The PA Just Made More ‘Pay-for-Slay’ Payments; Here’s How the US and EU Could Stop It

Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported yesterday that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is continuing its Pay-for-Slay payments outside the PA areas, beyond US and EU donor oversight.

Families in Jordan and Syria confirmed the salaries were paid earlier this week. Yesterday, families in Lebanon also reported receiving their Pay-for-Slay payments. Families in Egypt were told to expect the payments, “Thursday or the beginning of next week.”

So, how is the PA keeping these monthly terror salaries flowing without triggering EU and US scrutiny?

The PA’s own budget exposed the foreign Pay-for-Slay payments

The PA’s 2017 budget book included a breakdown of how many “Martyrs and wounded” families receive monthly allowances — both inside and outside PA-controlled areas. (The PA has not published the figures about the number of Martyr family recipients since 2017.)

Although the file is no longer available online, PMW downloaded it at the time.

The relevant section on page 622 states:

13,500 families of Martyrs and wounded received monthly allowances. The Institution [for Care of the Families of the Martyrs and the Wounded] pays monthly allowances to the families of the Martyrs and the wounded through the institution’s branches abroad.

The budget continues:

21,500 families of martyrs and wounded inside the homeland (the PA areas and Israel) received allowances. Providing financial allowances to the families of the Martyrs and the wounded inside the homeland through the institution’s branches.

This was the PA admitting — in its budget — that it maintained an organized foreign-branch system to pay 13,500 terror “allowances” outside the “homeland.”

The minimum foreign Pay-for-Slay total: NIS 18.9 million per month

Under PA regulations, the minimum monthly payment to “Martyrs’ families” is 1,400 shekels.

The 2017 figure for overseas recipients:

• 13,500 families × 1,400 shekels = 18,900,000 shekels per month

This figure of 18.9 million is clearly a minimum for 2026:

• Payments rise based on family status (+400 shekels for a wife and +60 shekels for each child). For simplicity, PMW has ignored the extras.
• The number of eligible “Martyrs” families has certainly increased since 2017.
• PMW did not calculate the exiled Palestinian released terrorist prisoners who have continued to receive monthly payments.

The method: The PA hides foreign payments under the PLO heading

This money avoids EU and US donor scrutiny because the PA does not pay terrorists’ families outside the country through the PA’s local Commission of Prisoners. Instead, the PA routes payments through the PLO, where donors are not demanding transparency.

Donors scrutinize PA payments; donors do not scrutinize PLO payments. The PA exploits that gap.

Looking at the PA transfers to the PLO in 2025 confirms PMW’s analysis.

In 2025, the PA reported transferring to the PLO 269,434,600 shekels, averaging 22.5 million shekels per month, listed as “transfer expenses” — the budget category used to describe the terrorist payments.

That number aligns cleanly with what the PA already documented in 2017:

• Foreign terror payments in 2017 were NIS 18.9 million/month (minimum)
• A 2025 monthly transfer average of NIS 22.5 million/month to cover these “transfer expenses” reflects an expected increase over eight years

Case study: Ahlam Tamimi — paid in Jordan, protected from scrutiny

This month, Ahlam Tamimi should have received 6,000 shekels, bringing her total PA salary since arrest to 1,158,800 shekels.

Tamimi is one of the most notorious freed terrorists. She orchestrated the Sbarro restaurant bombing, in which 15 people — including 8 children — were murdered. Two victims were US citizens. After being released in the Gilad Shalit deal, Tamimi was exiled to Jordan.

According to PA law, released prisoners continue receiving monthly salaries. Tamimi has therefore continued receiving her PA salary while living outside PA areas. As a celebrated PA figure, there is no reason her payment would have stopped, meaning she certainly would have received her salary this week with the thousands of other Jordanian Pay-for-Slay recipients.

If the US and EU want to seriously eliminate Pay-for-Slay, they must stop ignoring PA transfers to the PLO.

PMW recommends that the US and EU demand full disclosure of the recipients of “transfer expenses” in the PLO’s budget, including the names and countries of where the PA is paying terrorists and their families beyond donor oversight.

As long as the donors turn the other way and ignore the foreign payments, even the PA “reform” of Pay-for-Slay will remain a sham, and Pay-for-Slay will continue, on schedule, every month.

The author is the Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.