PA fumes as Israel uses their funds to compensate victims of Palestinian torture

Based on a court ruling, Israel is holding the Palestinians responsible for their actions, infuriating the PA. 

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

The Palestinian Authority (PA) viciously brutalized Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel, and an Israeli court ruled last summer that the PA must compensate these victims for physical and emotional distress.

The Jerusalem District Court in July ruled in favor of 51 Palestinians who filed suits against the PA, and hundreds of millions of shekels are expected to be awarded in damages.

To partially cover the required compensation, Israel recently cut half a billion Israeli shekels ($145 million) from taxes it collects on behalf of the PA.

The PA expressed rage and chagrin over the Israeli move.

“This amount is only the first installment in a series of payments that could reach millions of shekels the Israeli government intends to seize for this dubious allegation” the Palestinian cabinet stated on Tuesday.

The Palestinian government alleged that “this measure is nothing more than an Israeli piracy of Palestinian funds and is part of a policy to seize Palestinian tax revenues employed by the Israeli government.”

The Palestinian cabinet vowed it would “take all necessary measures to retrieve the Palestinian financial rights.”

The PA has refused to recognize the court’s jurisdiction over its affairs.

The plaintiffs testified that between 1990 and 2003 they were incarcerated for different periods of time, some of them held for years, and suffered unimaginable brutal torture at the hands of their interrogators.

Several of the victims subsequently died of their wounds or were executed without trial.

The PA denied that any torture took place within its facilities.

The Palestinian security forces have previously come under fire from advocacy groups and Palestinian detainees based on egregious human rights abuse.