Sa’ar says PA’s payment to terrorists and other policies prevent trust in governing body

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says in a meeting with UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Sigrid Kaag that financial support provided by the Palestinian Authority to families of terrorists, as well as other policies, prevent reliable cooperation with the organization.

“The Palestinian Authority must stop payments to terrorists,” Sa’ar tells Kaag in Jerusalem, adding that the PA’s “current patterns of action do not allow for trust in it,” according to Sa’ar’s office.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas did sign a decree in February canceling legislation that conditioned payments to Palestinian security prisoners on the length of their sentence — a policy dubbed by critics as “pay-to-slay.”

The old system has remained in place in the two rounds of payments since the decree was signed, but a Palestinian official familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel this month that this is because those stipends were for months that preceded the decree.

Sa’ar emphasized during the meeting that the PA must “cease incitement — especially within the education system, mosques, and media — and halt the legal warfare it conducts against Israel in international forums,” the Foreign Ministry says in a statement.

The meeting also focused on the ongoing war in Gaza and the likelihood of reaching a hostage deal, as well as IDF counter-terror operations in the West Bank, says the minister’s office.