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Report: PA Paying Jailed Terrorists Millions of Dollars Every Month

by TheTower.org Staff |

New evidence has revealed that the Palestinian Authority is paying millions of dollars every month to convicted terrorists serving terms in Israeli jails, The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday.

According to documents obtained by Israel Radio, most of those behind bars receiving PA money are Hamas members who were behind some of the bloodiest terrorist attacks of the second intifada. Those receiving these PA “salaries” are all serving time in maximum-security prisons for the crimes they committed.

The government sources said that, while knowledge of these payments is “nothing new,” it clearly shows that the PA provides economic incentives for carrying out terrorist acts. More than that, one source said, the fact that these funds are allocated for that purpose helps bolster the image of terrorists – or as the Palestinians often call them, “martyrs” – into heroes.

“It is a problem for the PA. On one hand they claim they want peace and discourage violence, and on the other hand they put terrorists on pedestals, idolize them as heroes, and provide meaningful financial incentives for others to follow their path,” the source said.

Since the amount of money awarded to the terrorists correlates to the amount of time they’re serving in prison, “the more gruesome the terrorism, the more money will be paid.”

For example, Abdullah Barghouti, a bomb maker for Hamas who was sentenced to 67 life terms, has received more than 250,000 shekels. Another Hamas bomb maker, Ibrahim Hamad, who is serving 54 life sentences, has received over 200,000 shekels.

Barghouti and Hamad have been convicted in conjunction with some of the most devastating bombings of the Second Intifada, including at the Hebrew University cafeteria in 2002, the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem in 2001, and a Rishon Lezion nightclub bombing in 2002.

A report in The Telegraph last year showed that the PA used over $90 million in foreign aid from Great Britain to pay convicted terrorists in 2013. This equaled around 16% of all foreign aid payments to the PA.

When asked at a Congressional hearing last year about these payments, Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Anne Patterson seemingly defended the practice, saying that “they have to provide for the families.”

[Photo: Noam Moskowitz / Flash90 ]

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