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Terrorists rewarded with salary boost before Biden meeting in Ramallah

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The U.S. president recently announced that he had restored some $500 million in funding to the PA, which continues its pay-for-slay policy unabated.

By World Israel News Staff

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will ask President Joe Biden to disregard the Taylor Force Act and restore cash aid to the PA during their meeting set for Friday, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported.

The PA has a longstanding policy of paying generous stipends to Palestinians convicted of terror offenses and their families, which the Israeli government and watchdog groups have noted actively encourages and rewards deadly attacks on Israelis and Jews.

Taylor Force, an American military veteran, was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist during a trip to Tel Aviv in 2016. Then-president Donald Trump spearheaded the effort to implement a law in his name that cut off funding to the PA until terrorists no longer receive a salary from the PA.

Pro-Palestinian activists have framed the funding freeze as a humanitarian issue, arguing that the money is used to support basic services and that withholding cash aid is a form of collective punishment.

According to PMW, despite the freeze on some financial aid from the U.S., the PA has recently boosted payments to imprisoned terrorists, with the entity paying higher amounts to those who have been imprisoned for decades.

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For example, the Mashahreh brothers — members of the Hamas terror group who helped plan and execute a bus bombing that killed 19 people — have been incarcerated since 2002.

Because they have now spent 20 years in Israeli prison, the PA has essentially given them a raise based on seniority, boosting their monthly payments from 7,000 to 8,000 shekels ($2,572).

According to Palestinian media, there are some 4,650 Palestinians convicted of terror offenses who are currently incarcerated in Israeli prisons, making them eligible for pay-for-slay salaries.

While it’s unclear exactly how much money the PA spends each year on financial rewards for imprisoned terrorists, the amount is likely in the tens of millions of shekels.

Biden recently announced that he had restored some $500 million in funding to the PA, though it’s unclear how he bypassed the Taylor Force Act.