Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

House Committee Passes Bill Penalizing Palestinians For Payments To Terrorists

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A key House panel has advanced a bill that would reduce U.S. payments to the Palestinian Authority if it continues to pay subsidies to the families of Palestinians jailed for or killed in attacks on Israelis.

The Taylor Force Act, named for an American who was stabbed to death in a 2016 terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, was approved unanimously Wednesday by the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. The bill leaves humanitarian assistance for the Palestinians in place.

Jewish Insider reported that the humanitarian exemptions came at the behest of Jason Greenblatt, President Trump’s special envoy handling Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The Trump administration hopes to restart talks by next year.

“With this legislation, we are forcing the P.A. to choose between U.S. assistance and these morally reprehensible policies, and I am pleased to see this measure move forward in both chambers with so much support,” Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., the committee’s chairman.

Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., the senior Democrat on the committee, praised the bipartisanship working on the bill and said before the vote, “I believe the approach we’re taking today strikes just the right balance.”

The Palestinian Authority denies that the targeted program rewards terrorists, saying that most of the money goes to families whose relatives have been imprisoned without due process.

An array of Jewish and pro-Israel groups praised the committee for the unanimous passage, among them the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the Orthodox Union, Agudath Israel of America, The Israel Project, Christians United for Israel, the Republican Jewish Coalition and the Israeli American Council.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.