The United States government passed the Taylor Force Act in 2018, declaring American aid to the Palestinian Authority would be suspended as long as “Pay-For-Slay” remained in force.
Unsurprisingly, the program which provides large monthly stipends both to imprisoned terrorists and to the families of terrorists who died while carrying out their attacks is still supported by the PA.
This from frontpagemag.com.
Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority leader
Also unsurprisingly, The Obiden Regime created various excuses, and imaginative misinterpretations of the law, for not enforcing Taylor Force and cutting off all aid to the PA.
A study on the need for the Trump administration to end “Pay-For-Slay” can be found here:
Peace in Israel isn’t possible until Palestinians stop paying terrorists to kill | Opinion, by John Spencer, USA Today, January 10, 2025.
Excerpts from Spencer’s study:
An 83-year-old Holocaust survivor, Ludmila Lipovsky, was brutally murdered last month in Israel while waiting for her daughter to take her to a doctor’s appointment.
A 28-year-old Palestinian man from the West Bank is accused of stabbing her to death.
This horrific act is yet another example of the violence incentivized by a multimillion dollar program known as “pay to slay,” which is written into Palestinian law and governed by the Palestinian Authority.
Some view it as simply a system that rewards Palestinians for committing acts of terrorism against Jewish Israelis. In reality, it is a deeply ingrained economic structure and societal program in the West Bank and Gaza that incentivizes violence, thus undermining any chance of a sustainable peace deal.
The amounts provided by the PA to imprisoned terrorists and the families of terrorists who died as “martyrs” in the commission of their terror attacks are substantial, much higher than the average monthly wage in either Gaza or in the Palestinian-populated parts of Judea and Samaria. These large sums both reward past terrorist acts and incentivize the commission of future terror attacks.
The program provides monthly payments to Palestinians convicted of violent acts against Israelis and imprisoned for their crimes. Crucially, these payments are not extended to those convicted of non-terror-related crimes. The payments increase with the length of the prison sentence, which perversely rewards perpetrators of the worse crimes.
For example, as of 2017, a prisoner sentenced to up to three years receives $400 monthly, while someone sentenced to 10 to 15 years earns more than $1,500 monthly. During incarceration, the Palestinian Authority also pays the individual’s social security and pension fees. The payments to prisoners are adjusted to account for increases in the cost of living.
Upon release, the benefits continue. Released prisoners receive a lump-sum grant ranging from $1,500 to $25,000, depending on the duration of their imprisonment. Employment in government institutions is guaranteed, with job placements prioritized based on years spent in prison. Those who cannot secure jobs receive unemployment stipends − provided they served at least five years for men or two years for women.
Moreover, released prisoners enjoy free college education and lifelong health care. A male prisoner who has spent at least one year in an Israeli prison is exempt from tuition fees at Palestinian universities and professional training programs, as well as from health insurance payments.
If a terrorist is killed during an attack or by Israeli forces, their family is supported through the ‘martyrs’ fund. Families receive monthly payments—spouses for life and children until they reach adulthood—ranging from $100 to $1,200.
Does “Pay-For-Slay” really incentivize terror attacks? The data certainly suggests so. In 2024, there were 18,000 terror attacks on Israelis. Many were rockets and drones launched by Hamas from Gaza and by Hezbollah from southern Lebanon. But close to 2,000 were committed inside Israel by Palestinians living in the West Bank, or by Israeli Arabs.
Clearly “Pay-For-Slay” is having the desired effect:
[H]uge numbers of terror attacks on Israelis, by every conceivable means—arson, Molotov cocktails, shootings, use of explosives, stabbings, car rammings, bombings, and abductions.
“Pay-For-Slay” works:
[I]t rewards and massively incentivizes terrorism.
And now the Trump administration must return to the policy of the first Trump term:
[A]ssiduously enforce Taylor Force by cutting off all aid to the PA.
With President Trump’s enforcement of the Taylor Force Act, the PA—facing four years of Trump enforcing Taylor Force—will suddenly discover that it really can do without its “Pay-For-Slay” program after all.
