Senate panel approves bill to cut off US aid to Palestinians

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved a measure to suspend U.S. financial aid to the Palestinian Authority, until it stops rewarding acts of violence against American and Israeli citizens.

The Republican-led committee voted 16-5 Thursday in favor of the bill, which is sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and committee chairman Bob Corker of Tennessee.

The bill is named for Taylor Force, an MBA student at Vanderbilt University from Lubbock, Texas, and a U.S. veteran who was visiting Israel in March 2016 when he was stabbed to death by a Palestinian.

Graham says the Palestinian Authority praised Force's killer as a "heroic martyr."

The Trump administration's budget request for the 2018 fiscal year includes roughly $260 million for economic development and law enforcement programs in the West Bank and Gaza.