{"id":236804,"date":"2025-02-11T22:49:03","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T22:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/11\/in-overture-to-trump-palestinian-leader-mahmoud-abbas-ends-payments-for-prisoners\/"},"modified":"2025-02-11T22:49:04","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T22:49:04","slug":"in-overture-to-trump-palestinian-leader-mahmoud-abbas-ends-payments-for-prisoners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/11\/in-overture-to-trump-palestinian-leader-mahmoud-abbas-ends-payments-for-prisoners\/","title":{"rendered":"In Overture to Trump, Palestinian Leader Mahmoud Abbas Ends Payments for Prisoners"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/11\/multimedia\/11palestinian-prisoners-lqcf\/11palestinian-prisoners-lqcf-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"In Overture to Trump, Palestinian Leader Mahmoud Abbas Ends Payments for Prisoners\" title=\"In Overture to Trump, Palestinian Leader Mahmoud Abbas Ends Payments for Prisoners\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For years, the Palestinian administration in the occupied West Bank has doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in stipends to the families of Palestinians jailed or killed by Israel \u2014 including those involved in violent attacks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The United States and Israel have long condemned the payments and pressured the Palestinian Authority to end them. And on Monday, the Authority announced that it was backing away from the practice \u2014 a shift that analysts saw as an attempt to curry favor with President Trump and bring much-needed foreign aid into Palestinian coffers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Palestinian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue, said the move was aimed to bring the Palestinian administration into compliance with American law and to allow for more foreign aid to flow. A U.S. law banned direct American economic assistance to the Palestinian Authority as long as it carried out the practice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The ban has only deepened the economic distress of the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority in recent years and it has increasingly struggled to make ends meet and to pay its employees\u2019 monthly salaries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mahmoud Abbas, the aging Palestinian Authority president, issued a decree on Monday night that overhauled the payment system. The stipends have been one of the most emotionally charged issues in Palestinian politics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A body set up to manage social welfare payments to needy Palestinians, known as the Palestinian National Economic Empowerment Institution, said in a statement that the families of prisoners would receive funds based only on financial needs and social welfare criteria, \u201cwithout regard to political affiliations or past actions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The law means that the families of prisoners would still be eligible for social welfare payments as long as they demonstrate a financial need, as opposed to being compensated for fighting against Israel\u2019s rule.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The new system would abide by 43 internationally recognized criteria for assessing social welfare needs, the statement said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Both U.S. and Israeli officials will closely monitor the implementation of the new policy to see whether it leads to a genuine shift.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Palestinians were quick to criticize Mr. Abbas\u2019s decision. Many in the West Bank and Gaza view those imprisoned by Israel as either the victims of fundamentally unjust Israeli military courts or freedom fighters who fought back against their occupiers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But Mr. Abbas is gambling on a new beginning with Mr. Trump after years of bad blood, and he is hoping for a muted domestic response, said Ibrahim Dalalsha, a Palestinian political analyst.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis is the Trump effect. The Palestinian Authority wants to start off well with Trump,\u201d Mr. Dalalsha said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Since the U.S. election in November, Mr. Abbas\u2019s government has sought to rebuild its relationship with the American president after his tumultuous first term. But Mr. Trump\u2019s recent insistence that the roughly two million Palestinians should be transferred out of the Gaza Strip has already added new strains.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During his first term, Mr. Trump outraged the Palestinian leadership by moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital of Jerusalem, freezing most aid and peddling a peace plan they saw as deeply slanted in Israel\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israel has argued that paying benefits to the families of prisoners who have been involved in deadly stabbings, shootings and suicide bombings against Israelis creates a financial incentive for terrorism. It has labeled the policy a \u201cpay-for-slay\u201d arrangement, in which Palestinians with longer sentences get higher stipends,<span class=\"css-8l6xbc evw5hdy0\">  <\/span>effectively rewarding people for committing deadlier attacks in Israel\u2019s view.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In response, Israel has withheld funds from the Palestinian Authority, often more than $100 million each year. The money is drawn from tax revenues Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian administration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 2018, Mr. Trump signed the Taylor Force Act, which ended economic assistance that directly benefited the Palestinian Authority as long as it continued to disburse the stipends. In its statement, the new Palestinian welfare institution said the reform \u201caligns directly with the goals of the Taylor Force Act.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Israeli government quickly dismissed Mr. Abbas\u2019s announcement as a sham, saying it would not end the practice of paying the families of prisoners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis is a new deception scheme by the Palestinian Authority, which intends to continue paying terrorists and their families through alternative payment channels,\u201d said Oren Marmorstein, a spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Abbas\u2019s decree was unlikely to immediately lead American aid to begin flowing again to the Palestinian Authority. Mr. Trump has yet to say publicly whether he is willing to support the Palestinian Authority.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And other legal hurdles would remain, including the extended process of certifying that Mr. Abbas\u2019s government is in compliance with the Taylor Force Act.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">If the Palestinian Authority enforces the changes, it would be a remarkable about-face for Mr. Abbas, who had previously insisted that he would never give up on the payments. In the past, he has gone so far as to say that even if the Palestinian Authority was running out of money, he would spend whatever remained on the stipends.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In late January, Hussein al-Sheikh, a top adviser to Mr. Abbas, informed Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump\u2019s Middle East envoy, that the Palestinian Authority was prepared to move ahead with revising its prisoner payments system, according to the Palestinian official and another diplomat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The shift immediately prompted criticism in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority administers some areas, including major Palestinian cities. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Mr. Abbas\u2019s rivals, also condemned the decision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Qadura Fares, the Palestinian Authority\u2019s commissioner for prisoners\u2019 affairs, called on Mr. Abbas to \u201cimmediately retract\u201d the decree during a news conference on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis move is deeply wrong,\u201d said Esmat Mansour, a former prisoner who said he had served 20 years in prison for involvement in a stabbing attack against an Israeli. \u201cThe prisoners are icon. They are the ones who have sacrificed for our freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Natan Odenheimer<!-- --> and <!-- -->Fatima AbdulKarim<!-- --> contributed reporting to this article.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/11\/world\/middleeast\/abbas-prisoner-payments-trump.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For years, the Palestinian administration in the occupied West Bank has doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in stipends to the families of Palestinians jailed or killed by Israel \u2014 including those involved in violent attacks. The United States and Israel have long condemned the payments and pressured the Palestinian Authority to end them. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/11\/multimedia\/11palestinian-prisoners-lqcf\/11palestinian-prisoners-lqcf-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[22708,163575,2366,5552,38,1891,112166,184706,19637,48481,166347,8527,672,40164,163599,52,128437],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236804"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236806,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236804\/revisions\/236806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}