Abbas refuses to stop paying terrorist salaries: “Impossible that we would relinquish the most sanctified thing we have… the Martyrs, wounded, and prisoners”

Official PA TV News

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: "The money of the Martyrs, wounded, and prisoners is still in Israel’s hands… We have told them that any solution that excludes the Martyrs, wounded, and prisoners – forget about it completely… It is also absolutely impossible that we would relinquish the most sanctified thing we have, and that is the Martyrs, wounded, and prisoners.”

Abbas made this statement at a PLO Executive Committee meeting.

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.