Former Palestinian Authority official Abdul Fattah Hamayel, according to the BBC, says that "the Authority sends 50,000 dollars a month to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members as living expenses to try to stop them carrying out attacks in a three-year-old uprising."
Reuters quotes an Israeli spokesman, Avi Pazner, going farther: ''In our experience...the Palestinian Authority funds terrorist attacks. The Brigades is directly subject to Arafat's authority, and therefore all he needs to do is order it to stop its terrorism if that is what the Palestinian Authority really wants.''
But Arafat's people deny it all. Says Hatem Abdel-Qader of Fatah: ''The Fatah central committee does not recognise them and tried time and again to dismantle the group. The Finance Ministry has no mandate to give the Brigades money and nor does Fatah. What Abdul Fattah Hamayel is claiming is baseless and untrue. Perhaps he was misquoted.''
Perhaps. But would it really surprise anyone if this charge about Arafat were proven? After all, he has been sponsoring terrorist attacks for years.
"...the Authority sends 50,000 dollars a month to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members as living expenses to try to stop them carrying out attacks in a three-year-old uprising."
Sounds like BLOOD MONEY to me, just like the mobsters of old demanding their cut of the "protection" racket.