Stop giving aid cash to terrorists, say Jewish leaders

Published by The Mail on Sunday (15th May, 2016)

Jewish groups are launching a campaign to stop British aid being used to fund Palestinian terrorists following shocking revelations in The Mail on Sunday.

They are demanding the Government cut all funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA) until it ends support for payments of ‘salaries’ to suicide bombers and child killers. The Department for International Development (Dfid) will this year give the PA £25.5 million.

The campaign is backed by former Labour MP Michael McCann, who reveals today how the PA finance minister openly admitted to such funding during a visit two years ago by Parliament’s International Development Select Committee, whose members were investigating aid spending in Palestine.

McCann says Dfid is ‘guilty of turning a blind eye to British taxpayers’ money being used to incentivise murder’.

In March, we exposed how ‘rewards for murder’ flowed from British and European funding bodies to terrorists accused of atrocities.

Our investigation found millions being passed on from the PA to the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) – which in turn gives it to convicted terrorists locked up in Israeli prisons, and their families.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, which represents the Jewish community, and advocacy group the Israel-Britain Alliance, will put pressure on MPs to attend the June 13 debate on aid spending forced by Mail on Sunday readers.

Over 228,000 signed an online petition calling on MPs to stop spending a fixed sum of 0.7 per cent of national income on aid.

Jonathan Arkush, president of the Board of Deputies, said it supported aid for people in need, but added: ‘Until Dfid can be absolutely sure that money is going to the right people, and not funding terrorists and incitement, either directly or indirectly, we call for the aid to be suspended while a rigorous review takes place.’

Mr McCann, who became director of the Israel-Britain Alliance after losing his seat last year, said: ‘People don’t want their hard-earned cash given to terrorists.’

A Dfid spokesman said aid funding helped build Palestinian institutions and promote economic growth.

They blew up my sister… so why do we reward them?

The brother of a British woman killed in a Jerusalem blast has denounced the Government for allowing UK aid to support the Hamas terrorists behind the atrocity.

Mary Gardner, an evangelical Christian, died five years ago after a bomb left in a suitcase near a bus stop exploded. She was in Israel studying ancient Hebrew.

Now her brother Thomas has called on Ministers to ensure that British aid handed to the Palestinian Authority does not fund killers.

‘I’m really upset our taxes are directly or indirectly supporting the terrorist who murdered my sister,’ said Mr Gardner, 48, from Edinburgh.

The attack in March 2011 was led by Hassin Qawasme. He is thought to have been paid almost £14,000 since his arrest under the Palestinian ‘rewards for murder’ scheme, receiving a ‘salary’ of about £365 a month.

PA officials admit such payments are made – although the Dfid insists none of the aid given ends up in the pockets of terrorists.

Categorised in: Aid & development, home page, Israel, West Bank & Gaza, World