President Joe Biden and his administration’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, have both been sued because of the administration’s payment of more than half a billion dollars to the Palestinian Authority.
Those payments drew scrutiny and a legal challenge because the organization to which they were sent is a known funder of terrorism, as it pays the families of those terrorists that kill Israelis a cash reward for the act of terror in what has been termed a “Pay to Slay” program.
EMET reported on that “Pay to Slay” program in a fact sheet on the subject, saying:
According to “Amended Palestinian Prisoners Law No. 19 (2004),” which are Palestinian laws passed in 2004 and amended in 2013, Palestinians and Israeli Arabs who are convicted by Israel of involvement in terror attacks in Israel – “participation in the struggle against the occupation” – are entitled to monthly “salaries” commencing with their arrest – and continuing for life for men who serve at least five years and women who serve at least two – along with additional cash grants for such things as tuition fees at government schools and universities, health insurance, and priority civil-service job placements upon their release. The PA law specifies that the financial support is for the “fighting sector,” an “integral part of the fabric of Arab Palestinian society.” Basically, the law dictates that the deadlier the terror attack, the richer the reward.
The total payments from the PA for Pay for Slay equaled $315 million in 2016, or 8% of the PA budget of $4.4 billion.
Not only are people furious that Biden and Blinken funded terror with their half a billion dollar payment to the Palestinian Authority, but US law makes it illegal for them to have done so. That’s because of the Taylor Act, which was passed in 2017. Named for a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who was slain by PA-funded terrorists while in Israel, Taylor Force, the act makes it illegal for the government to fund the Palestinian Authority so long as it continues it’s “Pay to Slay” program.
The lawsuit uses that obvious illegality as its basis, saying “[T]he defendants took power on January 20, 2021, with a new plan: Transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from U.S. taxpayers to the Palestinian Authority despite Pay to Slay and contrary to the Taylor Force Act. Contrary to law, they have transferred nearly half a billion American taxpayer dollars to directly benefit and subsidize the Palestinian Authority.”
Stewart Force, the father of Taylor Force, spoke about the lawsuit to the Daily Caller News Foundation, saying:
“Our role in the lawsuit is as it was in our efforts to enact the original Taylor Force Act – to put a human face on the horrific effects of the Palestinian Authority’s Pay for Slay policy. Multiply the devastating loss of our beloved son Taylor by the hundreds of Israeli families that have also been impacted by this inhumane atrocity of Pay for Slay and you will understand why we are committed to ending the flow of US dollars to the PA.”
