Fact Checker: Does the Palestinian Authority pay $350 million a year to ‘terrorists and their families’?
Democracy Dies in Darkness The truth behind the rhetoric Does the Palestinian Authority pay $350 million a year to ‘terrorists and their families’? The House of Representatives recently passed a bill that would end U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority unless it ends a practice that critics call “pay to slay.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has championed the legislation, telling the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, “[Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas] pays about $350 million a year to terrorists and their families. Each year.” The big problem is here definitional. Netanyahu refers to “terrorists and their families.” In the Palestinian Authority’s budget, one can find $350 million in annual payments to Palestinian prisoners, those injured and “martyrs.” But are all these people terrorists? We dug into the data and found there is strong evidence that not everyone receiving such payme...