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The Taylor Force Act, the October 7 Massacre, and the PA's "Pay-for-Slay" Terror Reward Policy

(Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch - In 2018, the U.S. Congress enacted the Taylor Force Act (TFA), named for a West Point graduate and veteran of tours in Iraq and Afghanistan who was murdered on March 8, 2016, in Tel Aviv by a Palestinian terrorist. The TFA sought to address the Palestinian Authority practice of paying a financial reward to the family of the terrorist, known as the "Pay-for-Slay" policy. Imprisoned terrorists and released prisoners from Fatah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and others are all adopted by the PA and paid salaries. Congress concluded in the TFA that "The Palestinian Authority's practice of paying salaries to terrorists serving in Israeli prisons, as well as to the families of deceased terrorists, is an incentive to commit acts of terror." It conditioned the bulk of U.S. aid that directly benefits the PA on the complete abolition of the policy. PA terror reward payments totaled over a billion dollars from 2018 through 2023. Due to the PA's financial crisis, it has applied a pay cut to all salaries, including those of imprisoned terrorists. Yet this disruption may be temporary. Any entity that pays huge sums to terrorists as a reward for their participation in terror cannot be seen as a partner for peace. Rather, it should be recognized as a sponsor of terror. The writer, former director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria, is director of the Palestinian Authority Accountability Initiative at the Jerusalem Center.
2025-01-21 00:00:00
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