Nothing Has Changed - Palestinian Authority Still Paying Terrorists

The Palestinian Authority continues pay and offer benefits to Palestinian terrorists and their families in its "pay-for-slay" program, making the authority unfit for foreign assistance under U.S. law, the State Department stated.

Foggy Bottom is required under the Taylor Force Act to report to Congress annually if it cannot certify that the authority, Palestine Liberation Organization or "any successor or affiliated organizations" meet U.S. legal requirements for aid.

The State Department cited official Israeli statistics, which suggest that the Palestinian Authority paid Palestinian terrorists and their relatives $156 million in 2025.

"Of this total, the P.A. provided $126 million to Palestinian terrorists and released Palestinian terrorists from Israeli jails and $30 million to the families of Palestinian terrorists, who died committing their acts of terrorism," the State Department said. "The P.A. continues to provide a system of compensation in support of terrorism through new mechanisms and under a different name."

Foggy Bottom said that Israel reported that the authority is making payments via "multiple mechanisms, including the new social welfare agency called the Palestinian National Foundation for Economic Empowerment."

The Taylor Force Act was named for a U.S. Army veteran, who was visiting Israel in 2016 when a Palestinian terrorist killed him.

The Palestinian Authority said in February 2025 that it would no longer make payments through its Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs. Instead, payments would go through the Palestinian National Economic Empowerment, which falls under its social development ministry. It said that those payments would be based on socioeconomic status rather than acts of violence.

"Open-source reports showed the P.A. continued compensating terrorists and their families despite claims to the contrary," the State Department said. "For example, one year after P.A. president Abbas claimed to revoke the decrees to end the policy, P.A. finance minister Estephan Salameh reaffirmed in February 2026 the P.A.'s commitment would continue and admitted it has not stopped."

Salameh said at the time that "with effort and great, almost impossible difficulty, we continue to provide this 60% rate of [P.A. public employee] salaries. We have not abandoned any Palestinian resident, whether they are prisoners or families of martyrs and wounded. This is a clear fundamental issue," Foggy Bottom said. "Salameh delivered these remarks even after the previous P.A. finance minister Omar Bitar was fired in November 2025 after the P.A. admitted to continuing the compensation to Palestinian terrorists and their families under the prior system."

"The department assesses that Palestinian leadership continues to use official announcements, including through social media, to notify released Palestinian terrorists of the steps they should take to receive continued compensation," the State Department said.

"P.A. officials continue to fail to publicly condemn acts of violence against U.S. and Israeli citizens in violation of the Taylor Force Act," it added.

Itamar Marcus, founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch, which the State Department referenced in its report, told JNS that the group provided 80% of the statistics in the Foggy Bottom report.

"This U.S. State Department report comes at a critical time, because the European countries have been spreading false information that the P.A. has stopped rewarding terrorists. PMW has proven repeatedly since November 2025 when the P.A. claimed to have reformed, that the terror reward program continues," he said. "PMW will be supplying the same information that is cited in the State Department report to European governments, and hopefully they will wake up from their delusions."

Originally published at JNS.org