Palestinian ‘Pay for Slay’ Keeps Growing Blinken touts reform while the PA adds more terrorists to the payroll.
Recently we told you that Palestinian Authority law requires the Oct. 7 terrorists to be compensated financially for a massacre well done. Now the PA has taken steps toward making that a reality. It acted just in time for Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Ramallah.
Last Wednesday’s Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, the PA’s newspaper and mouthpiece, announced 23,210 additional “martyrs,” using the Hamas-supplied Gaza casualty figure that includes every dead Hamas terrorist. The PA pays a one-time lump sum plus a monthly stipend for life to the families of any “martyr” killed attacking Israel or in a confrontation with Israel.
The PA also recognized 3,550 new prisoners held by Israel since Oct. 7. Most were arrested in West Bank counter terrorism raids, though 661 are Hamas terrorists from Gaza. They, too, will receive PA salaries, which rise over time such that the most gruesome crimes yield the biggest payments. This practice has helped earn the program its “pay for slay” moniker.
Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch explains that “the PA does not differentiate between Hamas terrorists who committed atrocities after invading Israel on Oct. 7, the Hamas terrorists killed by Israel in the ensuing war, and civilian non-combatants killed in the Gaza Strip while being used as human shields by Hamas.” All are treated as heroic martyrs to be compensated by the PA, whose activities are subsidized with Western aid.
Meanwhile, in Ramallah, Mr. Blinken said that PA leader Mahmoud Abbas is “committed” to reform. Where’s the evidence? His four-year term is stretching into its 20th year. Even as the PA complains of a budget crunch, it is readying to move from glorifying the Oct. 7 attack to compensating its participants.
Why, again, does President Biden insist Israel hand over postwar Gaza to this group? Mr. Blinken also talks prematurely of giving it a state. No wonder the PA sees little reason to change.
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