"Pay to Slay": The Palestinian Authority's Martyr Payment Program

The Palestinian Authority (PA) — the internationally recognized governing body of the Palestinian people — operates a formal, government-budget-funded program that pays monthly stipends to the families of Palestinians who carry out attacks against Israelis. Critics call it "Pay to Slay." Supporters call it a welfare program for "martyrs." The payments are codified in Palestinian law and have been funded continuously for decades.

The PA's Palestinian National Policy and the "Law of the Prisoner" (amended multiple times) establish the following:

• Families of Palestinians killed in attacks against Israelis receive a one-time payment and an ongoing monthly stipend.
• Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails for security offenses receive a monthly salary from the PA — paid while they are in prison — scaled to their sentence length.
• Wounded Palestinians who participated in attacks are also eligible for payments.

Payment scale (approximate, based on PMW documentation):

For context: the average Palestinian wage in the West Bank is approximately $600–700/month. A 20-year sentence pays more than four times the average wage — delivered directly to the attacker's family while they serve their sentence.

The PA allocates a consistent portion of its annual budget to these payments:

• In 2021, Palestinian Media Watch documented that the PA paid approximately $349 million in "martyr" and prisoner payments.
• In 2022, the figure was estimated at over $300 million.
• Since the Oslo Accords, the PA has paid an estimated $4+ billion in total martyr and prisoner payments.
• The payments are not hidden. They appear in the PA's published budget under the "Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs" and "Palestine Liberation Organization Commission of Detainees' Affairs."

The PA has explicitly defended these payments as social welfare obligations and refused international demands to end them, calling the payments a matter of Palestinian national honor.

Taylor Force was an American Army veteran and Vanderbilt University graduate student stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist in Tel Aviv on March 8, 2016. His killer, Bashar Masalha, was shot and killed at the scene. The PA subsequently paid Masalha's family the standard martyr stipend.

In response, U.S. Congress passed the Taylor Force Act, signed into law on March 23, 2018. The law:

• Cut U.S. economic aid to the PA (excluding security assistance) until the PA stops making martyr payments.
• Required the Secretary of State to certify annually that the PA has taken steps to end the payments as a condition of restoring aid.
• Has never been certified. The PA announced a reform in February 2025 moving payments to a needs-based welfare body (PNEEI), and a PA-commissioned audit (July 2026) largely supported that claim while finding at least NIS 320 million paid under the old system in Feb–Dec 2025; the U.S. declined to certify in April 2026 and Israel says payments continue via other channels (Israel Policy Forum).

The Trump, Biden, and subsequent administrations have all withheld aid under the Taylor Force Act while the payments continue.

Critics report that families of Palestinians killed in the October 7 attack are eligible for PA martyr payments [verified source needed].

Haaretz (a left-leaning Israeli newspaper, not a pro-Israel advocacy outlet) reported in November 2023 that the PA had begun processing payments to families of those killed on October 7.

This matters for several reasons:

1. Official status: The PA's payment system treats the October 7 attackers as "martyrs" deserving of honor and financial reward — the same category as all other attackers in its program.
2. It creates a paper trail: To receive payments, families must document their relatives' deaths and the circumstances. This documentation provides an independent, PA-sourced record of who was killed and in what context — a potential cross-reference against the Gaza Health Ministry figures.
3. The incentive debate: Critics, including the U.S. Congress in the Taylor Force Act, argue that payments scaled to sentence length create a financial incentive for violence; the PA describes them as welfare for families.

The "Pay to Slay" program is not incidental. It is official Palestinian Authority policy, funded in the official PA budget, defended publicly by PA leadership, and never suspended despite international pressure.

For a government to formally pay the families of people who kill civilians of another group — and to scale those payments upward the more severe the attack — is a statement of institutional values. Critics argue that the PA thereby financially incentivizes violence against Israelis; the PA rejects that characterization.

This is documented not by Israeli government sources alone, but by:

• The U.S. Congress (Taylor Force Act findings)
• The U.S. State Department (annual terrorism reports)
• Palestinian Media Watch (using PA's own official documents)
• Haaretz (Israeli left-wing press)
• The Wall Street Journal

These payments are not disputed by the PA. They dispute only the characterization, not the existence or scale of the program.