Al Mezan Center for Human Rights condemns Israel’s decision to withhold 597 million shekels (ca. US$182 million) in tax revenue collected last year and owed to the Palestinian Authority (PA). The decision, approved by the Israeli cabinet on 11 July 2021, allows the Israeli government to withhold up to 50 million shekels (ca. US$15 million) per month as of August.(from the Arabic version) Al Mezan Center for Human Rights condemns the Israeli decision. At the same time, it affirms that the Palestinian Authority’s financial allocations for the families of martyrs, wounded and detainees, which are provided in the form of monthly salaries to these families, are considered a form of social security for families who have lost their main breadwinner, and that the deduction’s decision constitutes Piracy in broad daylight, harming the livelihood of these families, and collective punishment against the civilian population, which in turn contributes to the deterioration of the already deteriorated humanitarian and economic conditions in the occupied Palestinian territories in general, especially in light of the continuation of Israeli violations, especially the comprehensive siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.
This "social security" argument is specious. If that is true, then why is this program only for people classified as fighters? Why are the payments higher for those who killed more Jews? Why do the payments increase the more time the prisoner is behind bars? Why are their salaries higher than those of regular Palestinian workers, both while in prison and even after they are released and could work again?
If it was really a social security issue, it should be equally available to every family where the breadwinner dies or is incapacitated - Fatah or Hamas, male or female, "militant" or someone with a shoe store in Nablus. No one would object, and all the tax revenues would be restored.
Every Palestinian knows that these payments are meant to reward terrorists. They say this openly and they defend this proudly . Al Mezan, a supposed "human rights' organization, knows this as well and is trying to gaslight the West with this nonsense of social security payments.
Their defense of the "pay for slay" program proves that they are not interested in human rights at all.
Either that, or they do not consider the Jews who were attacked by these terrorists to be humans deserving of rights.
The entire "human rights" industry is a sham where outrages like this are accepted and supported. There is a huge cleavage between "human rights organizations" and actual human rights. And international human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty are complicit because they condone these immoral payments with their silence.
