PA Finance Ministry borrows money from banks to continue paying terrorists’ salaries
Headline: "The [PA] Ministry of Finance: There is an interval of time when it is possible to continue borrowing from the banks, until July [2019]"
"[PA] Deputy Minister of Finance Farid Ghannam emphasized that the [PA] government has borrowed $54 million from the banks operating in Palestine since the beginning of the crisis of the theft of the tax money by the occupation government in February [2019] (referring to implementation of the Israeli Anti “Pay-for-Slay" Law to deduct terror salaries; see note below –Ed.). He noted that there is an interval of time when it is possible for the government to continue borrowing from the bank system, until July [2019]…
The deputy minister of finance also noted that the allowances (mukhassasat) of the families of the Martyrs (Shahids) and the prisoners will be paid in full, while the payment of the [PA] public employees’ salaries will continue to be at a rate of 50% with a minimum of 2,000 [Israeli] shekels, while the April salaries will be at a rate of 60% for the blessed Ramadan holiday."
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.