RAMALLAH, July 3, 2018 (WAFA) – Palestinian officials said on Tuesday that despite an Israeli law that allows the deduction of the amount of the allowance the Palestinian Authority (PA) pays to families of prisoners in Israel and those killed by Israeli forces from its tax revenues, yet this will never affect its commitment to them.

The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, passed in second and third readings on Monday a bill that allows the Israeli government to deduct from the PA custom revenues it collects on its behalf on goods entering through its ports the value of the PA’s payments to the families of Palestinians held by Israel for resisting its occupation and the resistance fighters murdered by Israeli forces ever since the start of the occupation 50 years ago.

Issa Qaraqe, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission, told Voice of Palestine radio that the deduction of money from the tax revenues is piracy.

He stressed that nevertheless, the PA will never give up on the “martyrs” and prisoners. “This is part of our culture and resistance,” he said. “This law intends to delegitimize our national struggle for independence.”

Bassam Salhi, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said the PA will never succumb to Israeli blackmail, describing the law as piracy of Palestinian money.

The Prisoners Affairs Commission said in a statement on Tuesday that the Israeli government allocates a large amount of money for Israeli prisoners who committed crimes of murder and attacks against Palestinians. Yet it is fighting against allocation of money for Palestinians who are fighting for their liberty and freedom from an ugly occupation.

M.K.