The Palestinian Authority Paid Terrorists $347 Million in 2017

The Palestinian Authority (PA) paid imprisoned terrorists and their families 347 million USD in 2017, Israel’s defense ministry reported on Jan. 9, 2018. The PA is dominated by the Fatah movement, which rules the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). Both entities are led by Mahmoud Abbas, who is routinely described by media outlets as a “moderate.”

The Jerusalem Post highlighted the defense ministry’s report, noting that it was submitted to the Israeli Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (“Palestinian Authority Paid Terrorists Nearly $350 Million in 2017,” Jan. 9, 2018). The paper noted that the payments are greater for those with higher prison sentences—“in other words, those who committed more severe crimes and likely were involved in killing Israelis” are financially rewarded.

Married terrorists and those with children receive “bonuses,” as do those with Israeli citizenship and those who live in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Post provided a breakdown of how payments are rewarded, allowing readers to calculate how much a Palestinian terrorist could make for murdering Jews.

As CAMERA pointed out in a May 17, 2017 Op-Ed in The Hill, the PA’s decision to pay terrorists and their families is enshrined in the authority’s own laws, passed in 2004 and amended in 2013 (“How the Palestinian Authority’s ‘Social Safety Net’ Encourages Terrorism”). The PA even treats the payments as salaries by withholding tax on them. Indeed as Doug Feith, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, and Sander Gerber, a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, have noted, the authority has created the Prisoners and Released Prisoners Ministry and the Institution for the Care for the Families of Martyrs to manage these payments, which comprise an estimated 7 percent of the PA’s budget.

Payments to terrorists violate the Oslo accords, which created the PA and provided the basis for its funding. Although Fatah and PA head Abbas is routinely portrayed as a “moderate” and a “peace partner,” he has refused to stop paying terrorists.

After an August 2017 meeting with U.S. officials—who demanded that he cease providing a financial reward for terror—Abbas issued a statement: ““I will never stop [paying] the allowances to the families of the prisoners and released prisoners.” The PA head—who marked his thirteenth year in power on Jan. 9, 2018—added: “I will pay them until my dying day.”

As CAMERA noted at the time, Abbas’ decision to resist demands from his chief benefactor went widely underreported by major U.S. media outlets that frequently report on the “peace process (“Palestinian Leader Promises to Pay Terrorists ‘Until My Dying Day,” Aug. 28, 2017).”

The Knesset will soon be considering legislation that will “deduct the equivalent amount to what the PA pays terrorists and their families, from taxes and tariffs Israel collects for the PA,” The Jerusalem Post reported. The legislation is proposed by Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern and is modeled on a similar U.S. bill, The Taylor Force Act, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in December 2017 and is awaiting approval in the U.S. Senate.