By: Kate Anderson, Daily Caller News Foundation
The Palestinian Authority (PA) resoundingly rejected Israel’s attempts to offer stabilizing resources for the government’s collapse, according to The Jerusalem Post.
While the plan’s details are not fully clear, it does include a series of economic and defense measures to help stabilize the government as long as the Palestinians cease their anti-Israel policies, such as paying the families of terrorists who attack Israel, according to The Jewish Chronicle. Despite this, PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said in a statement Monday that the government had rejected the offer and would continue to seek international action against Israel, according to the Jerusalem Post.
“Yesterday, the Israeli government came out with decisions concerning the Palestinian Authority on the pretext that they want to offer gestures to the Palestinians,” Shtayyeh said, according to The Jerusalem Post. “On behalf of the Palestinian government, we say that what is required of Israel is to halt its aggression on our people, killings, settlements and the piracy of our money.”
The plan was introduced by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and approved by eight members of the cabinet, with one vote against it and one abstaining, according to the Jewish Chronicle. The economic measures would provide billions of shekels to Palestinians to help the economy in the West Bank and prevent an opportunity for several terrorist groups including Hamas and the Islamic Jihad from fully taking over the government and creating a terrorist state, according to the Times of Israel.
In exchange for security and economic support, Israel made a series of demands to further ease tensions between the Palestinians and the Israelis, according to The Jewish Chronicle.
“In the absence of a change in the national assessment, Israel will act to prevent the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, while demanding that it cease its anti-Israel activity in the international legal-diplomatic arena, the incitement in its media and education system, the payments to the families of terrorists and murderers, and the illegal construction in Area C,” the Israeli Security Cabinet said in a statement Sunday, according to The Jewish Chronicle.
The measures were condemned by several high-profile Israeli officials, who pointed to the PA’s history of supporting terrorism.
“There is no greater absurdity than the fact that a body that encourages terrorism, pays salaries to terrorists and their families, encourages in the education system incitement in favor of the murder of Jews, takes over territories in Judea and Samaria, will win a basket of rewards from the Israeli government in the midst of a wave of terrorism,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said in a statement according to The Jewish Chronicle.
The PA has been criticized by both Israel and the U.S. for its Pay to Slay program, which provides payments to the families of terrorists who attack Israel.
The decision comes on the heels of an extensive military operation in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin. The Israeli military sent in drones and troops to attack multiple “terrorist infrastructures” that have been known to be involved in attacks against the Jewish state.
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