight countries, they receive more than 11 times as much foreign aid per person. The Democratic Republic of Congo is a case in point: Its 79 million people have a per capita GDP of $700, yet they receive only $5.70 in aid per person.

Between 1993 (when the Oslo Process began) and 2013, the Palestinians received $21.7 billion in development assistance, according to the World Bank. The Palestinian leadership has had ample opportunity to use these funds for economic and social development. Tragically, as seen in Hamas-run Gaza, it prefers to use the funds on its terrorist infrastructure and weaponry, such as cross-border attack tunnels and the thousands of missiles that have rained down in recent years on Israel.

In Judea and Samaria, the “West Bank,” the situation is equally disturbing. Aside from funding terrorists and investing in hate speech, the PA stubbornly refuses to remove hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from “refugee” rosters, deliberately keeping them in a state of dependence and underdevelopment for no purpose other than to stoke animosity toward Israel.

It is difficult to come away from these facts without realizing the deep connection between the huge amounts of foreign aid being spent, the bizarre international tolerance for patently unacceptable conduct by the Palestinians and the lack of progress toward peace on the ground.

Donors to the Palestinians who support peace would do well to rethink the way they extend assistance. Money should go to economic and civic empowerment, not to perpetuate a false sense of victimhood and unconditional entitlement. It should foster values of tolerance and nonviolence, not the glorification and financing of terrorism.

Ms. Hotovely is the deputy foreign minister of Israel.

The Palestinian Children's Intifada ~ why does a child become a terrorist?

A soccer tournament was named after
 Palestinian child terrorist Muhannad Halabi. Photo: Facebook.

What makes a 14- or 15-year old Palestinian kid become a terrorist? In part, the answer is obvious: they’re told from birth that killing Jews is the highest honor any Palestinian can aspire to. So these children murder for glory. And usually end up dead themselves.

But criminologist Anat Berko, who has interviewed dozens of terorists for hundreds of hours, has additional insight. Theses young terrorists know when carrying out their attacks they're likely to be killed, but if so, they believe they'll go to paradise. And in paradise, they’ll get everything denied to them in life. 

Many young Palestinians live in communities with a tremendous amount of social pressure, prohibitions and shame, says Berko. In paradise, they can experience all the things that are forbidden in real life.

In paradise, “they will meet 72 virgins, drink until they’re intoxicated and have lots of sex.”

As for what female attackers can hope to get in paradise, it is often as basic as the right to marry for love. One prisoner, who tried but failed to carry out a suicide bombing, told Berko, “In paradise I will be like a queen and sit in my kingdom and marry anyone I want to. I want someone who is handsome [giggling], and Allah will receive me.”

Many of the terrorists Berko interviewed did not come from poor families, but they did suffer from violence at home.

For instance, a woman she interviewed who had tried to stab an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint related: “My brother is twenty-five; he rapes me and doesn’t want me to tell anyone. I’m twenty-three. My father died four years ago. I told my mother and uncle about my brother, and my uncle hit me and said my brother hadn’t raped me. My brother said he hadn’t done anything. I asked them to take me to a doctor. I went to the Palestinian police and a policeman said, ‘I can help you, but your brother is a friend of mine.’ He wanted to have sex with me, and he said, ‘Your brother won’t know.’”

In paradise, a young woman can escape being raped by her brother and hit by her uncle, can marry for love, and be remembered as a hero. If she kills enough Israelis, she may have a soccer team named after her or a summer camp or a school.

During the current children’s intifada, a 13-year-old has already had a soccer tournament and a street named in his honour and the Palestinian Bar Association awarded him a posthumous law degree (here).

You can read more about how the Palestinian leadership has been teaching kids to become terrorists in this piece I wrote for the Jewish Tribune seven years ago: here.

Read the entire article about Anat Berko on the motivation of young terrorists here: http://www.timesofisrael.com/a-portrait-of-the-terrorist-as-a-young-man-or-woman/

Arab journalist Lucy Aharish calls out Palestinian leadership

The current "Intifadah of knives" should be called the Palestinian Children's Crusade. The Palestinian leadership, both in the Palestinian Territories and among the Arab political parties in Israel, have been calling on teenagers ~ children ~ to murder people and to get themselves killed in the process.

The whole situation is so insane as to be almost beyond belief. The issue arises from a long-standing concession toward the intolerance of the Arab leadership ~ that only Muslims can be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount aka the Noble Sanctuary; and Jews especially cannot pray there. To keep the peace, this concession toward bigotry has been in place since Israel took control of Jerusalem in 1967. 

Now the Arab leadership, including supposed moderates, have been whipping up Jew-hatred and screaming that the Jews are trying to change the status quo, and want to actually pray on the Temple Mount. That's the immediate cause of the current horrors

There’s no way of telling how many Palestinians support sacrificing their children in order to murder Jews. But a few at least have spoken out against it, including Israeli Arab journalist Lucy Aharish, who’s called out the Arab leadership on this issue.

Palestinian Jew-hatred leads to horror in Jerusalem

Israeli PM Netanyahu visits Adele Banita and her toddler in the hospital.
Photo by Kobi Gideon in Jerusalem Post

On Saturday night, Oct 3, a Palestinian, Muhannad Halabi, attacked a family as they walked in the old city, killing the father, seriously wounding the mother and injuring their 2-year-old toddler before proceeding to stab to death man another Israeli man who tried to stop the attack.

Adele Banita, whose husband Aharon was killed and her 2-year-old child wounded in that attack, described the horrific assault.

She told Israeli media that she felt something in her back and then saw the Palestinian assailant stabbing her husband before turning round to stab her again. “There were lots of Arabs around looking ... laughing and smiling,” she said.

After she tried to help her husband she said she ran for help. Palestinian onlookers “spat at me and slapped me in the face. While the knife was still stuck in me they slapped me and laughed at me.”

Baby-faced terrorist

She said she pleaded with them to help her 2-year-old child and was told by the onlookers to “die.”

Security forces were able to shoot the terrorist.

Hours later, A Palestinian teenager stabbed and moderately wounded a 15-year-old Israeli early Sunday morning in Jerusalem before being shot dead by an Israeli officer. Relatives identified the teen as Fadi Alloun, 19. A day earlier he wrote on his Facebook page: “Either martyrdom or victory.”

The Palestinian Authority has not condemned these terror attacks. On the the contrary, it’s condemned Israel for killing the terrorists.  (More here.)

The stabbings were the latest in a series of deadly Palestinian attacks. On Thursday, Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli couple in front of their children as they drove in the West Bank.

An Israeli died when his car was pelted with stones last month and there have been numerous incidents of Palestinians attacking Israelis and throwing stones at passing vehicles.

These attacks have been encouraged by the Palestinian leadership – including the supposedly moderate Chairman Abbas of the Palestinian Authority.  

"The Al-Aqsa [Mosque] is ours,” Abbas said. “And they [the Jews] have no right to defile it with their filthy feet. We will not allow them to, and we will do everything in our power to protect Jerusalem."

In his speech, parts of which were broadcast on official PA TV and posted on his personal website, Abbas also glorified Palestinians fighting against Israel in Jerusalem who are killed in the fighting. Abbas promised that Allah will reward those who will not allow Jews to defile Jerusalem:

"We bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem, which is clean and pure blood, blood spilled for Allah, Allah willing. Every Martyr (Shahid) will reach Paradise, and everyone wounded will be rewarded by Allah."

More on Palestinian media watch here.