Palestinian Government Still Pays Terrorists as US Aid Dollars Flow

National Security

Non-public State Department report confirms Palestinians are not living up to promises

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas / Getty Images Adam Kredo • October 18, 2022 5:25 pm

The Palestinian government is still paying imprisoned terrorists stipends and inciting violence against Israel, even as the Biden administration provides nearly half a billion dollars in American taxpayer funds to the government, according to a non-public State Department report recently furnished to Congress.

The Palestinian Authority, which committed to stop these acts to receive new tranches of U.S. aid money, “continued payments to Palestinian prisoners who had committed acts of terrorism, as well as the families of so-called ‘martyrs’ who died while committing acts of terrorism,” according to the report, a copy of which was reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. Official Palestinian government media organizations and social media accounts also “broadcast or published content praising or celebrating acts of violence.”

Details from the State Department report are likely to fuel congressional opposition to the Biden administration’s renewed funding of the Palestinian Authority, which almost immediately resumed when the Democratic administration entered office. U.S. aid was slashed by the Trump administration due to the Palestinian Authority’s support for terrorism, as well as a bipartisan U.S. law mandating that American aid be frozen until the Palestinian government ends its terrorist payment policy, also known as “pay-to-slay.” That law, the Taylor Force Act, was passed in 2018 and banned the State Department from allocating aid to the Palestinian government until it could certify that payments to terrorists and incitement against Israel ceased.

A State Department spokesman said the administration opposes the Palestinian pay-to-slay program and has repeatedly pressed the Palestinian Authority to stop it. The official also said all U.S. aid is allocated consistent with the law.

Information contained in the latest State Department report indicates the requirements for aid set forth under the law are not being met. Since April 2021, the United States has provided “over half a billion dollars in assistance for the Palestinians,” according to the State Department. In July, President Joe Biden announced that another $316 million would be awarded to “support the Palestinian people,” according to the White House.

“First, the administration tried to mislead Congress about Palestinian terrorists and payments to terrorists, which unfortunately worked long enough for them to move money to the Palestinian government,” one senior congressional

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