Teachers' salaries are slashed in half by PA, while terrorists continue to receive pay
Headline: “Shtayyeh called on the Teachers’ Association to go back to the schools and finish teaching”
“[PA] Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh met with members of the General Teachers’ Association yesterday, Thursday [Oct. 29, 2020], in his office in Ramallah, discussed the financial situation with them, and listened to their demands.
The association demanded that the prime minister pay the teachers’ salaries in full or at a higher rate than it is now, and that the banks not deduct the loan payments from the salaries…
The prime minister briefed the association on the general political situation and the successive crises that the occupation is imposing on our people and our cause, particularly the monetary crisis and its consequences on the financial situation (refers to PA response to Israel’s Anti “Pay-for-Slay” Law to deduct terror salaries; see note below –Ed.)…
The prime minister explained that at the beginning of the coming week the salaries will be paid at a rate of 50%, and that the [PA] Monetary Authority has asked the banks not to deduct any [loan] payments. He noted that in the coming months if the crisis does not end and the salaries are not dealt with, the rate of the payments will be increased.”
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.