(The Lion) — American taxpayer dollars will no longer indirectly fund the Palestinian Authority’s “Pay to Slay” program, which compensates terrorists and their families, after the State Department reached a lawsuit settlement last week.
“This settlement, secured alongside the Trump Administration, is an important victory for the rule of law, for victims of terrorism and for the principle that America must never finance terror,” Gene Hamilton, president of America First Legal, said in a statement.
The Taylor Force Act cuts U.S. funding to the Palestinian Authority until it abolishes the “Pay to Slay” program. The law is named after American veteran Taylor Force, who was killed in 2016 while visiting Israel as part of a Vanderbilt University educational trip. A Palestinian attacker from the West Bank, Bashar Masalha, stabbed Force to death, according to an America First Legal press release.
“Taylor Force was an American hero whose life was stolen by an act of terror. Congress passed the Taylor Force Act to ensure that American taxpayers would never be forced to subsidize the Palestinian Authority’s grotesque system of rewarding terrorists and their families,” Hamilton said.
Masalha wounded 10 other people before Israeli authorities shot and killed him. The Palestinian Authority later praised him as a “heroic martyr” and provided his family monthly payments through the “Pay to Slay” program, according to the settlement.
Under the program, payments increase based on the severity of the attack and are paid either to imprisoned terrorists or to their families if the attackers are killed. Palestinian Media Watch reported the program has produced 160 Palestinian millionaires through terrorism-related payments, according to the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.
Congress stated in the Taylor Force Act that payments to terrorists and their families “serve as an incentive to commit acts of terror,” according to the lawsuit. Although Congress does not directly fund the Palestinian Authority, America First Legal argued that U.S. payments covering certain Palestinian expenses free up money for the terrorism payment system.
President Donald Trump signed the Taylor Force Act into law in 2018. America First Legal alleged that the Biden administration later violated the law by providing more than $1 billion in aid benefiting Palestinians, indirectly supporting the payment system.
In a 2022 lawsuit against the Biden administration, America First Legal represented Taylor Force’s parents, Stuart and Robbi Force; U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas; and Sarrir Singer, a survivor of one of the deadliest terrorist bus bombings in Israel’s history.
The State Department reached an agreement last week prohibiting support that directly benefits the Palestinian Authority for the next decade. According to America First Legal, only the secretary of state, deputy secretary of state, deputy secretary of state for management and resources, and under secretary of state for foreign assistance may determine whether aid programs directly benefit the Palestinian Authority.
Those officials must evaluate whether the Palestinian Authority or its creditors directly receive the funds and whether U.S. assistance replaces services or spending previously provided by the Palestinian Authority, according to the settlement.
Singer said the settlement is “deeply personal.”
“As a victim of terrorism and a survivor of a Hamas bus bombing, I have lived with the painful reality that the person who carried out the attack against me is not only honored, but that his family receives monthly payments because of that act of violence,” she said. “That is not just policy; it is deeply personal, and no victim should ever have to live with it. This settlement brings a level of accountability and helps ensure that the U.S. is not contributing, even indirectly, to incentivizing terror.”
