Palestinian president revokes prisoner payment system

Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has signed a decree  cancelling previous arrangements for providing payments to the families of prisoners who committed terror acts.

The system had conditioned welfare payments to Palestinian security prisoners on the length of their sentences in Israeli jails.

It also provided stipends to the families of terrorists killed while carrying out attacks.

The new decree states that families of prisoners and slain attackers who require welfare assistance will be eligible for stipends based solely on their financial needs, as is the case with other Palestinians.

Israel and other countries have long denounced the stipends arguing they actively encouraged terror, with critics dubbing it the “pay-to-slay” system.

But the Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a statement Monday denying that the payments would actually end.

“This is a new fraudulent trick by the Palestinian Authority, which intends to continue making payments to terrorists and their families through other payment channels,” it said.