STRASBOURG—The parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, known as PACE, has called on the Palestinians to to cease financial support ‘’for those imprisoned following convictions for terrorist acts and their relatives.’’
The call is part of resolution on ‘’a major role for Europe in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.’’
“After a persistent effort we succeeded for the first time to include in the final resolution a clear call to stop support for terrorists and their families,” said Knesset Member for the Yesh Atid party Aliza Lavie, who addressed the PACE assembly in Strasbourg, France.
The U.S. Congress is in the process of passing a new bill known as the Taylor Force Act that would partially cut U.S. funding to the Palestinian Authority because they use U.S. tax dollars to pay terrorists.
The bill has already passed the House of Representatives and is pending Senate approval.
The Palestinian Authority paid terrorists nearly $350 million in 2017. This represents around 7.5 percent of its budget.
However, the rest of the resolution is rather critical of Israel, calling on the Israeli authorities ‘’to stop the building of new settlements and the extension of old ones, cease all home demolitions, forced evictions and confiscation of land in the occupied territories, including in East Jerusalem.’’
“Europe should play a major role in the sponsorship and resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process,” PACE said.
The Assembly considers that it is the responsibility of the international community, including the Council of Europe, to create the proper conditions to attain this goal.
‘’PACE therefore will continue to promote dialogue between representatives of the Knesset and the Palestinian National Council – in particular in the framework of the Sub-Committee on the Middle East and the Arab World – making available its own experience,’’ the resolution explained.
While deploring the declaration of the President of the United States on 6 December 2017, PACE underlined that “the status of Jerusalem should be decided by common agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
The Assembly reiterated its support for two legitimate aspirations: “Israel’s right to be recognised and live in security, and the Palestinians’ right to have an independent, viable and contiguous State”, and for a “two-State solution, based on the 1967 borders”.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 47-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Council of Europe is an older and wider circle of nations than the 28-member European Union – it includes, for example, Russia and Turkey among its member states – and oversees the European Court of Human Rights.