PA Minister of Finance announces terrorist prisoners and “Martyrs” have been paid in full, public employees take pay cuts

PA Minister of Finance and Planning Shukri Bishara: "The salaries [of public employees] will be paid in full, all of the salaries under 2,000 shekels... In practice 40% of the PA's employees, who are the dynamo engine of the economy, will receive their salaries in full, at 100%, because nearly 40% of the PA's employees receive less than 2,000 [shekels]... Today, we will pay no less than 50% of the salaries… We have placed an upper limit of 10,000 shekels for the top of the pay scale of those receiving a maximum of 10,000 shekels - the honored ministers and their like. The burden of sacrifice and the burden of compromise falls on the top salaries... At the beginning of the month [March 2019]... the salaries were transferred in full to the prisoners, the wounded, and the Martyrs according to the orders of His Honor President [Abbas]. This is one of the national principles which no force on earth can make us deviate from."

Israel's Anti "Pay-for-Slay" Law - Israeli law stating that the PA payments to terrorists and the families of dead terrorists is a financial incentive to terror. The law instructs the state to deduct and freeze the amount of money the PA pays in salaries to imprisoned terrorists and families of "Martyrs" from the tax money Israel collects for the PA. Should the PA stop these payments for a full year, the Israeli government would have the option of giving all or part of the frozen money to the PA. The law was enacted by the Israeli Parliament on July 2, 2018. During the parliamentary vote, the law's sponsor Avi Dichter said: “The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee received much help in its deliberations... from Palestinian Media Watch who provided us with authentic data that enabled productive and professional deliberations, nuances that are very difficult to achieve without precise data.” [Israeli Parliament website, July 2, 2018] In accordance with the law, as of September 2021 Israel’s Security Cabinet had ordered the freeze of 1.857 billion shekels ($580.15 million) - the sum equivalent to the PA payments to terrorists in 2018, 2019, and 2020.