PA cuts salaries to Gaza workers, but not to terrorist prisoners

Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik | Apr 27, 2017

PA cuts salaries to Gaza workers,

but not to terrorist prisoners

With deepening economic crisis, PA government cuts salaries to productive workers in Gaza but not to non-productive terrorists in prison

PLO Director of Prisoners’ Affairs:

“The cuts approved by the [PA] Palestinian government to the salaries of the state employees in Gaza will not harm the released prisoners or the prisoners in the Israeli occupation’s prisons”

PA Prime Minister calls for release of Palestinian murderers:

We need “to release all of the prisoners without exception”

Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

As the Palestinian Authority’s economic warfare with Hamas continues, the PA announced it is cutting salaries to state employees in Gaza, but is not cutting the salaries it pays to terrorist prisoners including murderers and released terrorists who will continue receiving their full salaries.

This was announced by the Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Issa Karake yesterday. Karake’s announcement shows again what Palestinian Media Watch has been documenting to legislators around the world in its report The PA's Billion Dollar Fraud: That it is the PA government which determines and pays the salaries to terrorists:

“Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Issa Karake... said in an exclusive statement... that the cuts approved by the [PA] Palestinian government to the salaries of the state employees in Gaza will not harm the released prisoners or the prisoners in the Israeli occupation’s prisons, and noted that the cuts in the employees’ salaries are related to the existing situation in the Gaza Strip.”

[Donia Al-Watan, independent Palestinian news agency, April 26, 2017]

This action comes at the very time that many countries, including the US, Britain and Israel, have expressed strong and repeated condemnations of the PA policy of paying salaries to terrorist prisoners, and some countries are threatening to cut off all funding to the PA.

In addition to preserving the high amount of the payments, the PA leadership continues defend its policy of rewarding terror. Earlier this month Spokesman for the PLO Commission of Prisoners and Released Prisoners' Affairs Hassan Abd Rabbo “emphasized... that it is the right of all of the prisoners and Martyrs who have struggled and sacrificed for Palestine to receive their full salaries from the PA.” [Ma’an, independent Palestinian news agency, April 5, 2017]

This statement was made in response to a bill submitted by Israeli Parliament members which would deduct the amount the PA pays to imprisoned terrorists and families of “Martyrs,” from transfers by Israel to the PA, from PA tax money Israel collects.

The PA’s support for terrorists and murderers was also emphasized by the PA’s Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah who during this week’s government meeting stated that the prisoners are “prisoners of war,” and that “their cause is the cause of all of us.” He added:

“The title of the [current] stage is the need to release all of the prisoners without exception and without discrimination.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 26, 2017]

Earlier this month, PA Prime Minister Hamdallah explained the cuts in salaries in the Gaza Strip, which were made due to the PA’s financial crisis caused by the 70% drop in foreign aid this year and because Hamas is spending money only on itself and not on the people:

Headline: “'$17 billion were transferred over the last 10 years in order to provide for the needs of the Gaza Strip’ - Hamdallah: Some of the wage additions were cut in the salaries of the Gaza employees; Hamas is taking all of the revenue and spending it only on itself”

“The [PA] government has decided to take austerity measures on the expenses since last year [2016] in the West Bank. The first sector in which they began was the security sector, whose expenses were reduced by 25%. In addition, the budgets of many sectors were reduced due to the 70% drop in foreign aid. We are suffering from a large financial crisis... The base salaries of the [public] employees in the Gaza Strip were not harmed, but rather some of the wage additions were cut, while some of them were left intact. This is so that we will be able to manage the financial crisis from which we are suffering... We demand that Hamas give the Gaza Strip to the legal leadership (i.e., Fatah), as Hamas is taking all of the revenue and spending it only on itself, while we are fulfilling all of our obligations towards the members of our people in the Gaza Strip.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 8, 2017]

The following are longer excerpts of the articles mentioned above:

Headline: “Karake: The cuts in the Gaza salaries will not harm the released prisoners”

“Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Issa Karake... said in an exclusive statement to [independent Palestinian news agency] Donia Al-Watan that the cuts approved by the [PA] Palestinian government to the salaries of the state employees in Gaza will not harm the released prisoners or the prisoners in the Israeli occupation’s prisons, and noted that the cuts in the employees’ salaries are related to the existing situation in the Gaza Strip.Karake explained that the government has approved these cuts because there is money that is going to the Gaza Strip and taxes that are collected in the Gaza Strip [by Hamas], but which do not reach the [PA] government coffers. He noted that this problem - for which Hamas bears the responsibility - is not related to the matter of the released prisoners.”

[Donia Al-Watan, independent Palestinian news agency, April 26, 2017]

Headline: “The government: The unity of the prisoners calls to us to complete the reconciliation [between Fatah and Hamas] and thwart the occupation’s plans”

“[PA] Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah emphasized during the weekly government meeting held in Ramallah under his leadership... that the fact that Israel continues to hold thousands of prisoners, in addition to the racist incitement campaign and the criminal, racist, direct, and explicit calls of the occupation leaders to kill the prisoners (PMW has found no such calls, see below for more details -Ed.) necessitate the urgent intervention of the international community...

He added that their (the prisoners’) cause is the cause of all of us, and that this is a national and personal cause that touches every Palestinian home...

