Advertisement 1

Avi Benlolo: Seven Israeli civilians are dead and Canada has blood on its hands

Our funding of UNRWA allows the Palestinian Authority to continue its murderous 'pay-for-slay' program

Article content

Canada funds the Palestinians with an average of around US$23 million (C$31 million) a year through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). On top of that, in 2021, Canada also gave the Palestinians an extra $25 million, ostensibly for emergency relief due to “urgent humanitarian needs in Gaza, as well as those affected by violence in the West Bank.” That year, Canada’s aid to the Palestinians was over US$48 million, making us about the sixth-largest donor.

Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content

Following the murder of seven Israelis outside a synagogue last week by a Palestinian terrorist, there is a question that begs to be answered: by continuing to fund Palestinians, are we complicit in these murders?

Article content

It’s not that the money sent to organizations like UNRWA, which has an annual budget of around US$1.5 billion, isn’t necessarily needed for poverty relief, medical assistance and education. It’s that UNRWA is keeping them indefinitely as refugees. In addition, countries like ours are not only helping cover the costs of providing these services, but also assisting organizations — Hamas and the Palestinian Authority — that incite violence and incentive terrorism.

Its been well documented that the Palestinian Authority rewards terrorists by giving monthly allowances to their families, should they die while carrying out an operation against the Jews or find themselves in prison if they survive. It sounds completely insane, but the Palestinian Authority has actually institutionalized what is now called “pay for slay.” In other words, you get paid to murder Israelis — especially Jews.

Article content
Advertisement 3
Story continues below
Article content

Where does the Palestinian Authority (PA) get the money to finance its pay-for-slay program? Think about it. With a per capita GDP of roughly US$3,500 and an average unemployment rate of 25 per cent, the PA simply could not afford to pay for the salaries of terrorists without international assistance. These funds alleviate stress on the PA to pay for schools, hospitals and social programs, so it can instead support the “resistance.”

Reacting to the Jerusalem attack, British journalist Melanie Philips wrote, “Once again, we have witnessed the nauseating spectacle of western governments — which sanitize, fund and pump up the genocidal Palestinian Arab cause — expressing shock and sympathy with Israel over these attacks (while continuing) to fund the Palestinian Authority despite the PA’s ‘pay-to-slay’ policy of rewarding the families of terrorists for every Israeli Jew they murder, and despite its never-ending incitement to murder Jews and steal Israel’s land.”

Indeed, both Canada under Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the United States under President Donald Trump cut funding to UNRWA due to its close ties with Hamas, systemic corruption and antisemitism. Yet these policies were reversed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden, whose administration has funded UNRWA with a whopping US$890 million over the past two years. And this week, instead of penalizing the Palestinians for last week’s heinous terror attack, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken rewarded them with an additional US$50 million.

Advertisement 4
Story continues below
Article content

In Forward, Palestinian political analyst Bassem Eid wrote, “It’s time to admit that Palestinian institutions are broken, and that they have developmentally harmed generations of Palestinian men and women, boys and girls, by whipping them into a constant froth with violently antisemitic educational and media content that celebrate ‘martyrdom’ attacks against Israelis. The Palestinian Authority provides a financial incentive for terrorism by providing pensions to the families of those who attack Israelis.”

Palestinian Media Watch found recently released prisoners Karim and Maher Younis were the highest-paid Arab-Israeli terrorists. Each collected nearly US$100,000 from the Palestinian Authority for murdering Avraham Bromberg, a corporal in the Israel Defence Forces.

Back in 2018, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that, “We will neither reduce nor prevent (payment) of allowances to the families of martyrs, prisoners and released prisoners, as some seek, and if we had only a single penny left, we would pay it to families of the martyrs and prisoners.”

Advertisement 5
Story continues below
Article content

As a result of the latest Palestinian killing spree, Israel’s parliament is fast-tracking new legislation that will revoke the Israeli citizenship of terrorists who receive financial support from the Palestinian Authority. But this is clearly not enough.

Countries like Canada have a moral and ethical obligation to stop funding the Palestinians until the PA stops its pay-for-slay program. Our hands are bloodied with each dollar we provide the Palestinians, as it enables them to fund terror. We cannot continue to hide behind the illusion that we are providing much-needed aid.

By providing free money to the Palestinians, we are feeding a beast that openly promotes terrorism and compensates terrorists. So long as we and other countries pour money into Palestinian coffers, Israelis like 14-year-old Asher Natan will continue to be murdered at the hands of Palestinian terrorists.

National Post

Recommended from Editorial
  1. Israeli authorities work at the scene of a terrorist attack in Jerusalem on Jan. 27.
    Jesse Kline: Horrific terror attack in Jerusalem a failure of the Palestinian Authority
  2. Children ride their bicycles in front of a health centre run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza City in a file photo from October 2018. An internal ethics report has alleged mismanagement and abuses of authority at the highest levels of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees even as the organization faced an unprecedented crisis after U.S. funding cuts.
    Vivian Bercovici: Why hasn't this latest scandal persuaded Canada to cut off the UNRWA?
Article content
Comments
You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.
Join the Conversation

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

Latest from Shopping Essentials
  1. Advertisement 2
    Story continues below
This Week in Flyers