PA pays employees 80% while "prioritizing Martyrs"
Headline: “The allowances of the families of the Martyrs and the wounded will be paid today through the customary mechanisms in the West Bank and Gaza Strip”
“Chairwoman of the [PLO] Families of the Martyrs and Wounded Institution Intisar Al-Wazir said that the allowances of the families of the Martyrs and the wounded will be paid today, Tuesday [June 7, 2022], after 3:00 p.m. in the northern and southern districts (i.e., the West Bank and Gaza Strip respectively) according to the customary mechanisms.
Al-Wazir added that the allowances will be paid at a rate of 80% of the current monthly allowance, but no less than 2,000 [Israeli] shekels (approximately $600 -Ed.), in addition to 5% of the money that was not paid in the past.
She noted that these allowances are being paid in the shadow of the suffocating financial crisis that the [PA] government is in, due to the occupation’s robbery and the theft of the tax revenue money (refers to Israel’s Anti “Pay-for-Slay” Law to deduct PA terror salaries; see note below -Ed.).
She emphasized that the Palestinian leadership led by [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas is giving the allowances of the families of the Martyrs and the wounded priority on everything concerning payment, despite the pressures being exerted so that it will stop paying 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.