U.S. legislators were astonished last year to learn that the Palestinian Authority was issuing monthly payouts totaling $3-7 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 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 had said the PA was “very proud of this program and has nothing to hide. ” Nonetheless, in response to the international furor, the PA 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 on foreign donor countries to supply much of its budget, which now exceeds $4.2 billion annually. About ten percent of the PA budget, more than $400 million, is contributed annually by United States foreign aid. The U.S. and many other countries have enacted laws forbidding any payments when the monies directly or indirectly support or encourage terrorism.
The interdepartmental bureaucratic notations the PA records for each terrorist before approving the level of salaried compensation are extensive. For example, one prominent case involved Ahmad Talab Mustafa Barghouti, who personally coordinated numerous terrorist acts. These included a January 2002 shooting spree in Jerusalem that killed two and wounded 37; a March 2002 shooting spree at a Tel Aviv restaurant that left three dead and 31 wounded31; and a March 2002 attempt to smuggle an explosive suicide belt in an ambulance.
The Israel Defense Forces arrested Barghouti. On July 30, 2002, a military court concluded he was responsible for murdering 12 Israelis and punished him with 13 life sentences.
According to ongoing internal Palestinian Authority security reviews dated February 3, 2009 and July 6, 2009, Barghouti’s special compensation began retroactively to July 1, 2002, the first day of the month the 13 life sentences were imposed. At the time of his arrest, Barghouti was a sergeant with the Palestinian Police. While in an Israeli prison, Barghouti’s annual salary of 12,953 Israeli shekels was continued and gradually escalated when he was promoted to first sergeant. Still in prison, Barghouti was promoted again, this time to warrant officer, pursuant to a November 13, 2008 Presidential Order 15999/3, according to Palestinian internal security records.
In another case, Sa’id Ibrahim Sa’id Ramadan went to a busy Jerusalem street around 2:30 p.m. on January 22, 2002, and began randomly shooting passersby. Two people were murdered and dozens of others injured. Police shot and killed Ramadan at the scene.
Just five days later, on January 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. That review was conducted by the Martyr’s Families and Injured Care Establishment, a little known organization originally created in 1969 by the Palestine Liberation Organization to systematize financial benefits to those wounded or killed in terrorist attacks deemed acts of “martyrdom.”
“Martyrdom Establishment” compensation is dispensed worldwide, wherever the terrorist act takes place, according to a 2010 Palestinian Authority Social Ministry report. The report states that by 2009, more than 288 million shekels had been paid in the program, of which more than 97 million went outside Israel and the Palestinian region to reward international terrorism.
In Ramadan’s case, the opening file noted that his body was still in Israeli custody. Ramadan’s employment was listed as sergeant in the Palestinian Maritime Police. The qualifying martyrdom incident is 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.”
The Establishment director wrote: “We recommend that he [be] considered as one of the al-Aqsa Martyrs.”
Some weeks later, according to a Palestinian Authority internal security document, the recommendation was approved: “Sergeant Sa’id Ibrahim Sa’id Ramadan, from the Maritime Police/Northern Governates, is hereby approved as a martyr by the Palestinian Authority as of January 23, 2002, by rank and salary, as he was martyred while performing his national duty.”
The money was “to be disbursed by General Headquarters/Northern Governates/Martyr’s Roster.” Copies of the payment order were routed to the PA’s Financial Administration, the Maritime Police, Social Affairs, Medical Services, Supply and Equipment, and Computer departments, among others.
How much was his act of terror worth? A married martyr would have a family payout of about 1,300 shekels monthly. But the family of an unmarried martyr was only entitled to 400 shekels. The money went to the father, but when the elder Ramadan passed away, his allocation was transferred to Ramadan’s mother, the documents record.
Barghouti and Ramadan are just two examples of the hundreds of terrorists whose actions were rewarded in a meticulous, exacting official process that can remain in place for years. The 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.