Merkel’s party rejects freeze of funds for Palestinian terrorism

embers of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union Party voted against a motion on Saturday in Hamburg to stop public funds for the Palestinian Authority’s payments to terrorists and financial aid to the families of terrorists who have murdered and injured Israelis.

According to the motion titled “Freeze aid to the Palestinian Authority,” the “Palestinian Authority [PA] has for years already paid the families of Palestinian terrorists… and with the payments, the PA knowingly and willingly supports terror against Israel and makes this a worthy financial business.”

The motion said that so long as the Palestinian Authority does not stop this activity, Germany and the EU should not provide financial aid to the PA that is controlled by President Mahmoud Abbas.

The Bild journalist Timo Lokoschat first reported on his Twitter feed about the rejected motion.

The motion noted that the families of convicted Palestinian terrorists receive payments ranging from $300 to $3,000 a month depending on the terrorist’s criminal conviction.

Critics of the so-called “martyr” payments say the Palestinians incentivize terrorism with funds, and Europe enables the terrorism with financial aid to the PA.

The latest anti-Israel blow from Merkel’s party comes on the heels of The Jerusalem Post‘s revelations that Merkel waged a campaign to convince Central and Eastern European countries to not relocate their embassies to Jerusalem. Merkel’s government also supported eight anti-Israel resolutions at the UN and is working on a financial mechanism to bust US sanctions against Iran.

Benjamin Weinthal is a European correspondent at The Jerusalem Post and a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.