Abbas confirms continued salaries to terrorist prisoners

Speech at the Arab League Summit in Tunisia 

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: "[Israel] has recently begun to deduct a large part of our money that it collects… which is known as the tax deduction money that amounts to $200 million a month, on the pretext that we are paying salaries to the families of the prisoners, Martyrs, and wounded… We have said and will say to Israel and the entire world that we will not abandon our people, and particularly [not] those among them who have sacrificed. We will continue to support them even if these will be the last financial resources that we have." 

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.