Shortly after Australia announced that it is withholding financial aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) if it continues funding terrorists through its “pay to slay” program, PA officials called the move a “declaration of war.”

The United States has also pressured the PA to end its anti-Semitic Islamic terrorism scheme by threatening discontinue funding.

“The controversial policy provides money to convicted Palestinian terrorists and their families for attacks on Israelis,” CBN News reported. “The payments coming from this fund add up to more than $330 million each year.”

No more funding terrorism

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop made her objection to the anti-Semitic jihadist program clear – indicating that her government will not fund a group committed to paying for Islamic terrorism against Israelis.

"I am concerned that in providing funds for this aspect of the PA's operation, there is an opportunity for it to use its own budget to [fund] activities that Australia would never support," Bishop explained, according to CBN News.

She then candidly condemned Palestinians for using foreign funds to viciously kill innocent Israeli citizens.

“Any assistance provided by the Palestine Liberation Organization to those convicted of politically motivated violence is an affront to Australian values and undermines the prospect of meaningful peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” Bishop asserted in a statement, according to the Times of Israel. “I wrote to the Palestinian Authority on May 29, to seek clear assurance that Australian funding is not being used to assist Palestinians convicted of politically motivated violence.”

The $7.4 million trust fund donation from the Land Down Under is now being rerouted away from the P.A. to the United Nations’ Humanitarian Fund for the Palestinian Territories – which spends the money on food, water, shelter, sanitation and health care.

“I am confident that previous Australian funding to the PA through the World Bank has been used as intended,” Bishop continued. “However, I am concerned that in providing funds for this aspect of the PA’s operations, there is an opportunity for it to use its own budget to activities that Australia would never support.”

Bishop’s statement was seen as an affront to Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi.

"Australia now is just doing the bidding of the U.S., unfortunately,” Ashrawi contended, as stated in a CBN News report. “Julie Bishop's statement is extremely insulting, and it shows the utmost ignorance of the realities of Palestinians living under a cruel and brutal and illegal Israeli occupation.”

No more funding terrorist-supporting entities

Ashrawi was referring his objection to a law enacted by the United States that keeps it from funding entities that financially support terrorism – specifically Pay to Slay.

“Australia's decision follows America's lead in passing the Taylor Force Act that also withholds aid until the PA ends the terror payments,” CBN News’ Chris Mitchell recounted. “Congress named the law after Taylor Force, an American citizen killed in a 2016 terror attack in Israel.”

President Donald Trump addressed Palestinians’ Pay to Slay program, which was paid for through U.S. funds to the P.A. without objection during the Obama administration.

“In March, the U.S. government passed a law that halted the delivery of some financial aid to the Palestinians due to stipends being paid to families of Palestinians killed or jailed in clashes with Israel – a move praised by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” DW.com informed.

P.A. President Mahhoud Abbas defended the payments to Palestinian terrorists through Pay to Slay, saying that paying the families of jailed of deceased anti-Semitic terrorists targeting Israelis is justified.

“[We had] a social responsibility to look after innocent people affected by the incarceration or killing of their loved ones," Abbas insisted, according to DW.com.

Australia and the U.S. are not the only ones committed to cut P.A. funding that funnels into terrorism, as Israeli Foreign Affairs and Defense Chairman Avi Dichter called for parliament to support legislation that ended payments to the P.A.

"To this Palestinian enterprise that is called the Palestinian Authority, Mr. Chairman [Mahmoud Abbas], it is very easy to get accepted when the only thing you have to do is to kill Israelis to get arrested or killed and you get a job," Dichter argued before Israeli parliament while Taylor’s father sat in to hear the debate. "We are honored to have you here with us – the event to pass this bill – and hopefully, we shall pass it on the second or the third call."

The bill ended up being passed, which ended up being another multi-million-dollar penalty absorbed by the P.A. because it refused to stop promoting and funding terrorism against Israeli Jews.