By JNS Staff
The P.A. chief "admitted again" to paying terrorists, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas last week "admitted again" to paying terrorists imprisoned in Israel, Jerusalem's Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
The ministry shared a clip from Abbas's May 14 address to a Ramallah gathering of the Fatah terrorist organization, which he also chairs, in which he complained about "the continued withholding [by Israel] of the Palestinians people's funds, which have so far exceeded $5 billion.
"All this needs to be paid to public employees, to prisoners and so on, and other expenses," he adds.
The Palestinian Authority still allocates public funds to reward convicted terrorists:
Mahmoud Abbas admitted again his Pay-for-Slay policy on camera at the Fatah Congress on May 14.
And now Abbas complains Israel is withholding the money. No chance Israel will allow these… pic.twitter.com/f9vZQ4VPFS— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) May 18, 2026
Jerusalem collects 600 million-700 million shekels ($160 million-$190 million) in tax and tariff funds on behalf of the P.A. every month under the terms of the Oslo Accords, signed with the PLO in the 1990s.
In 2018, lawmakers from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling Likud Party initiated and passed legislation to offset the sum to put pressure on the Palestinian Authority to stop rewarding terrorism.
Around one billion shekels ($270 million) in yearly tax revenue that Israel collects on behalf of the P.A. goes toward its "pay for slay" policy, under which it disburses monthly stipends to terrorists and their relatives.
On Feb. 10, 2025, the P.A. once again claimed it had given up the program. The P.A. said payments would no longer be made through its Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, but instead through a new body, the Palestinian National Economic Empowerment Institution (PNEEI), under the P.A. Ministry of Social Development.
However, Ramallah has made no efforts at real reform of its "pay-for-slay" program, which is monitored by Israel-based watchdog group Palestinian Media Watch.
"The Palestinian Authority still allocates public funds to reward convicted terrorists," the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem tweeted on Monday. "Now Abbas complains Israel is withholding the money. No chance Israel will allow these funds to bankroll terrorism."
Abbas, 90, was reelected as the leader of Fatah over the weekend in the faction's first internal election since 2016.
“The achievements we have made are thanks to the immense sacrifices made by our leaders, martyrs, prisoners and all the male and female freedom fighters who paved the way to freedom and independence with their blood,” he said in his opening at the Ramallah conference.
"They have made sacrifices under the most difficult circumstances, foremost among them the great leader Marwan Barghouti, and we will not rest until they are freed from the occupation’s prisons," he continued, in reference to one of the most notorious figures of the Second Intifada, who was convicted in 2002 for masterminding lethal terrorist attacks against Israelis and foreign nationals.
Barghouti received the highest number of votes in elections for the Central Committee, Fatah’s most powerful body, according to preliminary results seen by AFP on Sunday.
