In terms of wage discrimination of this type, Palestine performs no better than any Western country.

Ramallah, January 20 – Feminist organizations voiced outrage this week upon the publication of statistics indicating that Palestinian Authority payments to murderers of Jewish Israelis, or to the families of the murderers if the latter was killed in the attempt, allocate for women attackers only seven tenths of the amount it pays to men for killing the same number of Jews.

Local and international women’s organizations issued a joint statement Monday to denounce the flagrant sex discrimination evident in Palestinian pensions to “martyrs” and their relatives, following the release of a report that provided a breakdown of lifetime payments according to gender. The report, a collaborative effort by Amnesty International and the Palestine Center for Human Rights, found that Palestinian women who killed Israeli Jews receive just over two thirds the amount that Palestinian men receive for identical acts and quantity of victims, regardless of whether they accomplished the murder via stabbing, shooting, bludgeoning, firebombing, stoning, ramming, strangulation, or some other method. The groups’ statement called for payments for killings of Israelis by Palestinian women to be increased to match those that men receive.

“This kind of discrimination is unconscionable,” declared the organizations. “Women martyrs and would-be martyrs, as well as their families, deserve equal pay to that of their male counterparts. A society that seeks to establish itself among the company of its progressive, enlightened allies and supporters must do better. The current statistics demonstrate that in terms of wage discrimination of this type, Palestine performs no better than any Western country, despite headlining the progressive agenda across all intersectional issues. This must change.”

The report specified certain steps that the Palestinian government, led by President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction, must take to improve the situation, but acknowledged the limited impact such measures will have while the country remains under belligerent Israeli occupation. “Ultimately, the continuation of this discriminatory practice rests on ending the Occupation,” it concluded. “President Abbas and his advisers can only do so much while Israel controls everything except the finances, banking, internal commerce, taxes, voting, essential services, and other functions of government. The idea that Abbas can simply change the amount allocated for women to match that allocated for men unless Israel ends its illegal occupation is a non-starter. So deleterious is the Occupation’s effect that even after the anticipated removal of Israeli military and settler presence, we expect the gap to remain for some time.”

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