France raises concern with PA about illicit payments to security prisoners revealed by ToI

France raised its concern with the Palestinian Authority about recent illicit payments Ramallah made to Palestinian security prisoners ahead of French President Emmanuel Macron’s meeting today with PA President Mahmoud Abbas at the Elysee Palace, a senior French official tells The Times of Israel.

Abbas ousted PA Finance Minister Omar Bitar on Monday for signing off on payments to Palestinian security prisoners through an old mechanism that awarded them based on the length of their sentence, a Palestinian official and a second source familiar with the matter revealed to The Times of Israel on Monday.

The payments amounted to an apparent violation of Ramallah’s pledge to France and other key backers in the international community that the PA would reform its prisoner payment system, which critics have dubbed “pay-to-slay.”

While Abbas signed legislation in February to end the old system, the new mechanism that conditions welfare payments strictly on a recipient’s financial need has not yet been fully rolled out. Bitar’s firing also highlighted the domestic pushback that the PA is facing for the move.

After their meeting at the Elysee Palace, Macron tells reporters that Abbas committed to launching an audit by an American company to certify that pay-to-slay is no longer in place.

It’s unclear whether Macron is referring to the audit that Ramallah invited the Trump administration to carry out in order to certify that the reform is being implemented.

Ramallah is hoping that a US team will come to the West Bank at the beginning of 2026 to carry out the audit, a Palestinian official told The Times of Israel on Monday.

Macron also tells reporters that a joint French-Palestinian committee will be created to work towards drawing up a Palestinian constitution, which was also pledged by Abbas earlier this year.

“We decided together to establish a joint committee for the consolidation of the state of Palestine,” Macron says, adding that it would “contribute to drawing up a new constitution, a draft of which President Abbas presented to me.”

Abbas says he agreed “to the swift establishment of the constitutional committee.”

Macron warns that any Israeli plans for annexation in the West Bank would be a “red line” and would provoke a European reaction.

“Plans for partial or total annexation, whether legal or de facto, constitute a red line to which we will respond strongly with our European partners,” he says.

“The violence of the settlers and the acceleration of settlement projects are reaching new heights, threatening the stability of the West Bank and constituting violations of international law,” Macron adds.