British House of Parliament. Photo: wiki commons.

Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) director Itamar Marcus presented evidence to British politicians this week showing that the UK contributes to the Palestinian General Budget, from which the Palestinian Authority (PA) pays a total of £2.8 million ($4.5 million) every month in salaries to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

This means that British taxpayers are contributing to salaries as high as £2,000 ($3,226) per month for the longest-serving terrorist prisoners.

UK Minister of State for International Development Alan Duncan rejected this testimony, saying, “We have investigated the matter fully and can confirm that the allegations in Palestinian Media Watch’s report are both inaccurate and misleading.” The payments were not salaries but “social assistance programs to provide welfare payments,” he said, according to the Wall Street Journal.

However, the PA refers to salaries earned in Israeli jails by Palestinian prisoners, including mass murderers, by using the Arabic word “Ratib,” which means “salary,” not welfare. The longer prisoners remain incarcerated, the more money they receive, according to PMW; additionally, the more serious the crime they committed, the more money they receive. Family need has no impact on the amount of money prisoners receive, and they are not required to share this money with their families.

At the “same time as Britain is drawing down its defense spending, and as the government is eviscerating the armed forces it still relies on, it is increasing the spending on salaries for terrorists and others who attack our allies,” wrote Douglas Murray, associate director of the Henry Jackson Society, a think-tank based in London.