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https://palwatch.org/page/30246
In 2021, despite the international pressure and despite its alleged financial difficulties, the Palestinian Authority continued to implement its “Pay-for-Slay” policy, showing particular cunning in its efforts to hide these terror reward payments. According to the head of the PA-funded PLO Commission for Prisoners’ Affairs, in 2021 the PA paid between 48 and 50 million shekels, every month, to terrorist prisoners and release terrorists. The payments were additional to the PA payments to the wounded terrorists and the families of the dead terrorists (so-called “Martyrs”), which PMW has estimated to be over 20 million shekels a month.
The PA’s efforts to hide the terror reward payments took three main forms: Reorganizing the PA payments to the released terrorists; establishing a new payment system through which to pay the terrorists; and distorting its openly published financial records, to hide the terror rewards.
Reorganizing the PA payments to the released terrorists
The 2004 PA Law of Prisoners and Released Prisoners and the regulations adopted to implement the law, guarantee both terrorist prisoners and released terrorists a monthly salary from the PA. After the PA identified that the payment of salaries to the released terrorists was particularly condemned by the donor countries, instead of abolishing the payments, the PA decided to integrate the released terrorists into the PA ministries, thereby, pretending the payments were legitimate salary expenses.
As part of this program, the PA disbursed the salary payments to 7,500 released terrorists, integrating thousands of terrorists into the PA ministries and retiring thousands of others. Hundreds of released terrorists were even placed in positions in the PA security apparatus. Exposing that these were neither real jobs nor legitimate salaries for employment, PMW showed that the salary scales were not based on the terrorists’ new positions, but rather on artificial pay scales linked to the time the terrorist spent in prison. The terrorists “retired” by the PA were guaranteed 100% of their “pension salary.”
Establishing a new payment system through which to pay the terrorists
In March 2020, PMW warned the banks operating in the PA controlled areas that the Israeli anti-terror law outlaws the PA payments to terrorists and that if the banks continue to provide services to the PA and the terrorists they could potentially bare both criminal and civil responsibility. As a direct result of PMW’s letter, the banks closed the accounts of 35,000 terrorists causing turmoil and disrupting the payments.
In 2021, the PA needed to invest both time and money trying to find a way to pay its terror rewards without using the domestic banking system. At first, the PA decided to make the payments through the PA post offices, but had to rethink the idea when the terrorists and their families complained that the process of waiting on line for cash payments made them feel like “beggars.” To improve the terror reward payment mechanism, the PA decided to issue the terrorists and their families special ATM cards to be used at designated machines.
Distorting its openly published financial records to hide the terror rewards
Despite the fact that the terror reward payments are clearly a major PA expense (estimated to total over 841 million shekels / $270 million), in 2021, similar to 2020, the PA continued to ensure that there was no clear reference to them in the PA’s monthly budget performance reports.
While PMW demonstrated that the PA terror reward payments were paid in 2020, predominantly, through the budgetary provision of transfers to the “PLO institutions”, the picture in 2021 is more complicated. Even though the PA continued in 2021 to transfer hundreds of millions of shekels to the “PLO Institutions,” because the PA integrated many of the released terrorists into fictitious PA positions these sums do not cover all the PA terror rewards to the released terrorists. Rather, a large sum of the terror rewards are now incorporated into the regular salaries and wages expenses of the PA ministries into which the terrorists were placed and in the PA pension payments, and therefore are now hidden from PMW and our reports to the Israeli authorities and donor countries.
Similar to previous years, the 2021 PA payments to the wounded terrorists and families of the dead terrorists continued to be hidden in the PA’s Ministry of Social Affairs expenditure category.
Unequivocal support for terrorists
The exceptional efforts undertaken by the PA to hide its terror reward payments are reflective of two realities. The PA constantly repeats the commitment of Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, that even if the PA is left with only one penny, it will be paid to the terrorists. This commitment is not an empty slogan, but rather conveys a fundamental truth about the PA priorities….
