PA puts its money where its mouth is: Terror rewards before anything else

When the leadership of the Palestinian Authority declares that their number one priority is to maintain its “Pay-for-Slay” terror reward payments to imprisoned terrorists, released terrorists, and the families of dead terrorists, they are not just paying lip service. Analysis of the PA’s expenditure in 2021 shows that, per capita, the amount the PA spends on rewarding terror is astronomical!

A combination of financial reports published by the PA with population statistics provided by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics demonstrates the following outrageous reality:

• The PA spends 33.34 times more per capita paying terror rewards than it spends on health services for the Palestinian population.  
• The PA spends 10.86 times more per capita paying terror rewards than it spends on education of Palestinian children under the age of 18.
• The PA spends 1.87 times more per capita paying terror rewards than it spends on benefits for the needy Palestinian population.  

As exposed by Palestinian Media Watch, in 2021 the PA spent no less than 841 million shekels ($270.75 million) paying rewards to terrorists. 600 million shekels ($193.16) were paid to terrorist prisoners and released terrorists and another 241 million shekels ($77.59 million), at least, were paid to wounded terrorists and the families of dead terrorists.

This huge sum was paid to a maximum of 5,000 prisoners, a maximum of 12,000 released prisoners and a maximum of 40,000 families of dead terrorists. In other words, the PA spent an average of 14,771 shekels rewarding each terrorist. The above numbers of prisoners, released prisoners, and families of dead terrorists, are based on PA publications since 2018.  

In comparison, according to the financial reports the PA used to publish, in 2021 the total expenditure of the PA Ministry of Health was 2,316,089,000 shekels. Since the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics claims that in 2021 there were 5,227,193 Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank, (i.e. Judea and Samaria) this means that the PA’s per capita expenditure on the health of the Palestinians was a mere 443 shekels, over 33 times less than its expenditure on terror reward payments.

Similarly, according to the financial reports the PA used to publish, in 2021 the total expenditure of the PA Ministry of Education was 3,140,744,000 shekels. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics claims that in 2021, 44.2% of the 5,227,193 Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank, (i.e. Judea and Samaria) were under the age of 18 - i.e. 2,310,419 children. This means that the PA’s per capita expenditure on the education of Palestinian  children was 1,359 shekels - over 10 times less than its expenditure on terror reward payments.    

Examination of the PA payments to the Palestinian needy provides an almost optimistic, but sadly misleading result. According to the financial reports the PA used to publish, in 2021 the total expenditure of the PA Ministry of Social Affairs was 930,998,000 shekels. Previous statistics published by the PA, in its budget for 2018, claimed that there are 118,000 needy Palestinians. Accordingly, the average per capita PA expenditure for each needy Palestinian was 7,890 shekels.

While this optimistic figure would indicate that the PA pays the Palestinian needy over half of what it pays to terrorists and their families, this calculation is misleading.

Other reports have shown that most of the expenses of paying welfare benefits to the Palestinian needy is covered by foreign donations, and that in fact the PA spends six times more of its own budget paying terror rewards than it spends paying welfare benefits to the Palestinian needy.

Indeed just recently, the PA Ministry of Social Affairs made clear, how exactly the PA is abusing the Palestinian needy and using them as leverage to blackmail the EU into renewing its aid to the PA: 

“Regarding the date of the welfare allowance payments, [PA Minister of Social Affairs] Ahmed Majdalani’s Ministry [of Social Affairs] announced that as of now it is unclear when the allowances will be paid, as it depends on the transfer of the European Union (EU) funding to the PA.”

[Official PA TV, Real News, March 24, 2022]

PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh explained that if the European Union does not renew its aid to the PA, he is unsure if the Palestinian needy will receive any welfare payments:

“The delay in European aid to the [PA] budget in previous months has negatively impacted the ability to honor the obligations to the sectors that receive social aid, and also the [PA] public employees’ salaries and the activities of the [official] institutions.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 25, 2022]

The PA’s prioritization of paying the terror rewards is also having a direct impact on the different sectors. For months, the cash strapped PA has only been partially paying the salaries of all its civil servants. This practice has been taking a heavy toll.

As PMW exposed, the PA recently only narrowly avoided a general strike of its health sector because the PA has failed to implement promises it made to the doctors to improve their pay. While the health sector employees seem to have been placated, there are now reports that the PA teachers are set to escalate their actions, demanding that the PA pay their salaries in full:

“General Secretariat member of the General Union of Palestinian Teachers (GUPT) Anan Da’na told Al-Quds yesterday [April 6, 2022] that the union intends to hold activities of escalation aside from ‘a partial strike’ of the school day, which are likely to reach the point of a protest in the street. This is in order to demand that the [PA] government pay the teachers’ salaries in full…”

[Al-Quds, April 7, 2022]