Palestinian Authority Martyr's Fund

The Palestinian Authority Martyrs Fund is a fund operated by the Palestinian Authority for the purpose of paying a monthly cash stipend to the families of Palestinians killed, injured or imprisoned for involvement in attacking, assisting in attacking, or planning to attack Israel, or for other types of politically-inspired violence, including riots, violent demonstrations, and throwing rocks, and also for paying cash stipends to the families of innocent bystanders killed during violent events. In addition, it provides pocket money to all Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails for ordinary crimes.

The Fund traces its origins to a fund created by Fatah in 1964 to support the widows and orphans of Palestinian fedayeen.

The Palestine Mujahidin and Martyrs Fund was established in 1964 by Fatah to recompense the families of dead and wounded militants. In 1971 it was replaced by the Society for the Care of Palestinian Martyrs and Prisoners. The Society defined as "military martyrs" not only as Palestinian fedayeen killed during terrorist operations, but to include fedayeen who died of natural causes while on active service. Their families received cash stipends. 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.

SAMED, the Palestine Martyrs Works Society, was founded in 1970; it handled some of the "martyr payments and provided employment in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon in the 1970s.

The payments were routinized during the Second Intifada (2000–2005). In 2016, it made payments to 35,000 families, including the families of suicide bombers, from a 2016 annual budget of $170 million. The stipend is higher than the average Palestinian wage.

The question of whether militants from all political factions will receive Palestinian Authority subsidies has been highly contested within Palestinian society; President Mahmoud Abbas withdrew, then in 2009 restored, subsidies for prisoners belonging to the Palestinian Liberation Organization, but this government claims that it does not pay subsidies to families of prisoners belonging to Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

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