For the Palestinians, terrorism is one sure way to make a living – and it seems that the worse the crime, the better the pay.
According to a report released by the Palestinian Authority Treasury on Wednesday, the PA paid upwards of NIS 502 million ($137 million) to living terrorists – either in Israeli prison or released – in 2018.
This was the first time since 2015 that the PA Prisoner Affairs Ministry has revealed such details of its budget. Between 2015 and 2018 it kept these figures under wraps, with the payments transferred to terrorists appearing in different reports and documents.
At the end of this month, Prime Minister and acting defense minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to present the diplomatic-security cabinet with a report on these payments so the government can deduct the amount paid out to terrorists from the taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority and turns over to the PA.
Although the report does not specifiy precisely how the funds were disbursed to terrorists in Israeli prisons and ones who have been released, a report by the Israeli NGO Palestinian Media Watch indicates that terrorists incarcerated in Israel received at least NIS 203 million ($55 million) over the course of 2018.
According to Palestinian Media Watch, at least NIS 176 million ($48 million) was allotted to released terrorists, and NIS 96 million ($26 million) was used to supplement the stipeds that go to of imprisoned and released terrorists and their families, providing them with other financial benefits. Moreover, the longer the prison sentence a terrorist serves, the higher the salary; in other words, the worse the crime, the better the pay.
The longest-serving Palestinian terrorists – Maher and Karim Younis, who murdered IDF soldier Avraham Brumberg in 1980 and have been in jail since 1983 – each receive a monthly salary of NIS 12,000 ($3,266).
PMW also found that in January 2018 alone the PA paid almost NIS 20 million ($5.4 million) to Palestinian terrorists imprisoned in Israel.
'We won't accept support for terror'
Palestinian Media Watch based its findings on the figures the PA chose to publish. Therefore, it it was not possible to fully determine the actual amount paid to families of terrorists in 2018, some 18,000 people. Families that benefit include relatives of suicide bombers and terrorists killed by Israeli forces as well as relatives of Palestinians either killed or wounded in violent clashes with security forces.
Last July, the Knesset enacted a law to financially penalize the Palestinian Authority for paying stipends to terrorists imprisoned in Israel and their families.
Lawmakers voted 87-15 in favor of the law, which orders the government to withhold part of the tax revenues that Israel collects for the PA each month.
MK Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid), who co-sponsored the bill, said the withheld money would be put aside and the government would be allowed to use its discretion on whether to return it to the Palestinians at some point or not.
"The law that imposes monetary sanctions on the Palestinian Authority for payments to terrorists is one of the more important [laws] passed in Israel in recent years," said PMW founder and director Itamar Marcus.
"It sends a clear message to the Palestinian Authority that Israel will not accept its support for terror in any way, shape or form.
"I hope Israel implements the law to the fullest as soon as this month [January], as stipulated by the law, so the PA understands that Israel will do everything in its power against any show of support for terror on [the PA's] part," Marcus said.
