Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas holds a leadership meeting in Ramallah, in the West Bank, April 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Torokman

As the school year is about to start, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is again showing its priorities. While it continues paying monthly salaries to imprisoned terrorists and “Martyrs”‘ families, costing $30 million/month (the “Pay-for-Slay” program) — teachers are forced to manage on a fraction of their salaries.

Because of international cuts in funding and cuts in Israeli tax transfers — due to the PA’s paying terror rewards — the PA has not paid full salaries to its civil servants since March 2019. At times, salaries were not paid at all, and now the PA is almost two months late in paying salaries.

Now, Palestinian teachers have had enough and are threatening a full strike if the PA does not pay them.

The General Union of Palestinian Teachers warned the PA:

Posted text: “The Union of [Palestinian] Teachers:

If the teachers’ salaries are paid before the start of the school year, the schools will operate as usual.
If the salaries are not paid before the start of the school year, the opening of the [school] year will be postponed until further notice.
If 70% of the salary is paid, the school week will be from Sunday to Wednesday.
In the case of less than 70% [salary], the school week will be from Sunday to Tuesday.”

[“Salaries of the State of Palestine – Private,” Telegram channel, Aug. 18, 2025]

This is not the first time that the PA teachers are striking.

On Feb 5, 2023, the PA teachers started a long strike until the PA returned satisfactory pay.

The PA is still in a grave financial crisis, due to its “terrorists first” ideology.

PA leader Mahmoud and PA officials have stressed numerous times that the PA’s top priority is rewarding the imprisoned terrorists and the dead terrorist “Martyrs'” families.

In January of this year, desperate for international acceptance, the PA announced for the world to hear that terror rewards would cease, and prisoners would be paid like all social welfare cases.

But a month later, Abbas retracted that in a speech to Palestinian leaders:

Abbas at a meeting of the Fatah Revolutionary Council: “I stand by my word: Even if we have [only] one penny left, it is for the prisoners and Martyrs.

I will not agree, and you will not agree, to reduce any obligation, any interest, or any penny given to them. They must receive everything, as it was in the past, and they are more precious than all of us!” [emphasis added]

[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, YouTube channel, Feb. 21, 2025]

Terrorist mass murderers are the PA’s most precious people. And this is the government some Western countries want to recognize as a state!

The author is the Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.