The European Union is changing its approach toward the Palestinian Authority. In a meeting held between EU representatives and senior Palestinian Authority officials toward the end of last month, senior EU officials who are friendly to Israel raised the issue of the PA's violation of agreements regarding continued payments to terrorists, and demanded that they stop transferring funds to those who carried out attacks against Israelis and Jews.
During discussions in Brussels ahead of the meeting of the "Palestine Donors Group" (PDG), in which many European countries and others participate, the Palestinian Authority's progress in implementing the structural reforms it committed to was examined. During the discussions, several representatives of member states confronted PA representatives with evidence that they continued to transfer funds to terrorists through alternative channels, and expressed their dissatisfaction with the violation of the commitment.
The officials reminded that the transfer of some of the funds sent to the PA is conditional on fulfillment of Palestinian commitments to stop paying salaries and stipends to terrorists and their families. The Palestinian Authority promised in February to stop the flow of funds to terrorists and their families, but in recent months, it has been reported that payments were transferred through alternative means.
In Israel, it was further revealed that the Palestinian Authority essentially changed the payment mechanism to one based on socio-economic criteria, rather than on the number of years of imprisonment, as was the case in the past. This change led to the cessation of payments to some terrorists in prisons, but not to all, and thus it effectively continued payment to terrorists and their families.
It should be noted that the European Union, which is the largest financial donor to the Palestinian Authority, has conditioned its financial support, amounting to hundreds of millions of euros per year, on the implementation of comprehensive reforms in the Palestinian Authority. The Union granted the Palestinian Authority a grant of between 1.2-1.6 billion euros for the years 2025-2027, subject to the gradual implementation of reforms whose main focus is fighting corruption and building stable and proper governance in the PA, but they also include a Palestinian commitment to stop paying salaries and stipends to terrorists as a reward for attacks they carried out, as well as stopping incitement in textbooks that the Palestinian Authority distributes to Palestinian educational institutions. In recent months, it was revealed in Israel Hayom that Palestinian textbooks continue to incite against Israel, Jews, and encourage terrorism.
The Palestinian Authority prefers to postpone the implementation of the education reform to next year, although, after it became clear that it is not keeping its promises, pro-Israel officials in the European Union are expected to increase pressure in light of the huge sums being transferred.
In response to the accusations against them, senior Palestinian Authority officials claimed that in January, a new payment system is supposed to be implemented that will create transparency, and payments to terrorists will stop. The PA also fired the finance minister after accusing him of transferring the funds.
According to a spokesperson for the European Commission, the step the Palestinians took to stop payment to terrorists "was a step forward and marked the Palestinian Authority's commitment to implement far-reaching reforms. However, we understand that a payment was recently made to prisoners' families under a previous plan. We very much regret this decision, as it appears to contradict previous statements."
"We requested clarifications on the matter from the Palestinian Authority, and the Committee for the Promotion of Palestinian Policy provided the opportunity to discuss the matter openly. The Palestinian Authority reaffirmed its commitment to fully implement the Social Protection Law and also confirmed that a contract has been signed for an audit of the new payment system, which is expected to begin in January. Within this framework, verification will be carried out to assess that there are no parallel payment programs and to provide evidence that the system is now based only on genuine needs," the spokesperson said.
The Union confirmed again that they continue to monitor the PA's other promise regarding education reform. "Reform in the education sector, including curriculum reform, is part of the EU-Palestine reform agenda," added a spokesperson on behalf of the Commission.
"The Palestinian Authority, as reaffirmed in President Abbas' intervention in New York in September, is committed to conducting a comprehensive curriculum reform to ensure full compliance of all learning materials with UNESCO standards containing values of peace, tolerance, coexistence, and non-violence. This includes changes in the textbooks in question."
Just about two weeks ago, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar revealed that the Palestinian Authority nearly doubled salaries to terrorists and their family members in the past year. According to him, in 2024 it paid 470 million shekels ($130 million), and in 2025 it has already committed to pay about 700 million shekels ($194 million) in salaries, and the year has not yet ended. "I call on Europe and the world to hold the Palestinian Authority accountable for financing terrorism. The salaries to terrorists must be stopped now," Sa'ar demanded.
