This has got to end.
NRK: Palestinian prisoners serving time for terror acts will be granted a monthly salary from Palestine. Israeli Arnold Roth now wants to put a stop to payment of salary to those convicted of terrorist acts.
Arnold Roth’s daughter never made it past her 15th year. Her killer, jailed for terrorist acts, receives a monthly salary from Palestine. Now Roth is appealing to Norway to demand that Palestine stops paying money to Palestinians convicted of terrorism.
Today the Stortinget’s (Norway’s parliament) Control and Constitution Committee received a letter from the Foreign Ministry about this case. The leader of the Committee claims the FM fails to answer the important questions.
The man responsible for making the bomb – Abdullah Barghouti – is now in prison in Israel.
Palestine honours several hundred Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are terrorists, with a monthly payment.
Abdullah Barghouti receives about 10.000 kroner each month from Palestine.
Norge, one of the large economic contributors to Palestine, has to demand an end to payment for terror, Malki’s father says.
– I think everybody wants to see peace between Israel and the Palestinians. But Norway and other countries must understand that to contribute indirectly to Palestine paying a salary to terrorists in prison is to contribute to maintaining a Palestinian culture supporting terrorism as a political tool. It doesn’t contribute to peace, he continues.
The Foreign Ministry has the last several years repeatedly denied this.
However, NRK now claims that the finance minister of Palestine, Salam Fayyad, even in 2004 wrote an article where he openly told about the arrangement of salaries to terrorists, among others.
– Fayaad is one of our most important contacts, and for me and the Conservative Party it is inconceivable that the Foreign ministry didn’t pick up this story in 2004, says Peter Gitmark of the Conservative Party.
After NRK Dagsrevyen’s breaking of the case, the Control and Constitution Committee of the Stortinget has asked for information from the Foreign Ministry. The committee will seek to find out whether the Foreign Ministry has informed the Stortinget following correct procedure about the arrangement of paying salaries to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.Les hele brevet fra UD her
Yesterday a new letter arrived from the Foreign Ministry. In it, the FM regrets that it still hasn’t received the necessary information from Palestine.
However the FM (UD) confirms that an arrangement is in place in which prisoners are paid a salary. This arrangement has existed since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in the middle of the 1990s.
In 2004 the support was increased so that prisoners who had already served more than 25 years received 6400 kroner per month. The Palestinian arrangement, set down in law, also gives prisoners the right to be employed by the Authority after they have finished their sentence.
The FM also confirm in its letter to the Stortinget that the longer you stay in prison, the more money you will receive.
In 2010 the support paid to prisoners in Israeli prisons further increased, according to a bill passed by lawmakers. For people serving more than 30 years, the payment was tripled to more than 19.000 NK a month.
The families of 70 prisoners are now receiving this sum, according to the FM’s letter to the Stortinget. As a comparison, a civil servant in the Authority earns about NK 4600 a month.
FM writes to the Stortinget that the prisoners case is very sensitive seen from the Palestinian point of view, and that economic support of prisoners and their families is popular in palestinian society.
The leader of the Control and Constitution Committee of the Stortinget, Anders Anundsen, claims the FM’s letter doesn’t provide enough answers.
– What still remains unanswered is this: What did the Foreign Ministry know about this arrangement. Also, did the FM inform the Stortinget in the proper manner when this case was brought before the Stortinget in 2011 and 2012, says Anundsen.
Høyre (Conservative Party) claims FM isn’t answering the most important questions in the case.
– What did the FM know about the case and when did they know it? These are questions no one has answered. Therefore we will seek new answers from the FM, Høyre’s Peter Gitmark says.
– Norway now has the opportunity, together with other countries, to tell Palestine that a culture in which terrorists are made into national heroes who receive honorary salaries is not something Norway wants to contribute to, Arnold Roth says.
Translation: Cecilie
