Norwegian lawmakers have voted on Thursday to cut their country's financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA) over anti-Semitic content and incitement to violence in its educational materials.
According to Wednesday's report by the American-based newspaper Algemeiner, the cuts, which come as part of the country's state budget arrangements, will amount to some $3.4 million.
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President Mahmoud Abbas gestures during a meeting with the Palestinian leadership
(Photo: EPA)
This includes cuts to the assistance packages of both the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian territories.
Norway's right-leaning Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet, FrP), third-largest in the Storting (Norway Parliament), spearheaded the push for the measure.
"Norwegian taxpayers will not pay the monthly salary to terrorists," lawmaker Himanshu Gulati, deputy chair of Friends of Israel in the Storting, said in a statement posted on the FrP website.
"When Norway provides aid to Palestine, the money goes into the same economy that is also used to pay prisoners 'salaries," he added, calling for further cuts to PA aid as long as it continues to support families of those held in Israeli prisons.
The PA has been frequently accused of spreading anti-Semitic and radical views among schoolchildren through the curricula in its schools.
In late September, education watchdog IMPACT-se reported that Palestinian textbooks still maintained most of the controversial messaging, including encouragement of jihad and martyrdom, despite PA pledges to the opposite.
Reprinted with permission from i24NEWS