Palestinian “Pay for Slay”

[On 8/14/22] In Jerusalem a Palestinian terrorist fired on a bus carrying Jewish visitors, killing three and wounding five. The killer left but later went to a police station to surrender. If he is convicted and sent to prison the Palestinian will pay him a monthly salary for his services to the Palestinian cause (of destroying Israel and killing Jews).

Hamas and Fatah both spend a lot of the foreign aid they spend on encouraging terrorism. These payments go to imprisoned terrorists or the families of dead ones. Hamas and Fatah spend over $200 million a year on this and payments on this scale would not be possible without using foreign aid funds. Since 2019, many donor countries have been cutting their aid in a show of opposition to this “Pay For Slay” policy.

The donors [are] embarrassed by published details of how this works. In the United States Palestinian charities are being sued for illegally soliciting money for needy Palestinians and using a lot of the contributions for supporting terrorism, either for Pay for Slay or to finance current and future attacks. The “Pay for Slay” program is very popular among Palestinians because it makes the losses they suffer for carrying out these attacks easier to tolerate. Hamas and Fatah have another problem, growing criticism from Gaza and West Bank Palestinians as well as in Arab countries against the terrorism in Gaza and the West Bank. Another complication is that Iran is providing economic support to Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian governments in Gaza and West Bank. Another criticism is that the Palestinian leaders justify their relationship because of the common goal to destroy Israel. The problem here is that Israel is a key ally in a Middle Eastern coalition that opposes Iranian aggression. Iran also attacks Saudi Arabia and the UAE while threatening Egypt.

https://www.strategypage.com/qnd/israel/articles/20220819.aspx