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JERUSALEM: Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar criticized the Palestinian Authority (PA) for emboldening terrorism with its infamous “Pay-for-Slay” program after a Palestinian on Friday killed two Israelis.
Palestinian terrorists killed Aviv Maor, 19, of Kibbutz Ein Harod and Mordechai Shimshon, 68, of Beit She’an on Friday, in northern Israel.
The Palestinian “Pay-for-Slay” policy received widespread public attention when Taylor Force, a West Point graduate who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, was brutally killed by a Palestinian terrorist on March 8, 2016, while on a tour of Israel. President Donald Trump signed the Taylor Force Act into law in October 2018, after a strong campaign by Force’s parents, Robbie and Stuart Force.
TRUMP ADMIN RACES TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS IN UN PALESTINIAN AID AGENCY COMMUNICATIONS AT HAMS LEVELS
Israeli security forces inspect the scene where a car was used by an attacker in a suspected terrorist attack involving a drive-by and stabbing that killed two people in Afula, northern Israel, on December 26, 2025. (Gil Eliyahu/Reuters)
Before Friday’s terrorist attack, Sa’ar issued warnings to the international community about the alleged treachery of the Palestinian leadership. He wrote on X: “Don’t believe the lies of Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinian Authority’s payments to terrorists and their families have not stopped. The PA decided to continue its ‘Pay-to-kill’ policy. This includes payments to the families of ‘martyrs’ and wounded terrorists, jailed terrorists and freed terrorists. The PA also changes the payments of freed murderers to murderers. Security Services! This is perversion. End ‘Pay-for-Slay’ now!”
Abbas is the 90-year-old chain-smoking president of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank (the region is known in Israel by its biblical names Judea and Samaria.)
Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, told Fox News Digital that contrary to the Palestinian Authority’s claims about stopping the “Pay-for-Slay” program, “there is no major change in the Palestinian Authority’s policy regarding terrorist payments.”
Taylor Force was a West Point graduate who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, and was pursuing his MBA at Vanderbilt University. His bright future was cruelly confirmed on March 8, 2016, when Taylor was walking with his Vanderbilt friends along the Mediterranean boardwalk in Tel Aviv, Israel. A Palestinian terrorist attacked the group with a knife, and Taylor was stabbed to death. (Found by Force Family)
He went on to say “They made noise as if they were changing their policies. But he called it a “façade” with no change in policy.
Michael said “Pay-for-Slay will continue in a different way. Sponsors and the international community [who finance the PA] you will find it difficult to guard.”
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Counter-terrorism expert Michael, who is also a fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy, said the PA “describes terrorists as social welfare. They continue to support the mobilization of Israel.
According to a December 19 report by the Times of Israel, an organization linked to the PA – The Palestinian National Economic Empowerment Institution (also known as Tamkeen) – disputed the Israeli government’s claim of “Pay-for Slay” even now.
Tamkeen noted in its statement that it “confirms that the payment system linked to the number of years of imprisonment has been completely abolished and is no longer valid in any way.” It added that “Claims about its progress fall under the category of willful misrepresentation and material misrepresentation.”
Fox News Digital reached out multiple times to the Palestinian Authority for comment and referred media inquiries to the Palestinian National Economic Empowerment Institution (Tamkeen.)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas meets with then-President Joe Biden in the city of Bethlehem in the West Bank, Friday, July 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
When asked by Fox News Digital what donor countries can do to stop “Pay-for-Slay,” Michael said, “Be bold when it comes to donating money,” adding that “there are many ways to pressure the Palestinian Authority.”
He strongly criticized Western European leaders who saw an independent Palestinian state in 2025 without guaranteeing that the state would not be a sponsor of terrorism. “Western leaders, the British prime minister, the French president and the Spanish prime minister are rushing and running to see a Palestinian state, and they don’t care what happens under the Palestinian Authority in the territories.” He said their recognition is “motivation to continue ‘Paying to Slay.'”
Michael said the Trump administration is the only one “applying pressure on the Palestinian Authority.”
A Palestinian terrorist from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is seen holding a weapon during a military parade in the Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus, in the northern West Bank. (Photo by Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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He stressed that if the US-designated terrorist organization Hamas is eliminated and disbanded in Gaza, “it will be another success for Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.”
The U.S. State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem did not immediately respond to inquiries from Fox News Digital.
