EU and World Bank Ramp Up Payments to PA Even as It Adds Thousands of Terrorists to ‘Pay for Slay’ Scheme

The Biden Administration, World Bank, and EU stand ready with taxpayer financing to ensure that PA Chair Abbas and his terrorists don’t run out of murder-for-hire payments anytime soon.

By Robert Williams, Gatestone Institute

Back in March, the Biden administration claimed that it was persuading the Palestinian Authority (PA), led by Mahmoud Abbas, to change its murder-for-hire “pay for slay” policy. Terrorists who have been imprisoned in Israel for their crimes, as well as families of deceased or wounded terrorists, receive monthly stipends as a reward for murdering Jews. The longer the prison sentence, the higher the monthly stipend. Talk about incentivizing and encouraging terrorism.

“There’s been a great deal of work on this behind the scenes, and the progress is encouraging,” an unnamed senior Biden administration official told Politico in March, while another said that “changes to the system were expected soon.”

The Biden administration has its own reasons for giving the false impression that the PA is reforming itself. The administration plans to reward Iran and the Palestinians for their October 7 massacre and the nearly 20,000 rockets fired into Israeli towns and cities by forcing a two-state solution on Israel. Such a Palestinian state, according to the Biden administration, will be run by a “revitalized” Palestinian Authority, and for that it is necessary to give the impression that the PA has started to “reform”. That is why we are all now supposed to pretend that the PA leadership, with its praise of the October 7 massacre – calling it “heroic” – no longer promotes or rewards terrorism.

Not only has the PA not begun to change the “pay for slay” system, it is adding thousands of terrorist prisoners and “martyrs” to be funded by the scheme, presumably including terrorists who actively participated in the October 7 slaughter, abductions, and mass rapes, torture and murder of Israeli children, women and men. According to Palestinian Media Watch:

“9,750 terrorist prisoners are now recognized by the PA as eligible for monthly terror rewards, up from 4,300 prior to October 7. This means the PA is committing to pay nearly NIS 60 million [$16.4 million] a month to terrorist prisoners. The PA has recognized Hamas’ Martyr count, and a total of 38,983 new Martyrs’ families are currently eligible for terror rewards. This means nearly 55 million shekels [$14.7 million] in additional monthly payments to the families of Martyrs.”

The most recent tally of terrorist prisoners to receive stipends from the PA includes 899 terrorists who were captured in the ongoing Gaza war. That is in addition to the 661 captured terrorists that were announced in January as joining the “Martyrs payment” program. Palestinian Media Watch notes:

“[E]ach of the new terrorist prisoners will receive a starting salary of 1,400 shekels per month ($375 per month), which will rise the longer he or she is in prison, reaching a maximum of 12,000 shekels per month ($3,215 per month).”

The Palestinian Authority is, as always, undergoing a major financial crisis, in part because it has failed to promote a productive economy – a failure made possible by unconditional handouts from the international community. The PA prioritizes its terrorists at the expense of its own employees, paying them only half a salary, while terrorists and their families receive a full salary. The PA, in other words, as a priority, sees itself as the employer and benefactor of terrorists.

PA leader Mahmoud Abbas said on television in 2018:

“By Allah, even if we have only a penny left it will only be spent on the families of the Martyrs and the [terrorist] prisoners, and only afterwards will it be spent on the rest of the people. This is a group that we appreciate and respect, and we consider it the one paving the way to Palestine’s independence for the future generations… We view the Martyrs and prisoners as stars in the sky of the Palestinian people and the sky of the Palestinian people’s struggle, and they have priority in everything.”

Fortunately for Abbas and his terrorists, both the Biden administration, the World Bank and the EU stand ready with taxpayer financing to ensure that the terrorists are not about to run out of murder-for-hire payments anytime soon.

The World Bank, in fact, decided that the PA should get more money. In July, it announced that its usual annual grant to the terrorist entity of $70 million would be raised in to a whopping $300 million, no questions asked. The World Bank thereby knowingly and willingly made itself an active accomplice to terrorism. Even the PA leadership itself seemed surprised at the sum. PA Prime Minister Muhammad Mustafa said:

“The World Bank Board of Directors decided a few days ago to increase the annual grant that it provides to the State of Palestine from approximately $70 million to $300 million per year. This is an unprecedented sum in the history of Palestine’s relations with the World Bank.” [bold in original]

Also in July, the European Union announced that it would provide the Palestinian Authority with 400 million euros ($435.5 million) of EU taxpayer money in emergency financial support in the coming two months “amid concerns within the EU that the authority could collapse.” The sole reason why the PA is in the process of collapse is because of its pay-for-slay scheme, but this apparently does not bother the EU in the least: it happily continues to disburse EU taxpayer money to enable Palestinian terrorism.

“The money will be disbursed in the form of grants and loans in three payments between July and September, subject to progress in the implementation of the reform agenda of the Palestinian Authority,” the European Commission said in a statement.

What reform agenda?

Incidentally, the 400 million euros are in addition to the 25 million euros the EU announced in May in a second portion of assistance to pay the salaries and pensions of PA civil servants.

That is not all. Despite the deep involvement of UNRWA in Hamas terrorism, the EU is also pouring more taxpayer money there: In March, the European Commission announced

“Today, the Commission has decided to allocate an additional EUR 68 million to support the Palestinian population across the region to be implemented through international partners like the Red Cross and the Red Crescent. This comes in addition to the foreseen EUR 82 million of aid to be implemented through UNRWA in 2024, bringing the total to EUR 150 million.”

On May 31, the EU Commission bragged:

“The European Union is the biggest provider of external assistance to the Palestinians which amounts to indicatively almost €1.2 billion [$1.3 billion] for 2021-2024 under the European Joint Strategy, of which €809.4 million have already been adopted.”

It is inconceivable that European leaders are unaware of the PA’s consistent involvement in terrorism and its approval of the Hamas atrocities committed on October 7. After the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on July 31, Mahmoud Abbas “declared a day of mourning and lowering of flags to half-mast for a full day as a sign of mourning over the assassination of former Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh,” according to WAFA, the official PA news agency.

Senior PA official and arch terrorist Jibril Rajoub, who holds the powerful role of secretary general of Fatah’s Central Committee, eulogized Haniyeh as “a great leader, a dear brother, a friend, and a staunch fighter.” In October, Rajoub justified the October 7 massacre: “Hamas is part of our political and social fabric and of our struggle, and their involvement is important.”

Nothing above is a secret. All the information is readily available. So why is not one European leader questioning the use of EU taxpayer money for propping up a terrorist regime and its terrorists? Why is the EU knowingly enabling terrorism?

Robert Williams is a researcher based in the United States.