Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman is expected to slam the Palestinian Authority
for spending some six percent of its budget on payments to terrorists in Israeli
jails and family members of suicide bombers when he meets Wednesday with
Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store.
Store, chairman of the
international donors conference to the PA, formally known as the Ad-Hoc Liaison
Committee, is scheduled to arrive Wednesday afternoon for a lightning visit of
just over 12 hours to meet Liberman, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and
Palestinian leaders prior to the organization’s next meeting later this month in
New York. That meeting will take place at a time of deepening economic crisis in
the PA.
A Channel 2 report on Monday, however, showed that even faced
with a dire financial situation, the PA spends some NIS 44 million each month in
stipends to Palestinians serving time in Israeli jails for security offenses and
to the families of suicide bombers. The payments, according to the report, also
go to Israeli Arabs convicted of terrorist acts.
For instance, Channel 2
reported that Abbas al- Sayed, the Hamas terrorist responsible for the Passover
Eve massacre at Netanya’s Park Hotel that killed 30 Israelis, receives a NIS
12,000 monthly stipend.
Liberman, speaking at a Rosh Hashana toast for
Yisrael Beytenu, gave a preview of what he intends to discuss with
Store.
“The murderers of Gandhi [assassinated minister Rehavam Ze’evi],
the murderers of the Fogel family [killed in Itamar in 2011] are getting a
salary that is high even by Israeli standards, NIS 12,000 a month. And they are
talking about a financial crisis,” he said.
Liberman said that security
prisoners from east Jerusalem get an additional NIS 300 a month and those from
Israel receive NIS 500 a month more.
“This is clearly encouragement to
terror,” he said.
These payments are taking place at a time when the PA
owes the Israeli Electric Corporation NIS 700 million, he added.
Liberman
said he will discuss all this with the Norwegian foreign minister.
“There
is no reason why the Israel Electric Corporation has to suffer because [the PA]
is paying NIS 12,000 to the murders of Gandhi and the Fogel family. That can’t
be. We can be tolerant, and at times suckers, but there is a limit to
everything.”
In addition to Store, Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi
and Greek Defense Minister Panos Panagiotopoulos will also be arriving Wednesday
for official visits. Terzi is scheduled to meet Netanyahu, Liberman and
President Shimon Peres.
Government officials said that Israel’s
relationship with Italy remains very strong, though it is not the same as it was
when Silvio Berlusconi was prime minister.
Panagiotopoulos will also be
meeting with both Netanyahu and Barak.