Abbas repeats vow to prioritize terrorist salaries despite financial crisis: “If we are left with one penny, we will give it to their families”

Official PA TV, filler from a speech by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: “We will not agree to accept the [tax] money with a deduction of one penny, and especially a deduction from the Martyrs, because the Martyrs are the most sanctified among us, and because the wounded are the most sanctified among us, and because the prisoners are the most sanctified among us. Therefore, it cannot be that we would abandon them, it cannot be that we would abandon their families, and if we are left with one penny, we will give it to their families.”
 

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.