Petition Re-evaluate Direct Funding to the Palestinian Authority

The Palestinian Authority (PA) currently provides salaries to any Palestinian convicted of committing terrorism offences against Israel. These wages are directly pegged to the length of the sentence, so the more grievous the crime, the higher the salary. Since these wages are much larger than those earned by average Palestinians, they clearly reward violence, including murder, and undermine peace. Around 40 per cent of the PA’s budget is made up from donor aid; the UK government has promised £33 million of taxpayer’s money for the 2013/14 period alone. The Palestinian ministers responsible for this policy publicly deride international donors who express unhappiness with their money being used to pay terrorists; only a credible threat of this aid being removed will alter the situation. We are therefore calling on DFID to cease all direct funding to the Palestinian Authority until it agrees to no longer provide salaries for those convicted of committing violent acts against Israel.