Illustrative. Photo: Reuters / Dado Ruvic.

A watchdog group has notified and warned Mastercard and Visa that they should rescind their services to Palestinian Authority (PA) banks that pay salaries to imprisoned terrorists and their families.

The PA regularly doles out these monies as part of what has been called its “pay-to-slay” program, which critics say incentivizes acts of terrorism.

All of the banks involved issue Mastercard and Visa credit cards to terrorists and their families, which, the group Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) informed the credit card giants, could expose them to criminal and civil liability.

Due to a recently-passed Israeli law making such transactions illegal, most of the PA banks initially stopped doing so, though many have resumed under PA pressure.

Furthermore, the PA is creating a new bank wholly owned by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which dominates the PA, in order to continue the terror payments.

It is highly likely that this new bank will use MasterCard and Visa services, prompting PMW to issue the warning.

“For years, the banks operating in the PA have knowingly and intentionally allowed terrorists to freely use the services of MasterCard and Visa,” PMW said in a statement. “These actions were most likely carried out without the credit card companies having knowledge of the banks’ willful terror support.”

“If MasterCard and Visa are to avoid potential criminal and civil liability, they should immediately cut ties with all the banks operating in the PA until such time as they are certain that these banks do not provide any services to known terrorists,” it cautioned.

“Similarly, since the raison d’être of the new PA terror bank is to fund and reward terrorists, MasterCard and Visa should similarly avoid — like the plague — any financial cooperation with this entity,” PMW added.