- Integrating released terrorists into PA ministries to deceive the international community
- Developing a new payment system to circumvent the banks who refuse to provide services to terrorists
- Manipulating published PA financial reports to mask the payments
In 2021, despite the international pressure and despite its alleged financial difficulties, the Palestinian Authority continued to implement its “Pay-for-Slay” policy, showing particular cunning in its efforts to hide these terror reward payments. According to the head of the PA-funded PLO Commission for Prisoners’ Affairs, in 2021 the PA paid between 48 and 50 million shekels, every month, to terrorist prisoners and release terrorists. The payments were additional to the PA payments to the wounded terrorists and the families of the dead terrorists (so-called “Martyrs”), which PMW has estimated to be over 20 million shekels a month.
The PA’s efforts to hide the terror reward payments took three main forms: Reorganizing the PA payments to the released terrorists; establishing a new payment system through which to pay the terrorists; and distorting its openly published financial records, to hide the terror rewards.
Reorganizing the PA payments to the released terrorists
The 2004 PA Law of Prisoners and Released Prisoners and the regulations adopted to implement the law, guarantee both terrorist prisoners and released terrorists a monthly salary from the PA. After the PA identified that the payment of salaries to the released terrorists was particularly condemned by the donor countries, instead of abolishing the payments, the PA decided to integrate the released terrorists into the PA ministries, thereby, pretending the payments were legitimate salary expenses.
As part of this program, the PA disbursed the salary payments to 7,500 released terrorists, integrating thousands of terrorists into the PA ministries and retiring thousands of others. Hundreds of released terrorists were even placed in positions in the PA security apparatus. Exposing that these were neither real jobs nor legitimate salaries for employment, PMW showed that the salary scales were not based on the terrorists’ new positions, but rather on artificial pay scales linked to the time the terrorist spent in prison. The terrorists “retired” by the PA were guaranteed 100% of their “pension salary.”
Establishing a new payment system through which to pay the terrorists
In March 2020, PMW warned the banks operating in the PA controlled areas that the Israeli anti-terror law outlaws the PA payments to terrorists and that if the banks continue to provide services to the PA and the terrorists they could potentially bare both criminal and civil responsibility. As a direct result of PMW’s letter, the banks closed the accounts of 35,000 terrorists causing turmoil and disrupting the payments.
In 2021, the PA needed to invest both time and money trying to find a way to pay its terror rewards without using the domestic banking system. At first, the PA decided to make the payments through the PA post offices, but had to rethink the idea when the terrorists and their families complained that the process of waiting on line for cash payments made them feel like “beggars.” To improve the terror reward payment mechanism, the PA decided to issue the terrorists and their families special ATM cards to be used at designated machines.
Distorting its openly published financial records to hide the terror rewards
Despite the fact that the terror reward payments are clearly a major PA expense (estimated to total over 841 million shekels / $270 million), in 2021, similar to 2020, the PA continued to ensure that there was no clear reference to them in the PA’s monthly budget performance reports.
While PMW demonstrated that the PA terror reward payments were paid in 2020, predominantly, through the budgetary provision of transfers to the “PLO institutions”, the picture in 2021 is more complicated. Even though the PA continued in 2021 to transfer hundreds of millions of shekels to the “PLO Institutions,” because the PA integrated many of the released terrorists into fictitious PA positions these sums do not cover all the PA terror rewards to the released terrorists. Rather, a large sum of the terror rewards are now incorporated into the regular salaries and wages expenses of the PA ministries into which the terrorists were placed and in the PA pension payments, and therefore are now hidden from PMW and our reports to the Israeli authorities and donor countries.
Similar to previous years, the 2021 PA payments to the wounded terrorists and families of the dead terrorists continued to be hidden in the PA’s Ministry of Social Affairs expenditure category.
Unequivocal support for terrorists
The exceptional efforts undertaken by the PA to hide its terror reward payments are reflective of two realities. The PA constantly repeats the commitment of Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, that even if the PA is left with only one penny, it will be paid to the terrorists. This commitment is not an empty slogan, but rather conveys a fundamental truth about the PA priorities….
