Findings; statement of policy

(a) Findings Congress makes the following findings: (1) The Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority provide hundreds of millions of dollars per year in payments, salaries, and benefits to terrorists and the families of terrorists as part of a system compensation that incentivizes, encourages, rewards, and supports acts of terrorism. (2) The Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority policies, laws, and regulations that direct, authorize, enact, facilitate, and implement a system of compensation in support of acts of terrorism require payments, salaries, and benefits to terrorists including those who are members and part of organizations designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the Secretary of State under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189), including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, that receive direct support including financial and military assistance from Iran, the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world. (3) In 2018, Congress passed the Taylor Force Act (title X of division S of Public Law 115–141; 132 Stat. 1143) into law that calls on the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority to end their system of compensation that incentivizes, encourages, rewards, and supports acts of terrorism and restricts United States assistance that directly benefits the Palestinian Authority unless the Secretary of State certifies to Congress that the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority have met specific conditions including terminating that system of compensation and revoking the policies, laws, and regulations that authorize and implement the system of compensation. (4) Despite the enactment of the Taylor Force Act, the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority have continued their system of compensation that incentivizes, encourages, rewards, and supports acts of terrorism. (5) On October 7, 2023, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other Gaza-based terrorist organizations attacked Israel on Shabbat and during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, committing the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. (6) On October 7, 2023, Hamas fired thousands of rockets into Israel, deliberately targeting Israeli civilians, and thousands of terrorists invaded Israeli communities—massacring, raping, torturing, decapitating, burning alive, seriously injuring, and kidnapping Israelis and Americans, including men, women, children, babies, and grandparents, and including Holocaust survivors, with children being murdered in front of their parents and parents being murdered in front of their children. (7) On October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered more than 1,200 who were mostly civilians, and kidnapped more than 240, including Israeli and American men, women, children, babies, and grandparents, and took them to Gaza as hostages. (b) Statement of policy It shall be the policy of the United States to hold the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority accountable including through the imposition of sanctions for providing payments, salaries, and benefits to terrorists and the families of terrorists as part of a system compensation that incentivizes, encourages, rewards, and supports acts of terrorism.