Abbas Alters "Pay for Slay" Program: ACLJ Remains Skeptical

In response to President Trump’s threat to actually enforce U.S. law, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has issued an order changing laws and regulations related to paying blood money to the families of Palestinian terrorists that have killed Israeli and American citizens. The program is commonly known as “Pay for Slay.” But it remains to be seen if this is a true change in the PA’s terror tactics against Israel.

The ACLJ has highlighted this issue for years since the U.S. spends millions of dollars in aid for the Palestinians every year, much of which is diverted to paying the families of terrorists. At face value, this policy change is a positive step in the right direction. But, with history as a guide, we take this announcement with a grain of salt and remain skeptical that this will decrease acts of terror against Israelis.

Much of this skepticism is rooted in Abbas’ history of being untrustworthy and the fact that the PA’s announcement comes amid news that U.S. courts will impose heavy fines – of about $200-300 million – on the PA following lawsuits filed by the families of terror victims. The lawsuits, which we supported with our amicus brief in the Supreme Court, will decide whether American victims can sue the PA for damages due to the PA’s terrorist payments program.  The PA is reportedly worried that the fines will lead to a financial crisis.

The following background can offer a fuller understanding of the importance of this development. The PA operated a “Pay for Slay” program where if any terrorist carried out an attack against any Israeli or American, their families would receive monetary compensation based on how brutal the attack was, if the terrorist was killed, or the length of their prison sentence.

This heinous program was highlighted after Taylor Force, an American soldier, was murdered in a terrorist attack during a student trip to Israel. Because the murderer was killed while committing an act of terrorism, the PA’s “Pay for Slay” program gave the terrorist’s family a monthly pension. In response, the Taylor Force Act (TFA) was introduced in Congress. It required a prohibition on funding for the PA until it permanently ceased incentivizing terrorists. The ACLJ joined in the fight to get the TFA approved, and eventually, President Trump signed the TFA into law in 2018.

After President Biden was elected, he announced that he would restart financial aid to the PA as a way to start the peace process, even though the PA had not made any meaningful changes to its “Pay for Slay” program, a blatant violation of the TFA. The only “change” the PA considered implementing to satisfy the TFA was to make terrorist compensation “needs based” rather than based on the success of the attacks as it was before. The Biden Administration claimed that renewed aid for the Palestinian people would not violate the TFA.

With its commitment to upholding American interests, law, and accountability, the ACLJ committed to taking every legal action possible against the various moves that the Biden Administration was making, especially those that would result in the violation of U.S. laws. The Biden Administration notified Congress rather quietly that it intended to distribute $125 million in aid to the PA.

In response, the ACLJ filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request asking for all State Department records regarding U.S. aid or funds of any kind being given to the PA and communications in reference to the TFA. However, the Biden Administration failed to comply, directly violating federal law. So we filed a FOIA lawsuit against the Biden State Department in federal court. The lawsuit requested that the court order the Biden Administration to cooperate with the FOIA and provide any and all documents requested. This is a legal battle we’ve been fighting for years.

Then, as soon as President Trump took office, he quickly threatened to cut off all funding for the PA – upholding U.S. law.

This brings us to the Abbas announcement, and we ask: Is this really a substantive change, or is it a shell game?  Under the new order, “the computerized cash assistance program, along with its database and financial allocations, will be transferred from Ramallah’s Social Development Ministry to the Palestinian National Institution for Economic Empowerment.” This change will “allow all families previously benefitting . . . to be subject to the same eligibility criteria as other families enrolled in social protection and welfare programs.”

The language in Abbas’ announcement is purposefully vague, according to Itamar Marcus, Founder of Palestinian Media Watch, “The language he used is intentionally ambiguous so that the families of the terrorists can imagine and believe that they’re going to get the same amount. And the Americans, if they want to, can believe that it’s going to be a normal welfare amount.”

If Abbas follows through with the change, he could quickly face opposition as the new payments through the welfare program would be drastically lower, according to Marcus:

A Palestinian terrorist who was a murderer and is in jail for 30 years—his family is receiving 12,000 shekels a month, whereas the highest welfare payments are 600 shekels a month,” Marcus said. So if Abbas really follows through and replaces these payments with standard welfare, there is going to be a lot of noise and a lot of anger in the Palestinian Authority,” Marcus added. “We will know very soon what’s really happening based on how the families and the population respond.

While we hope that this change will curb the “Pay for Slay” program, we will continue to vigilantly watch whether and how the PA implements this change in practice. Specifically, we will be monitoring the revised version of the PA’s social aid program to ensure that it does not continue the old terror incentive payments under a new guise of poverty relief. The safety of Israeli and American citizens depends on it.