The Palestinian Authority is attempting to conceal its “pay-for-slay” stipends to terrorists by creating thousands of new civil and security service positions, according to a report by the NGO Palestinian Media Watch.
The Jerusalem Post reports that Palestinians released from Israeli prisons will be provided with special jobs within the Palestinian Authority (PA). These 7,500 positions can only be held by those imprisoned by Israel, notably those that were convicted for terrorism offences. By holding these special positions, the stipends will be disguised as paychecks, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) alleged. The concealed stipends would frustrate interference by Israel, the US, or the EU.
“Following His Honor [PA President Mahmoud Abbas] the president’s decision, the integration of the prisoners has begun both in the military sector and in the civilian sector,” PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr said on official PA TV news. “Every prisoner will fill out a form with the needed information and ask for what he wants, whether in the security or civilian framework.”
PMW also made a special note that former terrorists will be recruited into the PA’s security services as part of this program. The PA and Israel have security cooperation to stop terrorist activity from groups such as Hamas. Convicted terrorists operating within PA services could jeopardize Israeli security and cooperation.
“Pay-for-slay” refers to the stipends that the PA provides to jailed terrorists and their families. Israel argues that the payments encourage Palestinian terrorism, an open-ended bounty on Israeli civilians.
While the PA has been heavily pressured to cease the payment program, Abbas remains committed. “Since the Martyrs are the most sacred among us, and since the wounded are the most sacred among us, and since the prisoners are the most sacred among us, we cannot abandon them and their families. If we are left with only one penny, we will give it to their families,” he said in PA TV news on March 13.
Numerous pieces of legislation have been passed in the US and Israel against the pay-for-slay policy. In 2018 US Congress passed the Taylor Force Act, named after an American army veteran killed in 2016 by a Palestinian terrorist in Israel. The bill conditions US aid to the PA upon the cessation of pay-for-slay. Former President Donald Trump cut more than $200 million in aid to the PA in 2018, though the Biden administration has pledged to renew funding.
Israel has passed a law to deduct from tax transfers to the PA by the amount paid terrorists and their families. Further, legislation that came into effect in 2020 criminalized the facilitation of pay-for-slay transfers. This included banks, and apparently following a PMW campaign, they began to decline participation in the illegal transfers.
Following banks declining pay-for-slay transfers, the PA desperately sought a solution to continue the program. “We hope that the payment of the salaries via the banks will be renewed in April,” Abu Bakr said in a phone statement to Al-Quds, “A team of 64 employees in the commission and in other institutions is working even on vacation days to arrange this matter, which is sacred from our perspective.”
The PA initially sought to create its own bank, but this was deemed unfeasible. The Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs’ solution to continuing payments to released terrorists, it does not apply to those that remain in Israeli custody. They are still seeking a solution.
Palestinian Media Watch is an Israeli non-profit organization that monitors, translates and analyzes Palestinian media.
