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Palestinian Authority Denies ‘Politico’ Report That It Will Change Pay-for-Slay Program
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appoints Mohammad Mustafa as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA), in Ramallah, in the West Bank March 14, 2024 in this handout image. Photo: Palestinian president office/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
The Palestinian official in charge of ensuring that salaries are paid to the families of terrorists in the notorious “Pay-for-Slay” program has categorically dismissed reports that the Palestinian Authority (PA) would end the payments.
A March 2024 report in Politico cited two Biden administration officials saying that, “the U.S. is near a deal with the Palestinian Authority to end its contentious ‘martyr payments’ for people who commit acts of violence against Israel.”
In response, Qadura Fares, the Director of the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs and Chairman of the PA-funded Prisoners’ Club, declared that the reports are false because paying salaries to prisoners is “anchored in Palestinian law and is non-negotiable”:
Senior sources in the American administration said that a draft of the American plan that was submitted to the PA presents an alternative solution to the question of the salaries paid to the Palestinian families, and it will start by implementing a comprehensive plan by the PA on the topic of welfare …
Director of Palestinian [PLO] Commission of Prisoners’ [Affairs] Qadura Fares emphasized that the reports given on this matter are baseless, but they are being disseminated now and then. He directed attention to how this is part of the Israeli media’s attempt to distort and tarnish the image of the PA.
In an interview with Erem News, Fares said that the payment of salaries to the families of the prisoners and the Martyrs is anchored in Palestinian law and is non-negotiable, and he even strongly emphasized that the payment of salaries to the families of the prisoners and the Martyrs by the PA is “a red line.” [emphasis added]
[Erem News, UAE-based news website, April 1, 2024]
For years, the US and European countries have demanded that the PA reframe its rewards-for-terrorists program so that it becomes a social welfare program for the families of terrorists, but the PA has refused. Now, Politico has reported that “drafts of the PA payments reform plans seen by U.S. officials indicate that Palestinian leaders will replace the current scheme with a general welfare program.”
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported on a similar initiative in 2013, just two years after PMW exposed the PA’s Pay-for-Slay program.
After PMW presented the evidence to European countries, both Britain and Norway asked the PA to make a superficial change to their law by calling the payments social “assistance” instead of salaries to prisoners. Even this cosmetic change, however, was met with outrage among the Palestinian public and the prisoners’ organizations.
The then-Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs, Issa Karake, explained that the prisoners are supported by the PA “out of esteem for their sacrifice and struggle,” i.e., as a reward for their terror. Referring to terror rewards as social “assistance” was considered insulting to the terrorists.
PMW has already proven that the salaries the PA pays to the terrorist prisoners are not welfare payments that are based on need, but rather are rewards for terror that increase the longer the terrorist is in prison.
Repeating the PA position from 2013, Qadura Fares continued to express his indignation at the mere prospect of labeling the payments as social welfare, calling it a “principled issue.” In response to a question from Ajyal Radio asking about the difference between the terms, Fares said:
The issue is not just the finances of the families that lost their source of livelihood, whether as a result of Martyrdom, imprisonment, or wounding. The issue is not just a material issue. Likewise, if you would pose this question as a poll to the Palestinian public opinion, the overwhelming majority of our Palestinian people would say there is a difference. Yes, there is a difference …
This is a Palestinian internal national issue, and we are taking action relying on a principle that was approved by the [PA] Parliament (Legislative Council) that was elected by the Palestinian people, the Palestinian National Council, and the [PLO] Central Council, which are the central institutions and which adopted the principle that the families of the Martyrs, the wounded, and the prisoners need to live a dignified life. [emphasis added]
[PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Facebook page, April 2, 2024]
According to Fares and the PA, having the prisoners’ families receive social welfare instead of terror rewards is not dignified.
Fares is not the only senior official confirming that the terror rewards will stay. PA General Intelligence Service officials also stressed that the PA would continue to pay the prisoners’ salaries, even if it went bankrupt:
[PA General Intelligence] Service Director in Jenin Adnan Abu Aisheh said that the message of the service, under the instructions of its leader [Head of PA General Intelligence Service] Majed Faraj, is to emphasize what [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas has emphasized again and again –that if we are left with one penny, it will be paid to the families of the Martyrs and the prisoners. [emphasis added]
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 5, 2024]
Significantly, not only did Abbas say that, but — as reported by Palestinian Media Watch — official PA TV has rebroadcast Abbas’ statement well over 200 times: that even if the PA had only “one penny” left, it would go to the terrorists and their families.
