Spotlight on reformed aid system for Palestinian prisoners' families

By AFP/Chloe Rouveyrolles-Bazire and Hossam Ezzedine

The dismissal of a senior official who opposed reforms to the financial aid system for families of Palestinians killed, wounded or imprisoned by Israel has reignited debate over the controversial policy.

Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian committee overseeing prisoners' affairs, was sacked on Tuesday after publicly criticising the Palestinian Authority's decision to revamp the aid structure earlier this month.

The PA implemented the reforms under sustained US pressure and criticism from Israel.

Financial support for relatives of "prisoners, martyrs and the wounded" will now be integrated into the general Palestinian welfare system, a shift that has drawn strong opposition from many Palestinians.

Complex and opaque

Aid to families of Palestinians killed or jailed by Israel is a legal requirement under the Basic Law of the Palestinian Authority, which serves as a constitution for the Ramallah-based government.

The law considers "maintaining the welfare" of these families as a "duty".

In 2004, the Palestinian parliament, which has not convened since 2017, voted into law an allowance for families with members in jail to compensate for lost revenue during their detention.

A 2013 amendment favoured the hiring of Palestinians who had spent time in jail for civil service posts, to guarantee them a salary upon release.

Families of "martyrs", as Palestinians call those whose deaths are linked to violence involving Israel, are also entitled to an allowance.

According to Fares, the scheme has benefited between 35,000 and 40,000 families.

Fares was dismissed after calling for the reform's immediate withdrawal.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are estimated to have been distributed under the previous system, but its functioning and exact budget are opaque.

Why reform now?

Israel has long criticised the aid system, viewing it as incitement and a reward for violence in that it benefits former prisoners jailed on "terrorism" charges.

Since 2019, Israel has several times frozen funds it collects on behalf of the PA -- such as customs fees from borders it controls -- to avoid these being used to pay the families of Palestinians who attacked Israelis.

The aid system's detractors in the Israeli and US governments have dubbed it a "Pay for Slay" fund.

US President Donald Trump, who adopted the phrase, signed a 2018 law during his first term that suspended direct financial aid to the PA as long as it continued to pay the families of Palestinians convicted of "terror" charges as defined by Israel.

Other countries threatened to follow suit, or froze funds.

Last summer, the European Union warned the PA that financial aid would be conditional on the scheme's reform.

A February 10 Palestinian presidential decree stipulated that the scheme's beneficiaries would now have to go through the regular welfare system, and aid would be disbursed based on individual needs, as sought by the European Union and the United States.

The Palestinian Authority badly needs funds, struggling to pay its own civil servants on time.

A source in the Palestinian finance ministry told AFP that financial aid for families of prisoners and "martyrs" had not been paid over the past three months.

"I believe the Palestinians are doing it mainly vis-à-vis the Trump administration," Martin Konecky, head of the European Middle East Project (EUMEP), told AFP of the reforms.

He sees the move as a "desperate effort to try to get on good terms with Trump and prevent more disasters to the Palestinians coming from his administration".

However, Konecky called the strategy "naive in light of the Israeli escalation".

At the forefront of coercive economic measures against Palestinians, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said several times he hopes the PA will collapse, presenting it as a "burden" to be eliminated.

Popular backlash

A day after the reform's announcement, Palestinians expressed strong opposition to it in social and traditional media, calling the move socially detrimental and a "betrayal" of the Palestinian cause.

The United States welcomed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's decision as "a positive step and a big win for the (Trump) administration".

However, several Israeli ministers dismissed the reform as merely symbolic.