One Month of Terror Stipends Could Buy 465 Ventilators and 387,143 Corona Tests

The amount of money the Palestinian Authority spent this month paying terrorists could buy them 387,143 coronavirus test kits or 465 ventilators instead.

By Maurice Hirsch, Adv., Palestinian Media Watch

For which leaders is the payment of financial rewards to terrorists more important than supporting the needy or paying teachers?

The answer is, of course, the Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders … during the coronavirus crisis!

Anticipating a fall in income, PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh announced that the payment of the March salaries will be staggered, and every day a different group of PA employees will be paid. The order of payment is a clear indication of the PA’s priorities.

Preceded only by the medical and supporting personnel, and the PA Security Forces members, third in line to receive their share of the limited PA budget are the terrorist prisoners and the families of the dead terrorists, the so-called “martyrs.”

As Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has shown, this is not the first time the PA has clearly demonstrated its warped priorities. In 2019, when the PA decided to plunge itself into a self-made financial crisis and was forced to cut salaries to its law-abiding employees, it nevertheless committed itself to paying, in full, the salaries of the terrorist prisoners and allowances of the families of the dead terrorists.

Similarly, the fact that the PA prioritizes the payment of the terror rewards over the payment of benefits to needy Palestinians, is not a surprise. As PMW demonstrated, the PA devotes six times more of its budget to the terrorist prisoners and the families of the dead terrorists than it does to its needy.

To give the PA decision perspective, one must take into account that in 2019 the average monthly PA expenditure on the payment of the terror incentives and rewards was in excess of 50,000,000 shekels ($13,937,170/ €12,579,425). That means, that based on the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s price for coronavirus test kits, the PA just positively chose to incentivize and reward terror instead of buying 387,143 coronavirus test kits or buying 465 of the low-cost MIT ventilators.