PA told Trump aides it’s prepared to end ‘pay-to-slay’ stipends — sources

WASHINGTON — Senior aides to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told top advisers to US President Donald Trump that Ramallah is prepared to reform its controversial welfare system, which included payments to convicted terrorists and the families of slain attackers, a Palestinian source and a Western diplomat familiar with the matter tell The Times of Israel.

The altered policy would base welfare stipends that Palestinian security prisoners receive on the recipient’s financial need rather than the length of their sentence, as is currently the case, the sources tell The Times of Israel, confirming a Channel 12 report.

The reform was advanced through its final stages during the end of the Biden administration, but the PA ultimately held off on announcing the plan, instead preferring to offer its rollout as a gesture of goodwill to the new Trump administration, the two sources say.

PA officials informed Trump counterparts of the proposal, but this took place before the president released his plan for the US to take over Gaza — an idea that will likely re-inflame tensions between Ramallah and the Trump administration, which were high during Trump’s first term.