Terrorist prisoners receive 48-50 million shekels a month from the PA, with "martyrs and wounded" raising the figure even further, reveals PLO official
Headline: “Exclusive: Abu Bakr reveals how the prisoners’ salaries will be paid and talks about the developments regarding their integration [in the PA institutions]”
“Director of [PLO] Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr announced how the salaries of the prisoners in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will be paid this month [May 2021]. He confirmed that the salaries in Gaza [will be paid] the way they were last month, through a number of authorized money changers.
Regarding the West Bank, Abu Bakr told [the independent Palestinian news network] Raya: ‘We have received promises from the [PA] Monetary Authority and the post office that this month the payment will be carried out through ATMs and not through lists (sic., the previous month payments were conducted through the post office). We refuse that the payment will be carried out through them again.’
He explained that the use of the post office to pay the prisoners’ salaries stemmed from the Israeli ban on the banks taking care of the prisoners’ accounts (refers to the application of much of Israel's Anti-Terror Law to the West Bank, including rendering banks liable to punishment for facilitating PA terror salaries -Ed.), and he noted that efforts have been made to restore the situation to how it previously was.
Abu Bakr added: ‘The number of released prisoners is approximately 7,500, and the number of prisoners in the prisons is 4,200. They are receiving between 48-50 million [Israeli] shekels each month, not including the Martyrs and wounded.’
Regarding the distribution of the released prisoners between the state institutions and their integration as regular employees, he said that… a number of days ago [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas] signed on [putting] approximately 3,500 released prisoners over the age of 50 on pension, in addition to released prisoners with a ‘medical disability.’
Abu Bakr said that 300 released prisoners have been integrated in the [PA] Security Forces, and he noted that they may be paid salaries next month, since this month it was not possible to pay them. He added: ‘The released prisoners were promised that they would all be absorbed [in the PA institutions], and likewise for the pensioners, at the beginning of May [2021], but this will take a certain amount of time, perhaps until the end of the month.’”
Israeli army legislation which applies parts of Israel's 2016 Anti-Terror Law to the West Bank (taking effect on May 9, 2020). The law prohibits numerous terror related offenses, including terror funding/rewarding and holds heads of terror organizations responsible for murder committed by members of the organization. The law criminalizes the provision of funds for or the payment of rewards for the commission of terrorist offenses, such as the salaries the PA pays to terrorist prisoners and released prisoners. The provision also applies to any person or body - such as a bank - that facilitates such funding or rewarding of terror offenses. Based on this last provision, PMW sent letters in April 2020 to the heads of banks in the PA areas warning them that they must freeze the accounts of terrorists and their proxies and transfer them to the Israeli army or face legal consequences.