End Palestinian Authority’s “Pay-To-Slay” Program

In February, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas decreed that he would end his government’s “pay to slay” program in which the PA transfers reward money to Palestinian terrorists and their families. The PA invited the Trump administration to come to the West Bank in June to verify first-hand the PA’s elimination of the program. It is now past June, but the U.S. still has an opportunity to ensure pay-to-slay is eliminated once and for all, setting the Palestinian government on a path towards a sustainable peace with Israel. 

The so-called “Martyrs Fund” was created in 2004 to compensate Palestinians who committed acts of terrorism against the State of Israel, and either died or were imprisoned as a result. The payments increase with the extremity of the violence, with terrorists and their families earning thousands of dollars, free healthcare, and guaranteed government jobs. Pay-to-slay consumes 8 percent of the PA’s total budget at a cost of $300 million annually – wasting money at a moment when the donor-driven PA budget suffers from a 172% deficit.

However, the pay-to-slay program remains exceedingly popular with more than a 90 percent approval rating among the Palestinian public at a moment when Abbas’s own approval has hit rock bottom at 15 percent. Some may wonder why Abbas – an 89 year old autocrat in the 20^th year of a four year term –would choose to take this seismic political risk by ending such a popular program, but his motives are clear: Abbas is desperate to propitiate the Trump administration, angling for a PA role in post-war Gaza.