WASHINGTON, D.C. – Stuart and Robbi Force were heartbroken to learn their son Taylor died in Israel, stabbed by a Palestinian terrorist. Those feelings grew worse when they learned the assailant was hailed as a hero and richly rewarded for the murder of their son with money from US taxpayers.
"It was something totally foreign to us, we couldn't really process that, we still probably can't," Stuart Force told CBN News.
It's a surprise to many. The Palestinian Authority gives terrorists or their families monthly payments and benefits like health care, paid for in large part by the millions in foreign aid handed out by the US each year.
Rewards from the ongoing practice, known as "pay to slay," go even higher depending on the brutality of the crime.
"There were some videos that we weren't aware of showing the celebration in Palestine," Taylor's father told us. "We sort of blocked that out, it was so horrendous that we chose not to go there."
The Forces want their son's death to have meaning, so they're pushing lawmakers to pass the Taylor Force Act which would cut off US aid to the PA until it stops rewarding terrorists with martyr payments.
"This is a legacy for him, but we feel that this is what he would have wanted us to do," Force says.
This week, the Forces watched on the House floor as lawmakers unanimously passed the bill.
"This acts as an incentive to terrorism and this must stop, and that's what this bill will do," Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., co-sponsor of the bill, told CBN News.
"The Palestinian Authority is promoting this policy which is horrendous, and on top of that, they're using US taxpayer dollars to do so," Lamborn continued. "More money is going to terrorist payments than is going to the entire civil service of the Palestinian Authority."
Following the House vote, the Forces hope to see it to pass the full Senate and make its way to President Trump's desk.
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