I Spend My Money Defending Israel's Security

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah has once again raised value-added tax by 1%, in order to increase the share of taxes in its general budget. As everywhere on earth, it is the ordinary people who bear the burden of taxes, and whenever taxes rise, prices rise with them, and the cost of living rises as well.

What matters is that a large part of the Authority’s budget is spent in ways that serve Israel. If a Palestinian child is born today, there is a Palestinian employee feeding the information — the child’s name, place of birth, and ID number — into a computer to be transferred directly to the Zionists; if someone changes the color of his car, there is a Palestinian who passes the information over the network to the Zionists; if a young man working in Qatar sends some money to his mother through the bank, the information travels immediately to the Zionist financial system; if someone licenses a weapon to defend himself or simply to carry it for show, the Zionist security agencies are partners in issuing that license; if a Palestinian throws a stone at a settler, Palestinian agencies rush to search for him and punish him; and if a Palestinian kills an Israeli, the Authority’s security agencies go on full alert. And so on.

…to the Israeli intelligence departments — so that I end up having contributed about 50% of what I owe in taxes toward the service of Israel, the Israel that occupies our land, displaces our people, kills our children, demolishes our homes, uproots our trees, and has spread terror, grief, and pain through the bodies and souls of our people for decades on end.

If I stopped providing services to the Zionists, I would save 50% of these expenditures, and Palestinians in the West Bank would find themselves in a better financial position — one that would greatly ease the resort to begging and mendicancy.

God Almighty said: “The example of those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah is like a seed which grows seven spikes; in each spike is a hundred grains. And Allah multiplies [His reward] for whom He wills. And Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing.” (Al-Baqarah, 261)

But one of the learned experts says that another verse takes precedence now, which is: “Those who spend [in the cause of Allah] during ease and hardship and who restrain anger and who pardon the people — and Allah loves the doers of good” (Al Imran, 134). And he added: We are simply people who restrain their anger and pardon others.

Or, in my own words: we are betraying God, the homeland, the people, and the generations yet to come.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “أنا أنفق دفاعا عن أمن إسرائيل” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.