Biden’s Illegal Aid Plan Will Strengthen Terror Funding (Sekulow Recap)

The Biden Administration looks to restart a controversial Palestinian Authority (PA) aid program.

Today on Sekulow, we discussed how the Biden Administration is planning to violate federal law by restarting financial aid to the PA, even as it continues its “Pay for Slay” program that pays the families of terrorists who commit atrocities against Israeli and American civilians.

We’re paying close attention to all the various moves that the Biden Administration is looking to make, especially those that appear to violate the laws of the United States. In this case, we’re talking about a likely violation of the Taylor Force Act.

The Taylor Force Act blocks U.S. funding from going directly to the Palestinian Authority until it changes its “Pay for Slay” program, which monetarily encourages terrorism. In essence, if any terrorist carries out an attack against any Israeli or American, their families will receive monetary compensation based on how brutal the attack was, if the terrorist was killed, or the length of their prison sentence.

The Taylor Force Act is named for American soldier Taylor Force was murdered in a terrorist attack while on a student trip to Israel. Because the murderer was killed while committing the act of terrorism, the PA’s “Pay for Slay” program gave his family a monthly pension. In response, the Taylor Force act passed Congress in 2018 and was signed into law by President Trump.

Former Secretary of State and ACLJ Senior Counsel for Global Affairs Mike Pompeo has a new piece up on our website that focuses on this very issue. It was co-written by Stuart Force, the father of Taylor Force. Secretary Pompeo joined us on the broadcast and talked about how wrong this potential action by the Biden Administration would be:

The Palestinian Authority has for years made it their law and their policy that someone who engaged in activity that resulted in the death or serious injury of an Israeli, they would pay them. They would pay their family. They would pay them a stipend. They would give them retirement benefits. This is the most outrageous kind of thing to reward people for taking actions against Israeli citizens. The Administration has indicated that they may go back to providing resources to the Palestinian Authority, the very leadership inside of the West Bank that is doing this “Pay for Slay” program. In some ways it’s as if they are laundering money for terrorists. The Palestinian Authority is engaged in terrorist activity. Hamas is closely associated with this as well.

Now, it appears that the United States government may well give the Palestinian Authority resources and money. The Trump Administration stopped it. We stopped it cold. It was the right thing to do and the Taylor Force Act requires this by law. I hope the Biden Administration won’t go back to that failed set of policies.

This is something that we at the ACLJ are paying close attention to. The United States government cannot help fund the Palestinian Authority, only for them to go and use the money to help fund their “Pay for Slay” program. The consequence for the Biden Administration to pursue such a policy change, is to only encourage innocent Israeli and American lives to be put in danger.

The full broadcast is complete with much more analysis by our team of this anti-Israel move that the Biden Administration is potentially considering. There is also much more conversation with former Secretary of State and ACLJ Senior Counsel for Global Affairs Mike Pompeo.

Watch the full broadcast below.