Palestinian officials decry Abbas’s decision to end ‘pay-to-slay’ policies

Several Palestinian officials denounce Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s decree ending the controversial “pay-to-slay” policy 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, issued yesterday and expected to affect tens of thousands of people, states that families of prisoners and slain attackers who require welfare assistance will be eligible for stipends based solely on financial need, as is the case with other Palestinians.

Qadura Fares, head of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority’s committee overseeing prisoner affairs, calls for the decree’s immediate withdrawal, warning that it will impact “approximately 35,000 to 40,000” families.

He adds that such a significant decision should have been discussed at all levels of the Palestinian political leadership, arguing that “allowances for prisoners have always been a point of consensus” among Palestinian factions.

Also present at the press conference is Hilmi al-Araj, head of the Center for the Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights, who calls for the decree to be “rescinded as though it never existed,” condemning both “its timing and its content, as the prisoners are on the verge of freedom.”

Araj is referring to the ongoing ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas, under which almost 2,000 Palestinian security prisoners will be released from Israeli prisons in exchange for hostages held in Gaza since October 7, 2023.

The Hamas terror group has condemned Abbas’s decision and called for its “immediate reversal.”