Palestinian Authority Budget Shows Half of Foreign Aid Goes To ‘Pay-for-Slay’ Program

TEL AVIV – The Palestinian Authority’s new budget uses half of all foreign aid money for its Pay-for-Slay program rewarding terrorists and their families for carrying out attacks against Israelis. 

The new PA budget increased financial support to imprisoned terrorists by 13 percent and aid for the families of those killed or wounded “in the struggle against Zionism” by four to eight percent, the Institute for Contemporary Affairs found.

The total, $344 million, amounts to 49.6 percent of all foreign aid to the PA.

As per the report:

These new figures reflect the ongoing commitment of the Palestinians to paying terrorists and terrorists’ families, in spite of international objections and American/Israeli insistence that these payments be halted. This commitment manifests the Palestinian view promulgated by Palestinian law that refers to the terrorists as the “fighting sector” of the Palestinian society. This ongoing pattern stands in sharp contrast to the Palestinian commitments in the Oslo Accords and to international law and conventions. It also reflects the fact that until now, no real pressure has been put on the Palestinians to stop the payments.

In the United States, the proposed legislation that calls for cutting U.S. economic aid to the PA, known as the “Taylor Force Act,” has not yet been approved by the U.S. Congress. In Israel, the proposed law which would deduct the money the PA spends on supporting terror from the money Israel transfers to the PA (Palestinian taxes collected by Israel) is still under review by the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee of the Knesset, after it was approved in a preliminary reading.

Reports emerged last week that the family of Omar al-Abed, the 19-year-old Palestinian terrorist who murdered three family members at their Shabbat table two weeks ago, will receive a monthly lifetime salary of $3,120. As the report points out, the average Palestinian engineer earns about $1,300 per month.

Last month PA spokesman Nabil Shaath, speaking on behalf of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, said that the payments were a “social responsibility” and the policy was merely “look(ing) after innocent people affected by the incarceration or killing of their loved ones as a result of the military occupation.”

A report presented to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in May revealed that more than $1 billion has been paid by the PA over the past four years to terrorists and their families.