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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has issued a decree cancelling a law for the provision of allowances to families of Palestinians killed or detained by Israel, a contentious move seen by critics as a way to appease the US administration, which over the years has demanded scrapping the legislation.
The decision, reported by the official news agency Wafa, stipulates that allowances will be transferred from the control of the Ministry of Social Development to the independent Palestinian National Economic Empowerment Foundation.
Many Palestinian officials and analysts have criticised the decision, viewing it as a move to curry favour with the Trump administration, which in 2018 signed the Taylor Force Act into law, halting US aid to the Palestinian Authority.
Hours after the announcement, head of the Palestinian Commission of Detainees' Affairs, Qadoura Fares, urged Mr Abbas to reconsider.
"I urge [the] Palestinian President and head of the Palestinian Liberational Organisation Mahmoud Abbas to listen to the overwhelming majority of Palestinian society ... and we can't all be wrong.
"The wounded and detainees are all someone's children and this is a responsibility that you will be asked about on the day of judgment. I urge you to withdraw this decree and then discuss it with all those involved."
A senior Palestinian security official told The National that the move by Mr Abbas is seen as an insult to the Palestinian struggle.
"By converting the payments from a matter that falls under the umbrella of the Palestinian struggle and resistance to a welfare issue, Abbas is trying to show goodwill towards the US administration and Trump who will take this decision for free – just as he had been making big decisions and taking things that are not rightfully his," the source said, referring to Mr Trump's recent comments on "buying Gaza".
The Palestinian Authority has been accused of fostering a "pay to slay" system and incentivising people to commit crimes by ensuring their families are taken care of in the event that they are killed, injured or detained by Israel.
A senior Fatah official told The National that while he does not believe the decision will come into effect if the new institution taking over the payments is not ready to seamlessly make them, there needs to be clarity on whether the decision affects the amount received by the families.
"Right now, families are paid according to how long their relatives have been sentenced to jail for," he said. "But people who disagree with this say that by doing so, there are incentives for people to commit greater crimes that have greater sentences in Israeli jail because their families will receive bigger payments.
"That is not the case," he added, clarifying that the Palestinian Authority's allowances to families are correlated to their loved ones' time in Israeli jail because it would also mean a longer time spent by the detainee away from the workforce.
"So there are questions regarding whether this will be impacted that need to be clarified in the law."
System overhaul
There are current systems in place that pay families according to the status of the detainees – whether they are married, divorced, newly detained etc, Mr Fares said.
But under the welfare system, "members of the new institution will have to go to the family's homes and check what they have in the fridge", he said.
Palestinian legal analyst Ahmad Bassioni said the issue is more complex than may seem. "Under the new law, the salary goes to his family according to the regulations – that is, they would still receive allowances but instead of them being under the name of the person killed, wounded or incarcerated, it would be under the family's name."
Some Hebrew-language newspapers have characterised this as a "circumvention" of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) laws that enables Israel to withhold Palestinian tax revenue equivalent to the amount the Palestinian Authority pays to families of people wounded, killed or detained by Israel.
"After years of financial punishment, the Palestinian Authority understood that the American and Israeli laws will not change, especially with the presence of right-wing governments in Israel and America, and the occupation will continue to cut off money and deprive families of their rights," Mr Bassioni said.
Another reason for the decree, he added, is that particularly after Israel's 15-month bombardment of Gaza, resulting in more than 48,000 Palestinians killed, and Israel's escalation in the West Bank, the number of people killed, wounded and detained had reached "unprecedented levels".
"The Palestinian Authority will be responsible for supporting these families and if there is no clear law and way of doing so, it will be very difficult to provide their families with assistance."
That said, Mr Bassioni called for further clarification on the new laws so the exact methodology of allocation of allowances can be made clear.
