T
errorism has become a salient industry in the Palestinian economy, with high governmental salaries awarded to those who carry out attacks on Israelis. Convicted terrorists are cherished as heroes in Palestinian society. They are honored every April 17 on “Prisoners Day,” a national Palestinian observance. From its beginnings, the Palestinian Authority (PA), created in 1993 in conjunction with the Oslo Accords, has treated terrorists imprisoned in Israel as “employees.” Palestinians who have perpetrated crimes of terror against Israeli civilians or infrastructure receive monthly payments officially and openly allocated by the PA. Two national bodies administer these salaries and other benefits: the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners Affairs, which dispenses the salaries; and the semi-official Prisoners Club, which lobbies for ever greater prisoner payments and benefits. The payments, amounting to millions of dollars each month, constitute the highest levels of personal compensation and family benefits awarded anywhere in the Palestinian Territory, often dwarfing payments to civil servants. Salaries to prisoners follow a sliding scale based on “quality”—the more heinous the act of terrorism, and the longer the Israeli prison sentence, the higher the salary. According to a 2011 report produced by the Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), an Israelibased NGO and media watchdog group, Palestinians
in detention for acts of terrorism fetch a salary of about $400/month. Prisoners incarcerated between three and five years receive about $560/monthly—more than what many ordinary West Bank workers earn. Those who are incarcerated for between five and 10 years, for having committed more serious acts receive more than $1,100/month, and so it goes with salaries set for 10–15 years, 15–20 years, 20–25 years, and 25–30 years, until the highest level of $3,400/month to terrorists sentenced to 30 years or more. When payments to prisoners are not forthcoming, during periodic financial crunches, the Prisoners Club takes action. On July 10, 2004, for example, the Prisoners Club delivered two memos to Salam Fayyad, then PA Finance Minister, demanding additional funding despite what Fayyad described as “our lack of resources.” In a speech, Fayyad retorted, “We are facing a financial crisis, of which everybody is aware, but there are those that choose not to listen….The Palestinian Authority has always positioned the issue of prisoners on the top of its list of priorities.” Nonetheless, just four days after the memos, the PA transmitted a check of $175,000 to cover overdue Prisoners Club expenses, and did so “at a time when no ministry or PA institution received a payment,” Fayyad later complained. Later that year, in December 2004, the PA codified the paying of terrorists in its Law of Prisoners, also known as Resolution 2004/19, narrowing the
reform judaism
TerrorFeature_Black_sp14_Final.indd 47
47
Palestinian children rally in support of Palestinian Prisoners Day, Gaza City, April 2012.
spring 2014
2/20/14 2:07 PM