Report: U.S. Begins Enforcing Taylor Force Law

A report on i24 News Monday said that the United States has begun enforcing the Taylor Force Law, and that aid to the Palestinian Authority has been cut, commensurate with the amount of money the PA gives to the families of terrorists in Israeli prisons. Also being cut is the budget of USAid, which funds dozens of projects in PA-controlled areas of Yehudah and Shomron, the report said.

The report did not say how much was being cut, but it did quote a Palestinian Authority source as confirming the cuts. According to the law, in order to restore the aid the Secretary of State must ensure that the PA is in compliance with four items – that payments to terrorists or their families have ended, that laws providing for those payments are repealed, that the PA takes “active steps” to end terror, and that it publicly condemns and pledges to investigate acts of terror.

The Taylor Force Act is named for a former American serviceman who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian in Tel Aviv in 2016. The Arab went on a stabbing spree along the boardwalk in southern Tel Aviv, killing Force and injuring 11 people before he was eliminated at the Jaffa Port.

Israel currently does not have a law restricting aid to the PA. A law similar to the Taylor Force Law recently was approved for legislation by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for its second and third reading, but it is not clear when the legislation will reach the Knesset for a vote, Channel 20 reported, because it is being held up by disagreements between MKs and the Defense Ministry on the extent of the law.