US Convinces Palestinian Authority To End “Pay For Slay”

Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas on Monday formally revoked a system which provides payments to families of Palestinians who were killed or wounded during attacks on Israelis. The system also extends for Palestinians thrown in Israeli prisons for assaults or terroristic attacks on Israelis as well.

The first Trump administration as well as the Israelis referred to the practice as “pay for slay” – and Washington has long sought to force the PA the end the practice, and it has remained a major source of disagreement over many years.

The Biden administration had reportedly spent two years attempting to negotiate an end to the system. The Palestinian side calls it a “martyr’s fund”.

According to regional source Al-Monitor, “The Palestinian Authority paid out $176.8 million under the program in 2023, according to a January report from the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, an Israeli think tank.”

Israel, the US, and some European leaders have long complained that it incentivizes violence against Israelis. Since the time of Trump’s first administration, a US law has prohibited Washington from providing direct financial assistance to the PA so long as “pay for slay” is still in effect.

This means US aid to the West Bank and PA might flow more freely, and clearly this is what was on offer from the US side.

President Abbas’ Monday decree revokes laws “related to the system of paying financial allowances to the families of prisoners, martyrs and the wounded,” the PA’s WAFA news agency reported.

Israel remains skeptical, however, with the Israeli Foreign Ministry questioning on Monday whether the payments would actually end: “This is a new fraudulent trick by the Palestinian Authority, which intends to continue making payments to terrorists and their families through other payment channels,” a statement said.

Over the last half-decade, tens of millions of dollars in pledged US aid has been held up:

Republican Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho held up tens of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority in 2021 over its policy.

US President Donald Trump has been critical of the authority over the issue. In 2018, he signed into law the Taylor Force Act, which prohibited economic aid to the authority over the payments. The act was named after a US military veteran who was killed by a Palestinian assailant in Tel Aviv in 2016.

Later that year, the Trump administration cut more than $200 million in funding to Ramallah, saying the money would be redirected to “high priority projects elsewhere.” The aid was later restored by US President Joe Biden in 2021.

But money is unlikely to start flowing again anytime soon, given Trump’s ongoing campaign to drastically slash all foreign aid. The West Bank is likely to be a very low priority in terms of assistance regardless.