News that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had publicly refuted reports that he had put an end to the PA’s “martyr payments” was met with dismay and frustration on Capitol Hill. 

Abbas said at a Fatah Revolutionary Council meeting on Thursday that the PA would continue paying terrorists who kill Israelis and their families “even if we have only one cent left.” The PA president said that those who carry out terror attacks against Israelis “are more precious than all of us combined.”

“I will never allow and you will never allow the reduction of any obligation, interest or cent that is given to them,” Abbas said. “They must receive everything as in the past.”

The PA originally posted the video to its social media platforms before quickly taking it down. It resurfaced after Khaled Abu Toameh of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs shared the full speech. The address included a section on the “pay-for-slay” program, through which the PA has paid monthly salaries to terrorists in prison or the families of terrorists killed by Israel for over 30 years. The program has paid out hundreds of millions of dollars annually in recent years. 

Senators on both sides of the aisle excoriated Abbas over the remarks and his refusal to shelve the program, which some lawmakers had been skeptical was ever going to be scrapped. 

“Abbas and other top Palestinian Authority officials have said for years, over and over again, that they consider pay-for-slay payments and the terrorism those payments incentivize to be at the core of Palestinian governance and identity. They never stopped the payments, and they were never going to,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told Jewish Insider in a statement. 

“It’s baffling that anyone would have fallen for what was obviously a propaganda operation being peddled by biased activists masquerading as journalists and think tankers,” Cruz added, noting his longstanding distrust of Abbas and the PA. 

Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that he had not heard about the decision, but added, “When I do, I will probably have a strong reaction to that.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the top Democrat on Foreign Relations, told JI in response to the news that, “I support a two-state solution. I think it needs to be a Palestinian state that has leadership that’s reflective of the Palestinian people, and I’m not sure that that’s the current situation.”

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) said upon hearing the news: “That is a terrible choice.”

“Given the pressures we are under to try and find a positive path forward for stabilizing the West Bank and Gaza, Abbas should take this moment to change direction and change policy,” Coons told JI.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) called the news “despicable” and said that the development “absolutely” reaffirmed his position that the PA cannot be in control of Gaza or the West Bank. When told of Abbas’ comments, the Florida senator replied: “Well then, why would we ever deal with them?”

“The only group that should be in control over there and that we can trust is the Israeli government,” Scott told JI.

“I think the whole ‘pay-for-slay’ program is just an atrocity. It’s an abomination. The fact that they would even consider continuing it is shocking to me, frankly,” Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) told JI, adding that the move “just deepens the concern I think we all share as Americans.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said the news was “terrible,” noting that, “It had been my understanding that he had agreed to end pay-for-slay, so I didn’t realize that had been reversed.”

“This program, which reimburses the families of terrorists who kill Israelis or Americans, only shows the true intentions of those that would like to wipe Israel off the map,” Collins told JI. “The Palestinian Authority has a lot of problems. First of all, Abbas is growing increasingly older, and there’s a lot of corruption, so that’s difficult. I’d like to see the Arab nations get together and talk about possible leaders, and by the Arab nations, I mean those that have recognized Israel.”