Congressional legislators were astonished last year to learn that the Palestinian Authority was issuing monthly payouts totaling $3 million to $7 million as salaries and other financial rewards to specific terrorists and their families. The money was channeled, in part, through the Ministry of Prisoners pursuant to the Law of the Prisoner. The law set forth a graduated scale, pegging monthly salaries to the length of Israeli jail sentences, which generally reflects the severity of the crime and the number of people killed and/or injured.
Thousands of documents, newly obtained by this reporter through a lawsuit to unseal court-protected files, demonstrate that these payouts are not blind automated payments. Rather, senior Palestinian Authority officials as high as President Mahmoud Abbas scrutinize the details of each case, the specific carnage caused, and the personal details of each terrorist act before approving salaries and awarding honorary ranks in either the PA government or the military. Ministry of Prisoners spokesman Amr Nasser has explained, “We are very proud of this program and we have nothing to hide.” Nonetheless, in response to the international furor, the Palestinian Authority announced it would replace the Ministry of Prisoners with an outside PLO commission known as the Higher National Commission for Prisoners and Detainees Affairs.
The PA is dependent upon foreign donor countries to supply much of its budget, which now exceeds $4.2 billion annually. About 10 percent of the PA budget, more than $400 million, is contributed annually by U.S. foreign aid. The United States and many other countries have enacted laws forbidding any payments when the funds directly or indirectly support or encourage terrorism.
The interdepartmental bureaucratic notations the Palestinian Authority has recorded on each terrorist before approving the level of salaried compensation is extensive. For example, one prominent case involved Ahmad Talab Mustafa Barghouti, who personally coordinated numerous terrorist acts. These include a January 2002 shooting spree in Jerusalem, killing two and wounding 37; a March 2002 gun attack at a Tel Aviv restaurant, killing three and wounding 31; and a late March 2002 attempt to smuggle an explosive suicide belt. The IDF finally apprehended Ahmad, and sentenced him to 13 life sentences.
According to two internal Palestinian Authority security reviews in 2009, Barghouti’s special compensation began retroactively to July 1, 2002, the first of the month that the 13 life sentences were imposed. At the time, Barghouti was a sergeant in the Palestinian police. While in an Israeli prison, Barghouti’s annual salary of 12,953 Israeli shekels ($3,359)was continued and gradually escalated. Although still in prison, Barghouti was promoted twice, once pursuant to a Nov. 13, 2008 Presidential Order 15999/3. A related document tabulates additional monthly allocations for Barghouti’s two named beneficiaries, showing they jointly received 900 shekels ($233) in 2002, which was raised to 1,000 shekels ($259) in January 2004. Those beneficiary payments were deposited into account 628134 at the Arab Bank’s al Bireh Branch.
In another case, terrorist Sa’id Ibrahim Sa’id Ramadan went to a busy Jerusalem street on Jan. 22, 2002, and began randomly shooting passers-by, killing two. Police killed Ramadan at the scene. Just five days later, on Jan. 27, 2002, Ramadan’s case was reviewed by the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Social Affairs for martyrdom status and to determine the financial benefits that would accrue to the family. Ramadan’s employment was listed as a sergeant in the Palestinian Maritime Police. The qualifying martyrdom incident is routinely described in a section headlined “Date and Place of Event,” which simply records “January 22, 2002, West Jerusalem.” In the next section, “Description of Event,” the form states, “He was martyred while executing a martyrdom operation in West Jerusalem. The operation led to the death and injury of a number of Israelis … We recommend that he is considered one of the al-Aqsa Martyrs.”
Some weeks later, a Palestinian Authority internal security document cites approval of the recommendation, concluding “Sa’id Ramadan … is hereby approved as a martyr … by rank and salary, as he was martyred while performing his national duty.”
The Barghouti and Ramadan cases are just two of hundreds of terrorists who are rewarded for their actions — not in a blind, faceless program, but in a meticulous, exacting official process that can remain in place for years. Their money is represented to donor countries as “government salaries.” Most taxpayers in donor countries have no idea that their well-intended money is actually financing the flames of terrorism.
Edwin Black is the author of “IBM and the Holocaust,” as well as his most recent book, “Financing the Flames,” about taxpayer-funded terrorist salaries. He will speak at 11 a.m. Sunday, March 1 at Congregation Sherith Israel, 2266 California St., in San Francisco.