Counter-Terrorism: The Persistence of Pay for Slay
13th September 2021
EU (European Union) aid for the West Bank Palestinians is again in danger of being cut because the Palestinian government again tried to deceive EU donors that their $150 million donation was going to general welfare, not to reward and encourage Palestinians to carry out terrorist attacks against Israelis. Since 2020 the Palestinians were, on paper at least, no longer using EU aid for their Ministry of Prisoners and the infamous Martyrs Fund. The EU has a policy of not allowing their aid to be used to support terrorism and would not make an exception for the Palestinians trying to kill Israelis. The Palestinians agreed to the EU demands and eliminated Ministry of Prisoners funding from their budget. They failed to change the budget for West Bank (PLO) Institutions, which now showed an increase equal to what the Ministry of Prisoners was receiving. The Palestinians were also unable to hide the fact that they had not reduced the payments they were making to Palestinians for attacking, and especially killing Israelis. The Palestinian media had not let up on its encouragement for Palestinians, especially children, to eventually attack Israelis if they found an opportunity.
For over a decade Palestinian governments in the West Bank (Fatah) and Gaza (Hamas) have been undergoing increasing pressure from Israel and now aid donors to eliminate Palestinians payments to imprisoned terrorists and the families of dead terrorists. Up to half of the foreign aid received by the West Bank goes to these payments and Fatah has refused to end the system. In 2020 the covid19 virus spread to the West Bank and Gaza and the Palestinians asked for more foreign aid to deal with it. Donors were reluctant because the Palestinian governments have consistently diverted portions of any foreign aid to maintain the “Martyrs Fund” which regularly pays imprisoned, wounded or families of dead terrorists.