Congressman Calls to Designate Senior Fatah Official ‘Sponsor of Terror’

By: TPS Staff

Congressman Doug Lamborn (R, CO) has sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to designate the Palestinian Authority (PA) funded Commission for Prisoners’ Affairs, and it’s head Qadri Abu Bakr, as “sponsors of terror.”

Qadri Abu Baker is a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council. In August 2018, PA head Mahmoud Abbas appointed him as the head of the PLO’s Committee for detainees and ex-detainees

“We cannot continue allowing the Palestinian Authority to pay salaries to terrorists or their families. I am calling on Donald Trump to designate Qadri Abu Bakr to be listed as a sponsor of terror for his evil deeds,” Lamborn stated.

The PA has a policy of paying the families of convicted terrorists imprisoned in Israel a monthly stipend. The payments have been criticized as a financial incentive to commit terrorist attacks against Israelis.

According to the PA’s pay scale, the salary of an imprisoned terrorist begins at NIS 1,400 ($401) every month from his first day in prison, and gradually rises to NIS 12,000 ($3,435), in accordance with the amount of time he has been in prison.

Therefore, the more severe the attack was, the higher the stipend the terrorist is set to receive.

The PA spent NIS 517.4 million ($150 m.) in stipends to terrorists and their families in 2019, a rise of NIS 5 million and a 3% increase compared to 2018

The US Congress in March 2018 passed the Taylor Force Act, ending American aid to the PA until it definitively proves that it has stopped paying stipends to terrorists and their families.

“Since the Palestinian Authority leaders have publicly attacked the passage of the Taylor Force Act, rejected its terms, and continue rewarding terrorists and their families, the appropriate next step in the US war on terror is to personally sanction those PA/PLO officials involved in this incentivizing of terror, as defined by the law,” Lamborn wrote.

While there are many senior Palestinian officials involved in the “pay for slay” program, the institution and the person most responsible are the PA/PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs and its Director Qadri Abu Bakr,” he noted.

(TPS)