PMW in Wall St. Journal: Your US Aid Dollars for Palestinian Terrorists
Your [US] Aid Dollars for Palestinian Terrorists
- Biden’s preferred rulers of Gaza still pay monthly stipends to murderers.
Jan. 4, 2024
WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL:
The terrorists who started a war on Oct. 7, according to Palestinian Authority law, will be compensated financially for a massacre well done. The same PA that President Biden wants to run postwar Gaza will reward the murderers’ families with grants followed by monthly stipends for life. That means taxpayers from the U.S. and Europe will help pick up the tab.
The Palestinian postal service said at the end of the year that “martyrs, wounded and prisoners”—Palestinian terrorists or their families, in other words—will receive their November stipends starting this past Saturday via the Palestine Post Bank. The PA is in a fiscal crunch, so this time payments will be at a reduced rate of 65%, plus 14% of the money that the martyrs & co. are owed from past deductions.
The money is paid out in the PA-run West Bank as well as Hamas-run Gaza, often with a lag. Before the Oct. 7 terrorists can be rewarded, their families must submit paperwork for proof of martyrdom and power of attorney to open a bank account. But unless something changes, a salary will be sent to reward the family of the terrorist who was recorded calling home on Oct. 7 to tell his mother, “I killed 10 Jews with my own hands!”
So we have that to look forward to. For now, the PA keeps paying the established terrorists, unmoved by Mr. Biden’s combination of U.S. pressure and endorsement. According to Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch, “martyr families” typically receive 1,400 shekels (almost $400) a month for life. Salaries for terrorist prisoners rise over time from 1,400 shekels to 12,000 shekels ($3,300) a month.
This “pay-for-slay” program costs more than $300 million a year, about 8% of the PA budget. Mr. Marcus also shows that 65% is the same rate at which the PA is paying civil servants. Apparently, compensating terrorists is no less a priority than staffing the government. The PA may judge both essential in keeping the streets at bay as President Mahmoud Abbas begins the 20th year of his four-year term in office.
Treated by the West as the “moderate” Palestinians, the PA is showered with aid, including much of the more than $700 million a year the European Union sends to the Palestinians. President Trump stripped more than $200 million in aid in 2018, but Mr. Biden restored it in 2021 and has since sent more. Aid dollars free up the PA’s own money to pay terrorists.
The West forgets that moderation is relative. Leaders of the PA’s dominant Fatah faction have praised the Oct. 7 massacre, while its military wing claims to have taken part.
Israel, which collects tax revenue for the PA, is currently withholding the 30% of it that the PA sends to Hamas-run Gaza. Mr. Abbas has refused to accept the remainder, and Mr. Biden is unhappy about the impasse. Axios reported last week that the disagreement led to “one of the most difficult and ‘frustrating’ conversations Biden has had with Netanyahu.”
Mr. Biden insists that Israel hand over Gaza after the war to the PA, which he promises will be “revitalized.” But the money the U.S. funnels still ends up subsidizing terrorism. Perhaps the President should redirect his frustration to the Palestinian Authority.
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