Jesse Scheckner
So-called “pay to slay” programs that reward terrorists and their families for carrying out violent acts against Israel could soon face international sanctions through bipartisan legislation U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz just filed.
Moskowitz co-introduced the PLO and PA Terror Payments Accountability Act with fellow Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Republican U.S. Reps. Mike Lawler of New York and Doug Lamborn of Colorado.
Republican U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas is carrying its companion.
If passed, the measure would crack down on financial rewards issued to terrorists and members of their family after committing bombings, stabbings or other attacks in Israel.
“The Pay to Slay program is unconscionable and incentivizes the murder of Israeli civilians,” Moskowitz said in a statement. “Congress needs to send a clear, bipartisan message to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) that these atrocious martyr payments for terrorist attacks against Israel will not go unpunished.”
The PLO and PA Terror Payment Accountability Act would impose sanctions on foreign people who facilitate terrorist martyr payments and/or provide significant support to facilitators of martyr payments.
It would also impose additional sanctions on foreign financial institutions that process martyr payments or facilitate significant financial transactions with others sanctioned for “pay to slay” conduct.
If passed as-is, the measure would require the President to implement the sanctions within 90 days of its ratification. The bill also includes a sunset clause if the PLO and PA stop making the payments.
In 2016, the PA paid roughly $303 million in stipends and other benefits through its Martyrs Fund and Prisoners Fund, the Times of Israel reported. The following year, it paid out $344 million.
Congress then approved the Taylor Force Act to prohibit economic aid to the PA while it made such payments. The measure passed March 22, 2018, as part of a $1.3 trillion spending bill.
It was named for Taylor Force, a 28-year-old graduate student and U.S. Army veteran who was fatally stabbed while visiting Tel Aviv. Ten others were wounded in the attack, which occurred not far from where then-Vice President Joe Biden was visiting.
Five months after the bill passed, Donald Trump’s administration cut more than $200 million in aid to Palestinians in response to boycotts the PA led against peace efforts after the former President recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. embassy there.
Biden restored the payments in the third month of his presidency.
“The Taylor Force Act was a noble effort to end ‘pay to slay’ terrorism in the Middle East,” Lawler said in a statement. “Unfortunately, years after its enactment, we still find ourselves in the vicious, ongoing cycle of ‘pay to slay’ terrorism. It must end.”
Gottheimer noted that a resident of his district, 22-year-old Sara Duker, was killed in a 1996 bus bombing the Gaza terrorist group Hamas carried out in Jerusalem, along with 25 other civilians, including fellow American Matt Eisenfeld, 25.
Duker’s and Eisenfeld’s families sued Iran for backing the attack and won a $327 million judgment in 2000. As of 2020, both families still awaited payment, as did the surviving family of 20-year-old New Jersey woman Alisa Flatow, who was killed in Gaza the year prior by the Palestinian terrorist group, Islamic Jihad.
“Instead of condemning the despicable terrorist who killed Sara, the Palestinian Authority has compensated him. This is one of the many disgusting cases where the Palestinian Authority has rewarded the families of jailed and killed terrorists for taking lives,” he said. “Terrorism literally pays. (But the) United States does not — and will never — condone this model of terrorism, which is an affront to human rights, justice, and peace.”
