Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Photo: Reuters / Mohamad Torokman.

A top US Jewish group condemned the Palestinian Authority on Monday for stepping up its policy of funding terrorists and their families.

Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (CoP) Chairman Arthur Stark and Executive Vice Chairman and CEO Malcolm Hoenlein said in a statement:

“According to newly-released budget figures from the Palestinian Authority, it has increased the ‘pay-to-slay’ salaries provided to perpetrators of terrorist acts against Israelis, providing lifetime pensions to perpetrators or to their surviving relatives. At a time when they are cutting salaries of Palestinian Authority employees, they are increasing the amounts set aside to those who murder and wound Israelis. This, despite the condemnation of most of the Western world of the practice of rewarding and inciting such wanton acts of terror and destruction.”

Stark and Hoenlein continued, “The United States, Israel, and other countries have withheld funds equivalent to the amounts spent on this outrageous program. It once again demonstrates that the Palestinian Authority has no concern for their people who bear the brunt of the impact of the cutoff of the funds. The fact that the government did not only not cut off the payouts but increased the funding is a clear sign that [Palestinian Authority] President [Mahmoud] Abbas has no interest in improving relations with other states and meeting international accepted standards.”

“It is imperative that other countries join the US and others who have taken a stand on this matter to make it clear that it will only further isolate the Palestinian Authority in the international community and deny it the support it so desperately needs,” they concluded.