Abbas claims to UN that PA ‘completed’ its pledged reforms, slams Israel withholding tax revenue

NEW YORK — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas claims the PA has “completed” the reforms it pledged to make a year ago.

“We have completed the national reform program to which we committed before our people and the international community, strengthening institutional governance, public finances, transparency, accountability, combating corruption and the rule of law,” Abbas says in his remarks to the UN General Assembly, delivered via video because the US denied him a visa.

He highlights the reform of its controversial welfare system that critics dubbed “pay-to-slay” because it granted stipends to the families of slain attackers and Palestinian security prisoners based on the length of their prison sentence, which critics called a reward for terrorism. The PA has scrapped that system in favor of one that is strictly need-based, but Israel and the US claim that payments to terrorists have continued.

Abbas also points to the PA’s reform of its education system, which has included the development of curricula in cooperation with UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. A PA official has told The Times of Israel that Ramallah has been unable to print many of the new textbooks due to its financial crisis sparked by Israel, but that the virtual versions of the textbooks have been updated online.

Abbas notes the upcoming legislative elections that have been scheduled for November 28 followed by presidential elections, though, he doesn’t provide a date for the latter.

Neither election has been held for two decades.

He also notes Israel’s withholding of over $6 billion in Palestinian tax revenues, which Jerusalem collects on Ramallah’s behalf and is supposed to transfer to the PA each month.

The clearance revenues make up the majority of the PA’s budget and Israel’s refusal to issue those transfers for over a year has prevented Ramallah from paying salaries to tens of thousands of public employees and has significantly restricted the basic services it has been able to provide to Palestinians.

Israel used to withhold only a portion of the tax revenues, corresponding to what it said the PA paid to security prisoners and the families of slain attackers.

But since spring 2025, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich—who has called for collapsing the PA—has refused to sign off on any of the monthly transfers.