PA to Lose Additional NIS 14M to Pay for Torture of ‘Collaborators’

The State Collection Executor’s Office (Hotza’ah Lapo’al) has ordered that the Finance Ministry deduct NIS 14 million due to the Palestinian Authority to satisfy a judgment against the Authority, which was found guilty of torturing 52 PA residents who had given Israeli security officials information about terror attacks and terrorists. The money is compensation for torture the victims were forced to undergo, awarded them in a civil suit last year.

The payment comes in addition to the NIS 500 million or so that the state has been withholding from monies it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority because of the latter’s distributing the money to terrorists and their families.

The Executor’s Office ordered the payment after the High Court in November dismissed an appeal by the PA to reverse a decision by a lower court for the payment. That court decided a year earlier that the 52 Palestinians would be compensated for being illegally imprisoned, and for the injuries they incurred in their imprisonment. The victims were imprisoned as “collaborators” with Israel. The penalty for PA Arabs working to provide Israel with information on terror incidents or terrorists is usually death.

In a statement, the Israeli attorneys for the victims said “we congratulate the authorities for doing justice with these victims, who paid with their health and more in order to ensure our security, despite the partial and delayed nature of this justice. Unfortunately, we had to conduct a long and difficult effort against the state to force it to make this payment, deducted from funds due the PA.”