Sa’ar again accuses Palestinian Authority of lying about reforms to ‘pay-for-slay’ policy

Foreign minister alleges that Abbas disguising payments as pensioner stipends, security officer salaries, after PA president says ‘loyalty’ to prisoners is ‘moral obligation’

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar again accused Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of lying about internal reforms that put an end to the PA’s controversial “pay-for-slay” policy, which provided financial benefits to the families of terrorists.

The Palestinian Authority rolled out a long-demanded reform to its prisoner payment policy earlier this year after announcing that it would do so in February, moving to condition welfare stipends on financial need, rather than the length of one’s sentence.

But Sa’ar pointed to a statement by Abbas on Wednesday in which the PA president asserted that “loyalty to the sacrifices of our righteous martyrs, our steadfast prisoners, our wounded, and their resilient families is a deeply rooted national and moral obligation.”

Abbas, Sa’ar charged on X, was “continuing to lie about ending the PA’s distorted policy of paying salaries to these despicable terrorists and their families.”

“Instead of ending all payments, he’s disguising many of them as payments to pensioners and salaries of the PA Security Services,” he added, demanding that the international community “hold the PA accountable” for the policy.

He has previously accused the PA of lying about the reform, charging in October that it has extended payments to security prisoners freed by Israel in the ceasefire and hostage release deal that halted two years of fighting in the Gaza Strip.

At the time, he did not offer further details as to how the payments were allegedly being disbursed, but the Foreign Ministry alleged to The Times of Israel on Tuesday that the PA was continuing to issue payments under the old mechanism “through various channels designed to conceal their continuation, while creating a false impression of reforms for the international community.”

It claimed that the PA paid $144 million to the families of slain attackers last year and that Ramallah has earmarked roughly $214 million for such payments in 2025.

The reform to the PA’s prisoner payment system had long been demanded by the US and Israel, and many of the PA’s Arab and European backers, with some charging that the old policy had incentivized attacks on Israelis.

In September, Abbas told the UN General Assembly that the old policy was no longer in place. Less than two months later, however, he publicly ousted his finance minister, Omar Bitar, for signing off on a series of illicit payments under the old mechanism.

Bitar was replaced by the PA Planning and International Cooperation Minister Estephan Salameh, and Ramallah’s new welfare agency reiterated last week that it would pay stipends to prisoners in Israeli jails based on economic need rather than time served.

The welfare agency’s statement sparked protests across the West Bank, with speakers accusing the PA of “criminalizing the Palestinian national struggle.”

The wife of one prisoner speaking at a protest in Ramallah on Sunday said her family, along with those of at least 1,612 inmates, had not received their monthly stipends in over eight months.

Israel’s National Security Council, denying that the reform is in place, dispatched a three-person delegation to Brussels in late November to make the case that payments have continued under the old system and that the reforms are merely superficial.

Earlier this year, the PA invited the US to send a delegation to Ramallah in order to certify that the new system was in place, but that invitation has gone unanswered, and the US has not confirmed the PA’s reform.

The PA-linked body overseeing the new welfare stipends pushed back against Israel’s accusations in a rate statement last week, insisting it was fully complying with Abbas’s new policy.

“The payment system linked to the number of years of imprisonment has been completely and permanently abolished and is no longer in effect in any way,” it said, adding that “claims regarding its continuation fall under the category of deliberate misinformation and falsification of facts.”

It said it was fully prepared to cooperate with international audits aimed at determining that the old system is no longer in place.

“The Israeli government’s attempts to mislead international public opinion and cast doubt on the ongoing Palestinian reforms will not change the established fact that the State of Palestine is proceeding with the implementation of a comprehensive, transparent reform program that complies with international standards, despite the continued Israeli occupation,” it added.

Jacob Magid contributed to this report.