Despite False Promises, Palestinian Authority Proudly Continues ‘Pay-for-Slay’ Program
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by Ephraim D. Tepler
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York, US, Sept. 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Just as it did last month, the Palestinian Authority (PA) announced last week that it is paying February’s monthly “allowances” to Palestinian prisoners, terrorists, and their families.
One announcement was made laconically by the Postal Service, while the “PA employees’ salaries” Telegram channel mentioned in two separate statements that these payments were particularly for “Martyrs, prisoners, and the wounded,” as can be seen in the chart below:
| Palestine Post, Facebook page, April 8, 2025 | PA Employees’ Salaries, Telegram, April 8, 2025 | PA Employees’ Salaries, Telegram, April 8, 2025 |
| “Palestine Post announces the start of the payment of monetary allowances tomorrow morning, Wednesday, April 9, 2025, at the main post offices and through the ATMs. Payment will start at 11:00 AM.
We also wish to draw attention to the fact that the allowance payments in the Jenin district will be made through the nearest payment center in the other nearby districts due to the security situation and the [Israeli] raids in these areas. #Palestine_Post” |
“Urgent | Palestine Post announces the start of the distribution of the salaries of the families of the Martyrs, prisoners, and the wounded for the month of February 2025, tomorrow morning, Wednesday, April 9, 2025, at the main post offices and via ATMs.
Note that the distribution will begin at 11:00 AM. We would also like to note that the distribution in the Jenin district will be made through the nearest payment center in other nearby districts, due to the security conditions and the raids observed in those areas.” |
“Urgent | Palestine Post | The distribution of the salaries of the families of the Martyrs, prisoners, and wounded in the West Bank for February, 2025 will begin on Wednesday morning, April 9, 2025, at the main offices and through ATMs at 11:00 AM.” |
While the Palestine Post announcement again did not specify to whom the payments were going to, the employees’ channel said explicitly (twice) that they were meant for terrorists.
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has no doubt that these are terror salaries, since the PA postal service only began facilitating them after the PA banks closed 35,000 terrorist bank accounts. The reason the bank accounts were closed was because PMW warned the banks that if they continued facilitating those accounts, they would be violating Israeli law and therefore subject to civil and criminal liability.
It is noteworthy that the payments being made are for February 2025 — a month’s delay. PMW has reported that the PA had skipped the payment of a full month’s salary to its employees in 2023 and has not made it up. This is due to the PA being mired in financial crisis because of its high expenditures on payments to terrorists and the resulting losses in international support. Since then, all salaries are for two months prior rather than for the previous month, as would be standard.
PMW has been closely monitoring these payments and will continue doing so, as nothing has changed despite Mahmoud Abbas’ presidential decree, where he lied to Western audiences and said he would end “pay-for-slay.” He indeed seems to be making good on his previous promise to Palestinians that even if the PA would be “left with one penny, it will be paid to the families of the Martyrs and the prisoners.”
Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), where a version of this article first appeared.
