By 2014, mounting criticism of the payments led to the PA transferring management of the Martyrs Fund to the Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission, of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which now disburses the government-funding to recipients and their families.
[citation needed] On 10 February 2025, PA president Mahmoud Abbas signed a decree to end the Martyrs Fund.
[3] Fatah established the Palestine Mujahidin and Martyrs Fund in 1964 to recompense the families of dead and wounded Palestinian fedayeen militants.
Non-members of the Palestine Liberation Organization killed during any kind of encounter with Israeli security forces were given a one-time payment; this created an incentive for families to apply posthumously to have their dead relatives reclassified as fighters.
"[11] After the election of Joe Biden as U.S. President in 2020, Palestinian officials reportedly expressed a willingness to alter the way it pays the martyr fund payments, aimed at laying the groundwork for a new bilateral relationship with the United States.
[19][20] In 2017 the National Association of the Martyrs' Families of Palestine demanded cost of living increases in their stipends, which had been unchanged since 2011.
If they become civil servants, the law stipulates that the Palestinian Authority will "pay his social security and pension fees... for the years he spent in prison."
[8] As of 2018, Palestinians claim that the payments include more than $10 million to support purchases for food and clothing at the prison canteen.
"[35] By 2014, mounting criticism of the payments led to the PA transferring management of the Martyrs Fund to the Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission,[36] of the PLO, which now disburses the government-funding to recipients and their families.
[8] The Israeli government, describing the payments as glorifying terrorism, responded to the June 2016 murder of Hallel Yaffa Ariel by threatening to deduct the value of "martyr" payments from the tax and customs revenue it pays to the PA.[8][2] Speaking before the United Nations Security Council on 24 June 2017, Israeli ambassador Danny Danon, together with Oran Almog, one of the victims of the Maxim restaurant suicide bombing, demanded that the PA cease incentivizing terrorism by paying stipends to terrorists.
[36] In September 2022 the Israeli government issued seizure orders for 10 million shekels that the PA transferred into the private accounts of security prisoners who were involved in deadly attacks.
[44] During the month of September 2016, the government of Germany has expressed concerns about the payment of foreign aid to the PA in the light of the use of these funds to incentivize terrorism and has promised to investigate the matter.
[45] In November 2019, the Netherlands cut the US$1.5 million per annum it paid directly to the Palestinian Authority over payments it makes to families of militants killed, hurt, or imprisoned by Israel.
[48] Following the murder of Hallel Yaffa Ariel, a dual Israeli-U.S. national, in June 2016, the United States threatened to deduct the sums paid out to "martyrs" from the Martyrs Fund from the subsidies it grants to the PA.[7] The murder of American Taylor Force by a Palestinian led to Congress passing and President Donald Trump signing the Taylor Force Act in 2018.
[52] Some commentators allege that the Biden administration may circumvent the Taylor Force Act by merely claiming that the funds are being made in support of Palestinian "humanitarian aims."
Numerous commentators criticize how easily the PA is able to re-direct American funds once received from the United States, towards "pay to slay" programs.
"[53] In 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case, Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization and United States v. Palestine Liberation Organization, to decide whether American victims of Palestinian terror attacks can sue the PLO and PA for damages based on support for such attacks through the program.
[55] Countering Palestinian Authority claims that this is a welfare fund, the World Bank has stated that, "the program is clearly not targeted to the poorest households.
While some assistance should be directed to this population, the level of resources devoted to the Fund for Martyrs and the Injured does not seem justified from welfare or fiscal perspective.