‘A big win for the Trump administration’: US welcomes PA prisoner payment reform

The Trump administration welcomes the decree signed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday ending Ramallah’s prisoner payment program, a State Department spokesperson tells The Times of Israel.

The statement represents the first response from Washington to the PA announcement after two days of silence.

“This appears to be a positive step and a big win for the administration,” the spokesperson says. “We welcome any and all steps to end this abhorrent practice.”

“We will monitor how the law is implemented over the coming weeks and months, and will verify that the practice has ended,” the statement to The Times of Israel continues. “We look forward to consulting with the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government on this development.”

The decree signed by Abbas canceled legislation that conditioned welfare payments to Palestinian security prisoners on the length of their sentences in Israeli jails, in addition to providing stipends to the families of terrorists killed while carrying out attacks.

The decree states that families of prisoners and slain attackers who require welfare assistance will be eligible for stipends based solely on their financial needs, as is the case with other Palestinians.

Successive US administrations sought to coax the PA into reforming the policy but were met with pushback from Ramallah, which lionizes the thousands of Palestinians currently in Israeli jails, arguing that many of them are there unjustly.

The Biden administration managed to make significant progress on the effort, and the reform was largely finalized late last year. However, Ramallah chose to hold off on announcing the initiative until after US President Donald Trump’s election as a gesture of goodwill to the new administration.