US Assistant Secretary of State gives incorrect testimony to Congress about PA salaries to terrorists

disregards Palestinian Media Watch's repeated documentation

  by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik 

In testimony to Congress, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Ambassador Anne W. Patterson, defended the Palestinian Authority practice of paying salaries to terrorists in prison saying "they have to provide for the families." [April 29, 2014]

Palestinian Media Watch has documented repeatedly that this is not correct. According to PA law and in practice the PA does not give stipends to terrorist prisoners' families but salaries to the terrorist prisoners themselves. PMW has already reported that the PA Minister of Prisoners vocally rejected the claim that the payments are social welfare aid to the prisoners' families, stressing instead that the prisoners receive salaries "out of esteem." [WAFA, the official PA news agency, Dec. 27, 2012, see full quote below] This was likewise corroborated by Chairman of the PA-funded Prisoners' Club Qadura Fares when he announced that the PA had decided on a final version of the law, "which considers payments made to prisoners 'salaries,' (Arabic: ratib) to which no other term applies." [Al-Quds Internet edition, Dec. 27, 2012]

In addition, when challenged by Congressman Weber at the hearing on the Administration's Middle East and North Africa Budget Request for 2015 about possibly cutting off US funding because of the PA salary program to terrorists, Assistant Secretary Patterson twice told the Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa that she "knows" that the PA "are going to try to phase that out, and we should give them an opportunity to do so."

There is nothing in all the activities and statements of the PA to back up that claim. PMW has not encountered any PA statements regarding a "phasing out" of the salaries to terrorists. To the contrary, in 2013 and 2014, PA officials have regularly been adding additional regulations and benefits for prisoners. In addition, they have reiterated in government meetings and in public statements to Palestinians that the salaries and other benefits to prisoners is a high priority for the Palestinian Authority and will continue. At a government meeting earlier this month, the PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said the PA places "prisoners at the top of its priorities" and that they will continue to implement the "Prisoners' and Released [Prisoners'] Law"  - which specifically refers to salaries and other payments to prisoners:

"During its weekly meeting, which was held in Ramallah yesterday [April 1, 2014], [and] chaired by [PA] Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah... the government respectfully and admiringly saluted our heroic prisoners in the occupation prisons, and also proudly saluted our released prisoners... In accordance with the leadership's position, which places the issue of the prisoners at the top of its priorities, and in accordance with the President's [Mahmoud Abbas'] instructions, the government emphasizes its commitment to implement the Prisoners' and Released [Prisoners'] Law, and to take any [steps] that may enable the prisoners, the released [prisoners] and their families to live in dignity, out of loyalty to their sacrifice." 

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 2, 2014]

Patterson's statement that the PA is "phasing out" these payments to terrorists contradicts the public policy and statements by PA officials.

In 2013, when the British and Norwegian governments told their parliaments that the PA told them the money was for "families," PMW released a report entitled "Is the PA lying to European governments in order to receive European funding?" After this report's release, the Norwegian Foreign Minister publicly acknowledged that PMW's documentation was correct and said he had reported incorrectly to parliament because "it is unfortunate that the information that was first communicated [by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry] to Parliament and which was based on information obtained from the PA at the time, in retrospect, is imprecise."

When asked if she know how much the PA pays prisoners a year by Congressman Weber, Assistant Secretary Patterson only mentioned PA's payments to families, and the PA's payments to "people after they're released," leaving out the largest payments going to imprisoned terrorists:

"No, I don't have a figure, they pay families whose relatives are imprisoned and then they do pay some of these people after they're released..."

PMW's special report to a UK Parliamentary Committee investigating payments to the PA, which was publicized earlier this year documents that in 2013 the PA paid over $100 million to terrorist prisoners, and more benefits totaling an additional $46 million dollars are being added in 2014.

Asked why the US has not acted on the issue of the PA's payments to terrorists, despite knowing about it for a long time, Assistant Secretary Patterson said:

"I think, one, it is a political issue for the Palestinians, that these people are in jail, they have to provide for the families, and again I think they plan to phase it out." [April 29, 2014]

During his question time, Congressman Weber also asked Assistant Secretary Patterson if she knew "who initially sounded the alarm that this money was going to those terrorists," the Assistant Secretary did not know, but answered it had "been the case for some time."

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The PA Minister of Prisoner Affairs has also rejected the European demand not to pay salaries to terrorist prisoners saying last November: