Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday moved to seize 320 million shekels (≈$90 million) in Palestinian Authority funds frozen by Jerusalem, transferring them to victims of terrorism and bereaved families.
“This is a necessary step in our national struggle against terror and against the P.A. that encourages it,” Smotrich said on Monday.
“There is no more moral and just signature than the one preventing the Palestinian Authority from funding terrorism and seizing its funds to benefit of the families of terror victims,” he said.
The latest seizure “joins the offsetting of funds for Gaza, the freezing of terrorist payments, and a series of additional steps that I have taken in line with the uncompromising policy that I have advocated since taking office,” Smotrich said. “We are drying up the sources of funding for encouraging terrorism and are not allowing the Palestinian Authority to exploit its funds for continued incitement and bloodshed.”
Under agreements signed with the PLO in the 1990s, Israel collects taxes and customs duties on behalf of the P.A.
The P.A, under its “pay for slay” policy, pays monthly stipends to convicted terrorists and the families of slain terrorists. The so-called Martyrs’ Fund is a cornerstone of P.A. law, granting terrorists or their next of kin the right to receive monthly payments as long as they live.
In 2018, P.A. chief Mahmoud Abbas declared, “If we had only a single penny left, we would pay it to families of the martyrs and prisoners.”
On Feb. 10, Ramallah claimed it had decided to transfer its payment allocation system from the P.A. Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs to an “independent” foundation. The decree restructuring the program has been widely misrepresented as signaling the end of its pay-for-slay incentive, observers told JNS.
Israel’s Kan News reported on Monday that the payments are being transferred “as usual.” The public broadcaster cited Palestinian sources as claiming that the P.A. Ministry of Finance, which is the body responsible for transferring the monies, was not informed of the move.
In October 2024, attorneys for some 250 individuals affected by the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border massacre in southern Israel filed a lawsuit against the P.A. in the Jerusalem District Court, citing its support for terrorism.
The terrorism victims and families of those killed during the Oct. 7 attacks, represented by the Jerusalem-based Arbus, Kedem, Tzur law firm, demanded 1.75 billion shekels ($478 million) in compensation.
The claim came on top of a 210 million shekel ($57 million) lawsuit filed some three months earlier with the Jerusalem District Court by dozens of Israelis whose relatives were killed in recent years, including in the ax attack in Elad on Independence Day in 2022 and the Oct. 7 slaughter.