The Palestinian Authority and Its Continuing ‘Pay-For-Slay’ Program

For years, the Palestinian Authority has been providing generous monthly stipends to imprisoned terrorists and to the families of “martyrs,” that is, terrorists killed while carrying out their terrorist acts. This “Pay-For-Slay” Program has caused great anger in Washington, and the PA has decided to recharacterize the program and put it under supposed new management, in the hope that outside donors will be fooled into thinking that the PA has indeed given up its “Pay-For-Slay” Program. Spoiler alert: It hasn’t. More on the PA’s attempt to fool Western donors can be found here: “The PA is still paying salaries to terrorists and ‘Martyrs,'” by Itamar Marcus, Palestinian Media Watch, September 17, 2025:

On Wednesday, the Palestinian Authority announced a new system of payments, which was supposed to be based on welfare needs and not as a reward to terrorists:

“The Palestinian National Economic Empowerment Institution (PNEEI) announces the payment of financial allowances within the Social Protection and Care Program, starting from Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025, through authorized payment centers.”

However, PMW has confirmed that payments were made via the PA post offices, as in the past, indicating that the post offices are the aforementioned “authorized payment centers.” The PA’s post office ATMs are exclusively for paying terror salaries and allowances, as stated in an official announcement last year by the PLO…

The place where payments are received— the PA post offices — thus remain unchanged.

Yesterday an online news site reported that it had received information from the Palestinian Authority indicating that the PA had stopped rewarding imprisoned terrorists and terrorist Martyrs’ families as in the past, but had moved them to a new welfare-based system [Times of Israel]. The article also claimed that the “Welfare payments, which are now distributed by the extra-governmental PNEEI, have not yet been issued.”  These payments, according to the article, would have been the payments to imprisoned terrorists and “Martyrs'” families….

In other words, under a new name, the same subsidies are being given to the same people — imprisoned terrorists and the families of “martyrs.” The payments may have a new name — “welfare” payments — but they are still given to the same people, and, apparently, in the same amounts as before. Even the place where payments can exclusively be received — post offices — remains the same. Only the name has changed. Is this enough to fool the world? Given how gullible that pro-Palestinian world has shown itself to be, and how eager it is to find excuses for the PA’s behavior — probably.

Ten of the eleven board members of PNEEI are employed in senior PA government positions, including one minister and six undersecretaries. Only one is an academic. Moreover, PNEEI answers to Mahmoud Abbas.

With senior government officers as board members, the article’s defining PNEEI as “extra-governmental” is another clear example of publishing PA claims without doing the minimal investigation to verify them.

Ten of the eleven board members of PNEEI hold senior positions in the PA government. Such an almost-total overlap in personnel gives the lie to the claim that PNEEI is an “extra-governmental” organ. For reasons that are unclear, none of the journalists reporting on the PNEEI has noted that overlap.

I no longer expect anything from the journalists who cover Israel and the Palestinians. Too many of them are motivated by anti-Israel animus, while others are lazy, or careless, in reporting. Were it not for Palestinian Media Watch, we might still believe that the PA had ended the “Pay-For-Slay” program and replaced it with a “welfare” benefits scheme.