The Israeli Knesset approved, on Thursday, in the second and third readings, a bill to prevent funding for the “judicial defense” of Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip, and to fund the wages of “defense attorneys” from frozen Palestinian clearance funds, in a new Israeli piracy of Palestinian tax revenues.

The bill, introduced by MK Simcha Rothman of the Religious Zionism party and other MKs, was supported by 26 MKs and opposed by 4 MKs.

The previous law stipulated that “a lawyer from the Public Defense Authority be appointed to defend detainees, and the lawyer’s fee would be funded from the Israeli treasury.”

The new law stipulates that the salary of “defense attorneys” appointed by the court, since October 7, 2023, “to defend those accused or convicted of security violations related to the events of October 7 or during the war on Gaza, be determined, and that it be deducted from Palestinian clearing dues.”

The law contradicts Article 4 of the Geneva Convention, “which legally protects prisoners of war from physical and psychological violence and provides them with legal protection and their right to fair representation before the courts,” and constitutes another pretext for siphoning off more funds from the Palestinian clearing.

The value of Israeli deductions from the clearance revenues, accumulated since 2019, amounts to more than 7.5 billion shekels, according to official data.