US money going to convicted terrorists; American training for aspiring terrorists

After Palestinian media surveillance presentation to the US Congress In 2011, as the Palestinian Authority (PA) paid salaries to terrorists, most Western countries eventually cut funding from the PA's general budget and instead allocated money to specific projects, such as 'education. However, a Palestinian cadre remained a beneficiary of Western money and was also excluded from the limitations of the Taylor Force Act, which prohibits American funding of the Palestinian Authority. This cadre is the security forces of the Palestinian Authority.

The US State Department said that in 2002 it provided $45 million to the Palestinian Authority's security sector:

The U.S. government plans to provide an additional $75 million in economic aid to the Palestinian people this year. Additionally, the United States is also providing $45 million for programs to support the security sector, including significantly improving the rule of law.

[U.S. Department of State website, March 26, 2022]

Today, the Palestinian Authority reports that the Western-funded General Intelligence Service of the Palestinian Authority Security Forces has provided a special grant to precisely the terrorists the West tries not to fund – to convicted Palestinian terrorists and dead terrorists. Worse still, the recipients are terrorist members of the Palestinian Authority's General Intelligence Service who have used their US-supplied training and weapons to carry out terrorism against Israel. The decision to provide these subsidies to terrorists was made by the head of the Palestinian Authority's general intelligence service, Majed Faraj, presented internationally as a moderate who cooperates with Israel in the fight against Palestinian terrorism. Yet instead of punishing members of the PA security forces who turned to terrorism, Faraj decided to give them an additional reward:

THE [PA] General Intelligence Service to Jenin on condition a grant to the families of martyrs and prisoners [i.e., terrorists] from the ranks of district services…

A delegation from the service awarded the grant to 25 families among the families of the martyrs and 11 families among the families of prisoners from the ranks of general intelligence.
[PA General Intelligence] The director of the service in Jenin, Adnan Abu Aisheh, said that the service's message, under instructions from his boss [Head of PA General Intelligence] Majed Faraj, is to underline what President Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly said: if we have a cent left, it will be paid to the families of the martyrs and prisoners. [emphasis added]

[WAFA, official PA news agency, April 4, 2024; official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 5, 2024]

Official PA TV also reported on special grants given to family members of PA security forces who became terrorists:

Flash info on screen: THE [PA] General intelligence [Service] provides a grant to the families of martyrs and the prisoners of its members in the Jenin district.

[Official PA TV, April 5, 2024]

In addition to these direct payments from the US budget to terrorists, new recruits to the Palestinian Authority security forces train “at a US-funded training center.” [Washington Post,March 5, 2024].

Monitoring of Palestinian mediarecently revealed that in addition to those receiving special grants, PA forces in general are deeply involved in terrorism, as one PA official admitted:

More than 63 to 65% of the martyrs in the West Bank, in daily clashes, are members of the Fatah movement. And most of them are members of the [PA] The security forces or their sons… Those who are chased in the streets, arrested and imprisoned are the officers of the Palestinian security forces. [emphasis added]

[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, June 14, 2023]

Fatah also corroborated the PA TV report:

More than two-thirds of West Bank martyrs since [the last] for a year and a half, we belong to the Fatah movement and the PA… More than 355 of our Palestinian prisoners in prisons are from the Palestinian people. [PA] Security forces, i.e. Palestinian Authority soldiers.

[Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page, May 27, 2023]

In summary, the US-funded PA General Intelligence Service provides grants to convicted general intelligence terrorists, and new recruits to the PA security forces are trained in facilities built in the United States. In other words, it appears that the money is going directly to convicted terrorists while the United States trains aspiring terrorists.

The authors are the founder and senior analyst of Palestine Media Watch, where a version of this article was published. originally published.