Khaberni - A Palestinian official and a second informed source told "The Times of Israel" that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed his finance minister for allowing direct payments to Palestinian security prisoners through an old mechanism that determines their entitlements based on the duration of their sentences.
According to the official Palestinian news agency (WAFA), Abbas' office announced earlier on Monday that the Minister of Planning and International Cooperation of the Palestinian Authority, Istefan Salameh, has replaced Omar Al-Baytar as the finance minister, but no reason for this decision was provided.
The sources indicated that Al-Baytar's dismissal followed an internal investigation that revealed he had authorized payments to some Palestinian security prisoners outside the new system established by the Palestinian Authority earlier this year. This new system strictly required that such social allowances be disbursed based on financial need, not according to the length of their sentences.
According to the newspaper, the United States, Israel, and many of the Palestinian Authority's supporters in the Arab world and Europe have long demanded this reform, accusing Ramallah of encouraging attacks on Israelis and describing the old policy as a "pay-to-slay" scheme.
Abbas signed a decree in February (Shubat) abolishing the old system, and publicly confirmed that it was no longer in place during his remarks at the United Nations General Assembly in September (Ailul).
While the majority of payments under the old system had already ceased with the implementation of the new system, a small minority of prisoner families managed to receive their salaries through the old payment mechanism, according to what the two sources told "The Times of Israel."
