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Palestinian Authority Paid Terrorists Over $347 Million in 2017

The Palestinian Authority paid terrorists and their families more than $347 million last year, according to its own records.

The Israeli Defense Ministry on Tuesday presented the data on the PA's payments to terrorists to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Knesset, the name for Israel's Parliament, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The PA pays terrorists who are sentenced to three to five years in prison $580 per month, equal to the average monthly income of a Palestinian. Those sentenced to twenty years or more in prison receive five times that amount for the rest of their lives for their crimes, which are more severe and often involve murdering Israelis.

The PA also issues bonuses to terrorists for a variety of reasons. Israeli citizens receive a $145 bonus, and terrorists from Jerusalem receive an additional bonus. Bonuses are also issued if the terrorist is married and for each child they have.

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman condemned the PA payments, saying the policy perpetuates terrorism.

"The PA pays over a billion shekels a year to terrorists and their families, thus encouraging and perpetuating terror," he said.

"The minute the amount of the payment is decided according to the severity of the crime and the length of the sentence—in other words, whoever murders and is sentenced to life in prison gets much more—that is funding terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens," Liberman said. "There is nothing that better illustrates the PA's support for terror. We must stop this."

In addition to the payment data, Liberman also presented the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee with a bill, which would deduct the equivalent amount that the PA pays terrorists from taxes and tariffs that Israel collects for the PA.

The bill is inspired partly by legislation that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) has introduced in the U.S., the Taylor Force Act, which would halt all U.S. aid to the Palestinians until they stop paying salaries to terrorists and their families.

The legislation is named after an American who was killed by a Palestinian terrorist. The House passed the bill last month, and the Senate has yet to vote on it.