Abbas reiterates commitment to terror salaries at UN, blesses “righteous Martyrs and our prisoners”
Headline: "The [PA] president in a speech to the UN: The occupation cannot bring peace or achieve security and stability for anyone"
"[PA] President of the State of Palestine [Mahmoud Abbas]… gave a speech at the 74th session of the UN General Assembly in New York yesterday, Thursday [Sept. 26, 2019]… Following is the text of the president's speech: …
For a number of months, Israel has been making arbitrary deductions from our money and confiscating part of it (i.e., referring to Israel's Anti "Pay-for-Slay" Law to deduct terror salaries; see note below), which has escalated our people’s suffering, as we can no longer meet our financial obligations to our citizens. It has also worsened the economic crisis that our country is experiencing due to the scarcity of resources and the fact that several bodies and states have stopped meeting their obligations to us…
Blessings to our righteous Martyrs and our prisoners and their families who are standing firm and holding on. We say to them, to the Martyrs' families, that we will defend their rights regardless of the cost. We will not succumb to what Israel has demanded. I will not succumb. Even if I am left with only one penny, I will pay it to the families of the Martyrs, the prisoners, and the wounded, and I will not deny it to them."
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.