He emphasized that we will not forget our prisoners and will not forget our land, and that the time has come to establish their status as prisoners of war in a way that will allow us to work with international institutions in order to enlist more support for their release. He also noted that the title of the [current] stage is the need to release all of the prisoners without exception and without discrimination. Hamdallah added that the loyalty to the prisoners also requires us to act to unite the homeland and provide a fitting life for their families, and that instead of the blackmail, pressures, and incitement that Israel is using to force us to stop supporting the prisoners and Martyrs’ families, it must stop the organized state terror that it is using.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 26, 2017]

PMW could find no calls by Israeli ministers to kill prisoners. The Palestinians have referred to statements by Israeli Minister of Intelligence and Transportation Yisrael Katz and Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor Liberman as such, however in both cases that was not what they actually said.

On March 6 and 7, 2017, Katz said that terrorist Marwan Barghouti should have been sentenced to the death penalty rather than life imprisonment.

In 2015, when serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Liberman said regarding a prisoner hunger strike at the time that those wishing to hunger strike should be allowed to do so, and that their lives are their responsibility. He referred to Irish hunger strikers in Britain in 1981 who starved themselves to death when then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher refused to give in to their demands, saying: "What's good for the birthplace of democracy, England, is good enough for us."

Headline: "Will Israel succeed in stopping the salaries of the prisoners and Martyrs?”"Signs of a new 'confrontation' between the PA and Israel are seen on the horizon due to a new bill submitted by Israeli Parliament members to deduct the amount of financial aid that the PA provides to the families of the Martyrs (

Shahids) and prisoners from the tax money collected by Israel and returned [to the PA].

The Israeli bill, submitted by Israeli Parliament members led by Elazar Stern of the Yesh Atid party, has met with much resistance from the Palestinian [PLO] Commission for Prisoners' Affairs that considered the bill 'an Israeli political escalation against the symbols of the Palestinian resistance and national struggle, the prisoners and the prisoners who have been released from the occupation's prisons.'

Spokesman for the [PLO] Commission of Prisoners and Released Prisoners' Affairs Hassan Abd Rabbo emphasized to the [independent Palestinian news] agency Ma'an that it is the right of all of the prisoners and Martyrs who have struggled and sacrificed for Palestine to receive their full salaries from the PA.

He also emphasized that all of their salaries are paid by the PLO-affiliated Palestinian National Fund, and not by the Palestinian [PA] government.

‘Approximately 7,000 prisoners within the prisons and thousands of released prisoners receive monthly salaries of more than 1,400 [Israeli] shekels, in addition to canteen money that the prisoner receives in order to buy food and essentials within the prison,' said Abd Rabbo.

The prisoner's salary changes according to the years of imprisonment, social situation, and the number of his family members, as the salary of some of the prisoners reaches 10,000 shekels, particularly those who have served more than 10 years of imprisonment.Abd Rabbo denied that there are clauses in the Oslo Accords signed between the Israeli government and the PLO that forbid providing salaries to prisoners and the Martyrs' families. In the past the prisoners received their salaries from the Prisoner and Released Prisoner Training Program, before they were transferred to the [PA] Ministry for Prisoners' Affairs, and afterwards to the PLO Commission [of Prisoners’ Affairs] whose source of funding is the Palestinian National Fund...

PLO Executive Committee member [and Secretary-General of the Palestinian Liberation Front] Dr. Wasel Abu Yusuf emphasized that the PA and the Palestinian leadership will not neglect the Martyrs, prisoners, and wounded who have made sacrifices for Palestine and its cause.

He said that the Israeli bill is a continuation of the war that the occupation is waging against the Palestinians. He also emphasized that it is necessary to find clear tools for the struggle against this bill that harms the rights of the families that have been anchored by the PA.In addition, he said: 'If this decision is implemented, serious and urgent steps must be taken, including turning to the international institutions and the [International] Criminal Court and revoking all agreements with the occupation.'

Those who submitted the bill claimed to the Hebrew (i.e., Israeli) newspaper

Yediot Aharonot that the PA budget of 2016 showed that it transferred an amount of 1.1 billion shekels to the Martyrs and prisoners' families."

[Ma’an, independent Palestinian news agency, April 5, 2017]

“[PA] Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said: ‘The [PA] government has decided to take austerity measures on the expenses since last year [2016] in the West Bank. The first sector in which they began was the security sector, whose expenses were reduced by 25%. In addition, the budgets of many sectors were reduced due to the 70% drop in foreign aid. We are suffering from a large financial crisis.’He added: ‘The base salaries of the [public] employees in the Gaza Strip were not harmed, but rather some of the wage additions were cut, while some of them were left intact. This is so that we will be able to manage the financial crisis from which we are suffering.’

Hamdallah continued: ‘We demand that Hamas give the Gaza Strip to the legal leadership (i.e., Fatah), as Hamas is taking all of the revenue and spending it only on itself, while we are fulfilling all of our obligations towards the members of our people in the Gaza Strip. In the last 10 years approximately $17 billion have been transferred from the [PA] coffers to the Gaza Strip, and we emphasize that the Palestinian leadership led by [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas insists that there will be no [separate] state in Gaza, and there will be no state without Gaza.’”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 8, 2017]

PA cuts salaries to Gaza workers, but not to terrorist prisoners

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