A jail cell.

Despite suffering from a financial crisis the Palestinian Authority still pays 4% of its total budget to Palestinian Arab convicts in Israeli prisons, according to Israeli daily Maariv.

The new data, released by Israel’s Foreign Ministry, shows that payments overall reach 17.5 million shekels (roughly $4.8 million) a month and are set according to scale. A convict who is serving more than 30 years in Israeli prisons earns 12 thousand shekels per month (roughly $3,300). Those who have been sentenced to 25 to 30 years, receive ten thousand shekels each month (roughly $2,755). For smaller sentences the salaries are significantly lower, around 4,000 shekels per month (roughly $1,102). The salaries of thousands of these terrorists dwarf that of a police officer, whose average salary is only about 2,700 shekels (roughly $745).

The Foreign Ministry noted that PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad had the payments tripled in 2011. This despite the fact that he presents himself as being an opponent of terrorism.