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Is the Palestinian Authority (PA) truly ending its controversial pay-for-slay program? According to Itamar Marcus, founder of Palestinian Media Watch, the PA has made it clear that it is on the verge of total financial collapse.
“They've said they've loaned billions from their own banks, and they can't loan anymore. They've reached a maximum,” Marcus said. “The only way they can survive is if Israel stops deducting tax transfers and if the United States and other countries start funding them again.”
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MIDDLE EAST PEACE
(ILTV)
However, the U.S. cannot provide funds to Hamas due to the Taylor Force Act, which prohibits payments to any individual or organization that supports terrorism. As a result, in order to receive U.S. funding, the PA would have to repeal its pay-for-slay law.
At the same time, Marcus explained that for the past 15 years, the Palestinian public has been told that nothing would ever threaten the salaries of terrorists in prison.
“What we're seeing today is that [President Mahmoud Abbas] has canceled the old law. He said that the prisoners and the martyrs’ families will continue to get funding from a new framework,” Marcus said. “The language he used is intentionally ambiguous so that the families of the terrorists can imagine and believe that they’re going to get the same amount. And the Americans, if they want to, can believe that it’s going to be a normal welfare amount.”
But there is a significant difference.
“A Palestinian terrorist who was a murderer and is in jail for 30 years—his family is receiving 12,000 shekels a month, whereas the highest welfare payments are 600 shekels a month,” Marcus said.
“So if Abbas really follows through and replaces these payments with standard welfare, there is going to be a lot of noise and a lot of anger in the Palestinian Authority,” Marcus added. “We will know very soon what’s really happening based on how the families and the population respond.”