US House passes measure to limit aid to Palestinians over 'martyr payments'

WASHINGTON – The US House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to sharply reduce the annual $300 million in US aid to the Palestinian Authority unless it take steps to stop making what lawmakers described as payments that reward violent crime.

The House backed by voice vote the Taylor Force Act, named after a 29-year-old American military veteran fatally stabbed by a Palestinian while visiting Israel last year.

The measure is intended to stop the Palestinians from paying stipends, referred to as "martyr payments," to the families of militants killed or imprisoned by Israeli authorities. The payments can reach $3,500 per month.

"This perverse 'pay-to-slay' system uses a sliding scale. The longer the jail sentence, the greater the reward. The highest payments go to those serving life sentences - to those who prove most brutal," Republican Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said before the vote.