When Hamas terrorists streamed out of Gaza early this month to slaughter 1,400 mostly unarmed Israeli civilians, they were likely driven by religious and political fury.
They may also have been driven by they desire for cash.
For the past 20 years, the Palestinian Authority, which rules over Israel's West Bank territories, has been doling out more than $300 million a year in monthly paychecks to convicted terrorists and families of terrorist "martyrs" in both the West Bank and Gaza.
These so-called "pay for slay" payments, first codified in the 2003 Amended Palestinian Basic Law, reportedly range from $364 a month for Palestinians serving three years in prison to more than $3,000 a month for sentences of 30 years or more.
In other words, the deadlier the crime, the higher the pay for those convicted of what Palestinian officials call "participation in the struggle against the occupation."
International governments and agencies have indirectly been supporting these payments, via billions of dollars in inadequately restricted foreign aid flows over the years. In coming weeks, this flow of money will increase.
To our horror, past beneficiaries have included the family of Bashar Masalha, the 20-something Palestinian man who stabbed our son Taylor to death in March of 2016, on a seaside boulevard in Tel Aviv.
Before being shot by police, Masalha had gone on a rampage that wounded 10 other civilians, including a pregnant woman and an Arab-Israeli. Hamas claimed responsibility, after which official Palestinian TV reporting on Masalha's funeral compared it to a "large national wedding befitting of martyrs."
Taylor was 28, a well-beloved, earnest young man with a deep Texas drawl, a dazzling smile and admirable work ethic. The dean of his program at Vanderbilt called him a model for the school's credo of "leadership without egos."
"He made people better," one of his many grieving friends said after his death.
We were so proud of him. An Eagle Scout and West Point graduate from Lubbock, Texas, he had served in the U.S. Army in Iraq and Afghanistan before enrolling in a global entrepreneurship program at Vanderbilt University, which had arranged the trip to Israel.
Today, as we watch U.S. warships patrol the eastern Mediterranean and top U.S. officials frantically shuttle around the region, we wish our government would do one obvious thing to address terrorist attacks on innocent civilians, including the estimated 32 American citizens killed in this latest assault. At the very least, we must get an explicit vow from anyone purporting to govern the Palestinians to immediately stop these incentives to murder.
The two of us have dedicated our lives to this effort ever since Taylor was killed. After two years of speaking with senators, congressmembers, administration officials and anyone else who showed any interest, we were gratified that Congress passed a law—the Taylor Force Act—intended to condition assistance to the West Bank and Gaza on steps by the Palestinian Authority to end violence and terrorism against Israeli citizens.
Former President Donald Trump signed the act into law March 23, 2018. Later that year, the United States stopped payments to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and in February 2019, the U.S. confirmed it had also stopped USAID payments to Palestinians.
Alas, four years later, and despite international condemnation and some suggestions that Palestinians may be willing to reform, the PA continues to compensate terrorists and their families—with a virtually open checkbook.
In July, 50 Democratic and Republican legislators called on Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to update Congress on the status of negotiating an end to the Pay for Slay program and urged the administration to keep raising the issue with Palestinian officials.
A bipartisan group of representatives is also supporting an amended Taylor Force Act seeking to hold financial institutions that process these odious payments accountable.
We worry, however, that calls to end the pro-terror payments may now be drowned out by the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, amid Israeli bombing and a ground invasion. These developments may also end up refilling Hamas' coffers for its military actions.
In mid-October, President Biden announced the U.S. would send $100 million to help pay for essential needs, including clean water, food and medical care both in Gaza and in the West Bank. Biden warned Hamas not to steal from the outpouring international aid, yet without any explicit agreements, these new funds clearly could create an endowment for future attacks like the one on our son.
The incentives for average Palestinians may be hard to resist. Last year, about four in 10 Palestinians in Gaza were unemployed, with those who did have jobs earning an average of less than $10 a day, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Yet a terrorist who died in an attack on a southern Israeli kibbutz reportedly carried a paycheck stub from the Palestinian interior ministry indicating a monthly wage equivalent to $1,260.
Murder-for-hire has become a young Palestinian's best and often only chance of leaving family members with comfort and prestige.
Eleven days after the Hamas attack, the U.S. Department of the Treasury commendably announced sanctions on 10 key Hamas terrorist group members, operatives, and financial facilitators in Gaza and elsewhere including Sudan, Turkey, Algeria, and Qatar. But this was one day after the Jerusalem Post reported that the Oct. 7 terrorists' families will receive almost $3 million for their deeds.
The two of us must live the rest of our lives with a hole in our hearts the size of our son. We would pay anything to have him back. But given that's not possible, we're fighting to stop payments that would rob other parents like ourselves of innocent sons and daughters.
Stuart and Robbi Force are the parents of Taylor Force, stabbed to death in Jaffa, Israel on March 8, 2016. They wrote this op-ed with help from journalist Katherine Ellison.
The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
