JERUSALEM, Israel (EPICSTORIAN) — Israel has dismissed claims by the Palestinian Authority (PA) that it ended its controversial “pay-for-slay” program, calling the move a deceptive ploy to mislead the international community.
Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that PA President Mahmoud Abbas signed a decree revoking laws that guaranteed financial allowances to prisoners, martyrs, and the wounded.
According to the announcement, these payments had been transferred to the newly established Palestinian Economic Empowerment Foundation.
Israeli Officials Condemned The Scheme by Palestinian Authority As Deception
Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Oren Marmorstein, and other officials argue that the shift is cosmetic and that payments to convicted terrorists and their families will continue under a different name.
“This is a new deception scheme by the Palestinian Authority, which intends to continue paying terrorists and their families through alternative payment channels,” said Oren Marmorstein.
The Taylor Force Act, signed into law in 2018, cut U.S. aid to the PA unless it stopped funding terrorists. The policy gained international attention after Taylor Force, a U.S. Army veteran, was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist in 2016 while visiting Israel.
Abbas’ decree is seen as an attempt to ease tensions with Washington and restore diplomatic ties without making real changes.
Asher Fredman, executive director of the Misgav Institute for National Security, dismissed the announcement. “Terrorists and their families will continue receiving the same payments, just through a different entity under Abbas’ control,” he said.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center also questioned the PA’s intentions. “We will rejoice when the PA stops financially rewarding Palestinian terrorists. Abbas’ statement makes no such commitment,” he told Fox News Digital.
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Israeli officials remain unconvinced that the PA has truly ended terror-linked payments, warning that the new foundation remains under Abbas’ control.
