The family of a Palestinian high school dropout who killed 13-year-old
Hallel Ariel in her sleep last month before being shot dead is now eligible for $350 a month from a Palestinian fund for “martyrs.”
Israel argues that such stipends for families of Palestinian terrorists promote violence by rewarding attacks, and has stepped up a campaign against the fund after a series of terror attacks in the West Bank.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the payments “an incentive for murder,” and a government spokesman said that starting next month, Israel
would deduct those sums from monthly transfers of taxes and customs it collects on behalf of the Palestinians.
“Terror has become a comfortable business for families,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon. “This encourages violence.”