Top PA official: Terror salaries are not “social welfare”
Interview with Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadura Fares on independent Palestinian station Ajyal Radio.
Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadura Fares: “[PA] President [Abbas] spoke again in a number of circumstances, even from the UN podium, about the Palestinian national obligation that the rights of the families of the prisoners, the Martyrs, and the wounded will not be harmed, and this is a principled issue.”
Ajyal Radio host: “A hypothetical question: ... What is the difference if these allowances will eventually reach those who are eligible to them under any kind of title? What is the difference between the current situation and a situation that pressures are being exerted on the PA to reach, namely [labelling the allowances as] social [welfare]?”
Qadura Fares: “The issue is not just the finances of the families that lost their source of livelihood, whether as a result of Martyrdom, imprisonment, or wounding… We are taking action relying on a principle that was approved by the [PA] Parliament (Legislative Council) that was elected by the Palestinian people, the Palestinian National Council (i.e., the legislative body of the PLO), and the [PLO] Central Council, which are the central institutions and which adopted the principle that the families of the Martyrs, the wounded, and the prisoners need to live a dignified life.”
[PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Facebook page, April 2, 2024]
PA terror salaries - Under Palestinian Authority law, the PA pays thousands of terrorist prisoners monthly salaries from the day of their arrest. The PA also provides salaries and various grants and benefits to released terrorists. Moreover, the PA pays wounded terrorists and the families of dead terrorist "Martyrs" monthly allowances. Palestinian Media Watch has exposed and documented this PA practice for over a decade, and in doing so has brought about change in and cancellation of Western funding to the PA.
Qadura Fares also serves as Chairman of the PA-funded Prisoners’ Club and is a former PA minister without portfolio and former member of PA Parliament.