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Patrons of ‘Pay for Slay’: EU and World Bank Are Accessories to Terror Funding
The EU and the World Bank continue to delude themselves into thinking that their financial aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) is not used to fund terrorism.
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) suggests that the ethical test of eligibility for funding should not be about where the money goes, but about who the recipient is.
PMW has been reporting continually about the PA’s dire financial situation, caused exclusively by PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’ insistence that even if the PA has only one penny left, it will continue to pay prisoners and Martyrs. A commentator on PA TV recently explained just how the PA places itself in this predicament:
Financial commentator Thabet Abu Al-Rous: “Despite the Israeli restrictions, the Palestinian side and the Palestinian [PA] government will pay the money that the families of the prisoners and the Martyrs deserve …
The payments to the families of the prisoners and Martyrs total 52 million shekels every month. The PA is paying this obligation, while Israel is deducting this, so it is as if this amount was deducted from the PA twice.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, June 29, 2024]
52 million shekels is equivalent to about $14 million a month.
World Bank increases aid to Palestinian Authority dramatically
Fortunately for the PA, however, it can rely on the World Bank and EU to come to its rescue.
At the beginning of July, the World Bank announced that it would be granting the PA as much as $300 million, up from its usual annual grant of $70 million.
PA Prime Minister Muhammad Mustafa: “The World Bank Board of Directors decided a few days ago to increase the annual grant that it provides to the State of Palestine from approximately $70 million to $300 million per year. This is an unprecedented sum in the history of Palestine’s relations with the World Bank.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV News, July 3, 2024]
New EU grant to the Palestinian Authority
On July 19, 2024, the EU announced that it would be granting the PA a total of 400 million euros after it announced in May that it had donated 25 million euros in a second tranche of assistance meant for the salaries and pensions of PA civil servants.
The government announced today that after months of efforts, the European Commission has approved an emergency financial assistance package totaling €400 million. This aid will be disbursed in grants and loans in three installments over the coming months for various purposes aimed at mitigating the financial and economic crisis.
[WAFA, official PA news agency, English edition, July 19, 2024]
While the EU and the World Bank — in a classic case of self-deception — tell themselves and the world that they make sure that their funds do not go to terrorists, they are giving the PA the means to reward murderers. It makes not one bit of a difference whether these funds are being paid directly as terror salaries, or for the streets to be cleaned — thus freeing up other funds to be used as terror payments.
It is time for the EU and the World Bank to admit that the ethical test of eligibility for funding should not be about where the money goes, but about who the recipient is.
Any government or authority that rewards terrorists with hundreds of millions of dollars a year is a terror-funding entity, which should be ineligible to receive Western support. The PA is a prime example of such an authority that should be banned from receiving any kind of foreign funding.
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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Former Hostage From Nova Music Festival Massacre Invites Trump to Dance With Survivors at Memorial Concert
An Israeli soldier stands during a two-minute siren marking the annual Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Day, at an installation at the site of the Nova festival where party goers were killed and kidnapped during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, in Reim, southern Israel, May 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
The second annual memorial concert honoring the victims killed at the Nova music festival in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, will take place in June, and US President Donald Trump has been invited to attend.
The Tribe of Nova community announced on Tuesday details about the “Nova Healing Concert” scheduled for June 26 at Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park. Former hostage Mia Schem, who was abducted by Hamas terrorists at the site of the music festival, addressed the media in Israel on Tuesday to talk about the upcoming concert while also sharing a message with Trump.
“Thank you, President Trump, for everything you’re doing to release the hostages,” she said. “I invite you to dance with us in Yarkon Park and celebrate the moment when everyone finally returns home.”
“My vision, and that of everyone’s, is that this year should be different,” Schem added. “A year when we won’t have to shout but embrace. Let’s dance not just for them but with them. This is the strength of our community – it heals, it strengthens, it is our home.”
The setlist for the concert includes Benaia Barabi, Berry Sakharof, Mosh Ben-Ari, Sasi and Rita. The event on June 26 will also feature activities such as therapeutic workshops and spaces for dealing with trauma. Tickets are open and available to the general public, and admission is free for survivors of the Oct. 7 massacre and members of the bereaved families. All profits from ticket sales and event sponsorships will be used by the Nova Tribe Community Association to support the physical and mental healing of Oct. 7 survivors and members of their families, as well as commemoration for those murdered during the Hamas terrorist attack. Last year’s memorial concert was attended by tens of thousands of young people, according to Ynet.
Hamas-led terrorists from the Gaza Strip who infiltrated the music festival in Re’im during the early morning of Oct. 7, 2023, killed 370 people and abducted 44 hostages. Overall, the terrorists killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 captives during their rampage across southern Israel.
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Israel Agrees to Talks on Lebanon Border, to Free Five Lebanese, PM Office Says
An Israeli flag flies in Lebanon, near the Israel-Lebanon border, following the ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, as seen from Metula, northern Israel, Dec. 3, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
Israel said on Tuesday it had agreed to hold talks to demarcate its border with Lebanon, adding it would release five Lebanese detainees held by the Israeli military in what it called a “gesture to the Lebanese president.”
A statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel had agreed with Lebanon, the US, and France to establish working groups to discuss the demarcation line between the two countries.
Though Israel has largely withdrawn from southern Lebanon under a ceasefire deal agreed in November, its troops continue to hold five hilltop positions in the area with airstrikes in southern Lebanon citing what it described as Hezbollah activity.
The ceasefire deal ended more than a year of conflict between Israel‘s military and the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah that was playing out in parallel with the Gaza war.
The fighting peaked in a major Israeli air and ground campaign in southern Lebanon that left Hezbollah badly weakened, with most of its military command killed in Israeli strikes.
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UN Security Council to Meet Over Iran’s Growing Stockpile of Near-Bomb-Grade Uranium
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The United Nations Security Council will meet behind closed doors on Wednesday over Iran’s expansion of its stock of uranium close to weapons grade, diplomats said on Monday.
The meeting was requested by six of the council’s 15 members – France, Greece, Panama, South Korea, Britain, and the US.
They also want the council to discuss Iran’s obligation to provide the UN nuclear watchdog – the International Atomic Energy Agency – with “the information necessary to clarify outstanding issues related to undeclared nuclear material detected at multiple locations in Iran,” diplomats said.
Iran’s mission to the UN in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the planned meeting.
Iran has denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon. However, it is “dramatically” accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60 percent purity, close to the roughly 90 percent weapons-grade level, the IAEA has warned.
Western states say there is no need to enrich uranium to such a high level under any civilian program and that no other country has done so without producing nuclear bombs. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful.
Iran reached a deal in 2015 with Britain, Germany, France, the US, Russia, and China – known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – that lifted sanctions on Tehran in return for restrictions on its nuclear program.
Washington quit the agreement in 2018 during Donald Trump’s first term as US president, and Iran began moving away from its nuclear-related commitments.
Britain, France, and Germany have told the UN Security Council that they are ready – if needed – to trigger a so-called snap back of all international sanctions on Iran to prevent the country from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
They will lose the ability to take such action on Oct. 18 this year when the 2015 UN resolution on the deal expires. US President Donald Trump has directed his UN envoy to work with allies to snap back international sanctions and restrictions on Iran.
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