A leading Jewish advocacy organization has called on the United States and the European Union to end funding of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the wake of today’s terrorist attack against a Jerusalem synagogue which resulted in the murder of four Jewish worshipers.

“We speak for all 400,000 constituent families of our human rights NGO to demand that our leaders do more than offer ‘heartfelt condolences’ for such senseless attacks,” said Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, Dean and Founder and Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

“These attacks with knives, axes, guns, and cars by Palestinians are not senseless but calculated and part of an ongoing terror campaign against Jews that have involved members of terror groups and which have been lauded by the Palestinian Authority.

“Too many Western politicians, instead of unequivocally condemning the growing wave of terror, in effect reward those who promote and celebrate murderers, by using their parliamentary positions to endorse a non-existent Palestinian state and other diplomatic and material support for the Palestinian cause,” the Center said.

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In a phone interview with The Algemeiner Hier added, “These attacks are inspired and directed by the terrorists in Gaza, and if there isn’t going to be normalcy in Jerusalem there should not be any return to normalcy at the Gaza border.”

“When they do this, every day they weaken the idea in the hearts and minds of Israelis that there can be a two state solution. When Abbas encourages incitement he drives a nail into the coffin of that idea.”

America funds the Palestinian Authority to the tune of $500 million per year. Since 2008, the EU has provided more than $2 billion to the PA – just this month, the bloc provided approximately $20 million in taxpayer funds to pay for the PA’s salaries and pensions during the month of October.

Foreign funding for the PA has been compromised by corruption and material support for terrorism ever since the Authority was created in 1994. In 2012, Israel highlighted to no avail that more than 16 percent of the annual foreign donations and grants were diverted to convicted terrorists in Israeli prisons and to the families of deceased terrorists, including suicide bombers.

In June of this year, immediately prior to the summer war in Gaza, the U.S. ignored Israeli objections and announced that it would fund the new Palestinian unity government composed of the Fatah and Hamas terrorist factions.