Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas gestures during a meeting of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Feb. 6, 2019. Photo: Reuters / Mohamad Torokman.

Recently-published accounts reveal that the Palestinian Authority (PA) spent almost $150 million in 2019 on salaries and other benefits for convicted terrorists and their families.

According to the Israeli NGO Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), “the PA has admitted to spending no less than 517.4 million shekels ($149.7 million/€136 million) paying salaries to terrorist prisoners and released prisoners in 2019.”

The NGO pointed out that “Israeli law demands that this figure be deducted from the monthly tax transfers Israel makes to the PA.”

Legislation passed by the US Congress in 2018 suspended American aid to the PA for as long as the policy of paying benefits to terrorists and their relatives — dubbed by critics as “pay to slay” — remained in force. A similar law was passed later the same year by Israel’s Knesset.

After the Israeli law was passed, PMW observed, PA President Mahmoud Abbas “positively decided to plunge the PA into a self-inflicted financial crisis by refusing to accept all the tax revenues from Israel, if Israel deducted any sum.”

Concluded PMW: “Since the tax revenues account for almost half of the PA budget, rejecting their receipt had a substantial impact on the PA economy.”