The Palestinian Authority: Governance, Pay-for-Slay, and the Aid Economy

The Palestinian Authority (PA) was created by the 1993 Oslo Accords and established in 1994, giving the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) — specifically its dominant faction, Fatah, founded in 1959 by Yasser Arafat — limited self-governance over parts of the West Bank and Gaza. Following Hamas's violent seizure of Gaza in 2007, the PA now governs only portions of the West Bank.

Mahmoud Abbas, chairman of both Fatah and the PLO, was elected PA President in January 2005 for a four-year term. That term expired in 2009. No election has been held since. Abbas — now 90 — has ruled by decree for over fifteen years, repeatedly postponing elections his party expected to lose.

The PA operates an official program — formally called the "Prisoners and Released Prisoners Affairs" commission — that pays monthly salaries to Palestinians imprisoned by Israel for terrorist acts, and to the families of Palestinians killed carrying out attacks ("martyrs"). The program is funded from the PA budget, which is itself funded primarily by international aid from the United States, European Union, and Arab states.

Documented salary scale (per Palestinian Media Watch documentation):

• Imprisoned 1–3 years: ≈ 1,400 NIS/month (~$380)
• Imprisoned 3–5 years: ≈ 2,000 NIS/month
• Imprisoned 10–15 years: ≈ 6,000 NIS/month
• Imprisoned 20–25 years: ≈ 10,000 NIS/month (~$2,700)
• Imprisoned 30+ years (most severe attacks): ≈ 12,000 NIS/month (~$3,300)

Salaries increase automatically with sentence length — meaning the more people killed, the longer the sentence, the higher the monthly payment. Israeli conscripts receive far less than this; career soldiers earn more (figure and source needed). A Palestinian who killed multiple Israelis receives comparable or higher monthly income from the PA.

Scale of expenditure: The PA spent approximately $300 million per year on these payments as of 2020–2022, according to multiple independent analyses and U.S. Congressional reports. This figure represents roughly 7–8% of the PA's total annual budget.

The Taylor Force Act, signed into U.S. law in 2018, conditions certain U.S. economic aid to the PA on ending these payments. The PA did not end the program for years. In February 2025 it announced a reform moving payments to a needs-based welfare body (PNEEI, formerly Tamkeen), rolled out in December 2025; a PA-commissioned Alvarez & Marsal audit released in July 2026 largely supported the claim of a need-based system but found at least NIS 320 million paid under the old system from February to December 2025. The U.S. State Department declined to certify compliance in April 2026 and Israel says payments continue through other channels (Israel Policy Forum).

PA television: Palestinian Media Watch (palwatch.org) has documented thousands of hours of PA TV content — the PA's official state broadcaster — glorifying terrorist attacks, naming streets and public squares after suicide bombers, celebrating October 7, and presenting the killing of Israelis as a religious duty. These are not fringe broadcasts; they are official PA government programming.

School textbooks: The PA Ministry of Education produces textbooks used in Palestinian schools in the West Bank. PMW and other researchers have documented systematic incitement throughout the curriculum:

• Maps of the region show no Israel — only "Palestine" covering the entire territory, including Israeli cities
• Suicide bombers and attackers are presented as heroes and role models
• Jewish historical connection to the land is denied
• Violence against Israelis is framed as legitimate resistance with religious sanction
• An EU-commissioned 2021 Georg Eckert Institute study found antisemitic narratives and glorification of violence in some textbooks while concluding others met UNESCO standards; IMPACT-se and PMW report more extensive problems

The EU has repeatedly expressed concern about the textbooks while continuing to fund the PA's education budget. The United States has documented the content. Neither has made aid conditional on textbook reform.

Yasser Arafat, the PA's founding chairman, controlled large off-budget funds; an IMF review reported in 2003 that about $900 million in PA revenues had been diverted to accounts under his control in 1995–2000. The International Monetary Fund documented financial irregularities in the PA under Arafat; investigative reports by Arab and Western outlets estimated his personal wealth at death between $1 billion and $6 billion.

The Palestinian people, who were the intended recipients of the international aid Arafat controlled, remained in poverty while he and his inner circle enriched themselves. The structural pattern — international aid flowing in, leadership enriching itself, population remaining in poverty, violence continuing — did not originate with Hamas. It was established by the PA and Fatah under Arafat, and has continued under Abbas.

The PA and Hamas are routinely presented as rivals — Fatah (secular nationalist) vs. Hamas (Islamist). The rivalry is real in terms of competition for power and resources. But in several structural ways they operate in parallel:

• Both refuse elections they expect to lose. Abbas has postponed PA elections since 2009. Hamas has held no elections in Gaza since 2006.
• Both divert international aid. The PA's pay-for-slay and Arafat's billions; Hamas's tunnel construction and leadership wealth.
• Both maintain incitement. PA official media and textbooks; Hamas's charter and broadcasts.
• Different positions on recognition. The PLO formally recognized Israel in 1993 and the PA's official policy supports a two-state solution, though critics argue its conduct (Camp David 2000, no acceptance of Olmert's 2008 offer) shows limited commitment. Hamas rejects recognition of Israel.

The PA is the entity Western governments and international institutions treat as the legitimate Palestinian government and the future governing body of a Palestinian state. Its actual conduct — documented above — is the record on which any serious assessment of a two-state solution must rest.