Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week I was fortunate enough to be in Israel, hosted by the wonderful organisation known as AIJAC. We spent time both in Jerusalem and in Tel Aviv, but what was potentially one of the most eye-opening parts of the trip that we did was a visit to Ramallah. Whilst in Ramallah, we met with the Palestinian prime minister and were given a tour through what is referred to as a refugee camp but is a settlement; these are permanent buildings. Perhaps one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen was pointed out by our Palestinian guide; to quote her, this monument we were looking at was to commemorate 'the suicide bombers who had killed Jewish civilians'. These people were being immortalised in monuments in this centre in Ramallah.

I spoke to the Prime Minister of Palestine from the PA in his office about this and asked how, by immortalising these people, by not even adhering to the basic principles of the rule of war, by actively killing civilians, they could ever expect a conversation. But the fact is that the Palestinians have a policy that is colloquially known—in fact, I think it's even a bit more formal than that—as 'pay for slay'. If you kill a Jewish civilian and get sent to jail, you receive circa 12,000 shekels per month. That is three to four times what the average teacher gets paid. If you happen to be killed, your family receives this money. This money comes from the international community. It is a disgrace. And this is backed by the ABC, hence the removal of Fouad AbuGhosh's Twitter account.