Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely. Photo: Facebook.

Foreign donors to the Palestinian Authority should not be misled by a “procedural ruse” enabling the continuation of massive funding to terrorists and their families, Israel’s deputy foreign minister said on Sunday.

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Tzipi Hotovely wrote that due to embarrassment caused by a budgetary report compiled by Israel’s Foreign Ministry in June 2014 – revealing that the PA’s annual payments to terrorists amounted to $75 million, which was 16% of the yearly sum received by foreign donors – the PA altered the way it was doling out the cash to the killers of Israelis.

That same year, according to Hotovely, “The Palestinian Authority passed the task of paying stipends to terrorists and their families to a fund managed by the Palestine Liberation Organization.”

This fund, wrote Hotovely, was actually handled by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, and the shift was “purely cosmetic in nature.”

Indeed, said Hotovely, a mere four months ago in September, the PA prime minister, Rami Hamdallah, assured that the PA would continue to “provide the ‘necessary assistance’ to ensure these terror stipends.”

As it happens, it was in September that the current surge in Palestinian terrorism, which Israelis have come to call the “knife intifada,” began.

Nevertheless, asserted Hotovely, “This procedural ruse apparently calmed the consciences of donor governments that continue to transfer aid. It is difficult to think of another case in which such a forgiving attitude would be taken regarding foreign aid to an entity that sponsors terror.”

Hotevely concluded: “Donors to the Palestinians who support peace would do well to rethink the way they extend assistance. Money should go to economic and civic empowerment, not to perpetuate a false sense of victimhood and unconditional entitlement. It should foster values of tolerance and nonviolence, not the glorification and financing of terrorism.”