U.S. Foreign Aid and Palestinian Prisoner

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, first I would like to thank my dear friend from Florida for bringing this issue to Congress' attention. To know that the Palestinian Authority provides salaries to former prisoners of Israeli jails is alarming. To discover a Government Accountability Office report that U.S. government agencies may have inadvertently given money to these terrorist is a flagrant breach of fiduciary responsibility.

In 2011 an Israeli research institute discovered international aid to the Palestinian Authority was paying for the salaries of Palestinian terrorist once imprisoned in Israel. Documents were discovered listing prisoner's salaries as being a part of the general fund, the same general fund which is partially comprised of foreign aid.

Over the last fifteen years the U.S. government has committed around $5 billion in bilateral assistance to Palestinians. As recent as FY2013 annual assistance to Palestine was about $440 million.

A Palestinian Authority report shows prisoner's salaries as part of the Palestinian Authority's general salary budget which consists of civil servants and military personnel.

Former prisoners receive salaries around $680 to $3,400 a month. The reason for the range in salary is due to the perverse nature of this program. The more protracted the stay in an Israeli prison, the more egregious the terrorist act, the higher the monthly compensation. Since December of 2012 more than 4,500 Palestinian prisoners who serve time for terrorist related charges receive a monthly salary. This means members of Hamas and Fatah are able to subsidize their professional activities.

In addition to the monthly salaries the Palestinian Authority covers prisoner's legal fees, Israeli fines, and post-prison pensions.

A Government Accountability Office report titled, ``Measures to Prevent Inadvertent Payments to Terrorists under Palestinian Aid Programs Have Been Strengthened, but Some Weaknesses Remain,'' found problems with U.S. paperwork vetting financial assistance to Palestine.

GAO found U.S. sub-awards were not properly following rules requiring they follow U.S. antiterrorism statutes before issuing aid.

One such example cited was when a sub-awardee, the United Nations, was found to not properly check a list of personnel against known terrorist organizations.

The United Nations is supposed to screen all staff, contractors, and beneficiaries to ensure they have no known terrorist affiliation. It was noted that the U.N. screened all related people against a U.N. Security Council list of potential terrorist, the list did not include members of Hamas and Hezbollah, which the U.S. designated as foreign terrorist organizations. These and other missteps in choosing the appropriate venues by which to send financial aid to Palestine is why Congress should be concerned.

GAO, since the issuing of the report, has stated all recommendations have been implemented but the Palestinian Authority has not stopped subsidizing prisoner's cost of living.

In accordance with Congressman's Yoho's resolution Congress should not allow foreign aid dollars to an entity that feels it is okay to provide welfare for terrorist.

During this latest iteration of Israel-Palestinian peace negotiations, Israel has already offered up three rounds of prisoners to the Palestinian Authority. All Israel gets in return is an extended stay of Palestine at the negotiation table, nothing concrete.

Even with three rounds of prisoner releases, the Palestinian Authority begs for the worst of the worst to be sent home. Two senior prisoners Palestine is requesting to be released are Marwan Barghouti and Ahmed Saadat.

Marwan Barghouti, a senior official in the U.S. terrorist designated Fatah party is serving five life sentences for murdering Israeli citizens.

Ahmed Saadat, head another terrorist affiliated organization is serving a life sentence for the murder of an Israeli cabinet minister.

If these two prisoners are released they will enter the rolls of preceding radicals who receive a monthly pension because of their profession, killing innocent Israelis.

I beg this body to pay close attention to this issue and bring into debate the distribution of international aid to governing bodies who reward the malignant in their society.

Source