Shtayyeh thanks public employees for accepting cut salaries, repeats Abbas is loyal to Martyrs’ blood and prisoners
Official PA TV News, on PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh’s speech at a Ramadan fast-breaking meal in Ramallah for the families of the “Martyrs”
PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh: “We say on behalf of all of you that [PA] Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas will remain loyal, and with him we will remain the most loyal of the loyal to the blood of the Martyrs and to our prisoners, regardless of the type of war that is declared against us. We will struggle for our land. We will struggle for our people. We will struggle for recognition [as a state]. And we will struggle against the financial war that is being imposed on us (refers to Israeli Anti “Pay-for-Slay” Law to deduct terrorist salaries; see note below –Ed.). At this opportunity I won’t forget to thank the Palestinian National Authority employees and the PLO employees who for three months are receiving 50% of their salary, and not one of them is even sighing. I bless them; I bless you, because you know that this crisis that they have put us in is for the families of the Martyrs and the prisoners.”
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.