PMW will continue to follow this important story, as the PA vows to continue rewarding its terrorist “heroes,” while the US seeks to have the PA make cosmetic changes to create the pretense that the PA is no longer a terror-supporting entity.
Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Itamar Marcus is PMW’s Founder and Director. A version of this article originally appeared at PMW.
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Israel Says Missile Launched by Yemen’s Houthis ‘Most Likely’ Intercepted
Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
The Israeli army said on Saturday that a missile fired from Yemen towards Israeli territory had been “most likely successfully intercepted,” while Yemen’s Houthi forces claimed responsibility for the launch.
Israel has threatened Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement – which has been attacking Israel in what it says is solidarity with Gaza – with a naval and air blockade if its attacks on Israel persist.
The Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group was responsible for Saturday’s attack, adding that it fired a missile towards the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
Since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis, who control most of Yemen, have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade.
Most of the dozens of missiles and drones they have launched have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.
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Iran Holds Funeral for Commanders and Scientists Killed in War with Israel
People attend the funeral procession of Iranian military commanders, nuclear scientists and others killed in Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 28, 2025. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Large crowds of mourners dressed in black lined streets in Iran’s capital Tehran as the country held a funeral on Saturday for top military commanders, nuclear scientists and some of the civilians killed during this month’s aerial war with Israel.
At least 16 scientists and 10 senior commanders were among those mourned at the funeral, according to state media, including armed forces chief Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Revolutionary Guards commander General Hossein Salami, and Guards Aerospace Force chief General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
Their coffins were driven into Tehran’s Azadi Square adorned with their photos and national flags, as crowds waved flags and some reached out to touch the caskets and throw rose petals onto them. State-run Press TV showed an image of ballistic missiles on display.
Mass prayers were later held in the square.
State TV said the funeral, dubbed the “procession of the Martyrs of Power,” was held for a total of 60 people killed in the war, including four women and four children.
In attendance were President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior figures including Ali Shamkhani, who was seriously wounded during the conflict and is an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as Khamenei’s son Mojtaba.
“Today, Iranians, through heroic resistance against two regimes armed with nuclear weapons, protected their honor and dignity, and look to the future prouder, more dignified, and more resolute than ever,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who also attended the funeral, said in a Telegram post.
There was no immediate statement from Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since the conflict began. In past funerals, he led prayers over the coffins of senior commanders ahead of public ceremonies broadcast on state television.
Israel launched the air war on June 13, attacking Iranian nuclear facilities and killing top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
TRUMP THREAT
Israel, the only Middle Eastern country widely believed to have nuclear weapons, said it aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.
Iran denies having a nuclear weapons program. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has said it has “no credible indication” of an active, coordinated weapons program in Iran.
Bagheri, Salami and Hajizadeh were killed on June 13, the first day of the war. Bagheri was being buried at the Behesht Zahra cemetery outside Tehran mid-afternoon on Saturday. Salami and Hajizadeh were due to be buried on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would consider bombing Iran again, while Khamenei, who has appeared in two pre-recorded video messages since the start of the war, has said Iran would respond to any future US attack by striking US military bases in the Middle East.
A senior Israeli military official said on Friday that Israel had delivered a “major blow” to Iran’s nuclear project. On Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that Israel and the US “failed to achieve their stated objectives” in the war.
According to Iranian health ministry figures, 610 people were killed on the Iranian side in the war before a ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday. More than 4,700 were injured.
Activist news agency HRANA put the number of killed at 974, including 387 civilians.
Israel’s health ministry said 28 were killed in Israel and 3,238 injured.
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Pro-Palestinian Rapper Leads ‘Death to the IDF’ Chant at English Music festival
Revellers dance as Avril Lavigne performs on the Other Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, in Pilton, Somerset, Britain, June 30, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
i24 News – Chants of “death to the IDF” were heard during the English Glastonbury music festival on Saturday ahead of the appearance of the pro-Palestinian Irish rappers Kneecap.
One half of punk duo based Bob Vylan (who both use aliases to protect their privacy) shouted out during a section of their show “Death to the IDF” – the Israeli military. Videos posted on X (formerly Twitter) show the crowd responding to and repeating the cheer.
This comes after officials had petitioned the music festival to drop the band. The rap duo also expressed support for the following act, Kneecap, who the BCC refused to show live after one of its members, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – better known by stage name Mo Chara – was charged with a terror offense.
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