Haim Saban Backs Bill To Slash Funds To Palestinians
Haim Saban interviews President Obama at the Saban Forum on Middle East policy. Image by Getty Images
By Ron Kampeas June 20, 2017
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Haim Saban, a major donor to the Democratic Party, is backing a bill that would slash funding to the Palestinian Authority unless it stops payments to Palestinians jailed for attacks on Israelis.
The participation of the Israeli-American entertainment mogul in the initiative of the lobbying affiliate of the Israeli-American Council is significant because Democrats have until now been reluctant to back the bill as it stands.
A statement Monday evening from the Israeli-American Coalition for Action said the campaign to pass the Taylor Force Act will draw on a “nationwide grassroots network of activists” and on the IASC’s “relationships with prominent Israeli-Americans and Jewish-Americans, including Sheldon Adelson, Shawn Evenhaim, Haim Saban and Adam Milstein — who have advocated for the legislation with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.”
Taylor Force was an American killed last year in a stabbing attack in Tel Aviv.
Two bills, in the Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, have until recently had almost solely Republican backing. However, Democrats in Congress have in recent days suggested they may back the bill. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, suggested last week that he would like to see changes. Cardin’s office has not responded to a JTA query about which changes he is seeking.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
