NEW YORK - As U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni prepares to travel to the Middle East to help put an end to terrorism, Yasir Arafat’s Palestinian Authority is further promoting terrorism by expanding its program of providing payments to families of suicide bombers.

Until now, the PA has been providing a one time payment of $2,000 to each family; “monthly payments of $150 that continue until the last child has left the house”; an additional $2,500 grant from the PA’s Red Crescent Division; and the PA has served as the conduit for payments of $10,000 to each family from the government of Iraq. (New York Times, Dec. 24, 2000) Iraqi Deputy Minister Tariq Aziz has now announced that it will increase the amount of its PA-channeled grants to $25,000 per family. (Associated Press, March 12, 2002)

Additional PA programs that supply financial aid to terrorists and their families:

* Scholarships for terrorists’ children: In June 1998, Arafat instructed the PA’s Higher Committee for Scholarships to give “priority to the sons of martyrs when it comes to awarding scholarships.” The PA uses the term “martyrs” to include terrorists killed while attempting to murder Israelis. (As reported in the pro-Arafat newspaper Jerusalem Times, July 3, 1998)

* Salaries for jailed terrorists: Jawad al-Tibi, chairman of the Social Affairs Committee for Arafat’s Palestinian Legislative Council, visited Arab terrorists in Israeli prisons on October 30, 1997. Tibi announced that his committee “will act to implement the Legislative Council’s decision, which states that each prisoner should receive an income identical to that of a soldier.” (As reported in the pro-Arafat newspaper Jerusalem Times on Sept. 11, 1998, and in the Israeli weekly Yerushalayim, Aug.27, 1999)

This entry was posted on Monday, March 18th, 2002 and is filed under hotnews.