Judge allows 'pay-for-slay' lawsuit against PA, PLO to proceed

A federal judge on Monday denied a motion by the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Organization to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that their terrorist-payment programs, dubbed “play-for-slay,” helped induce two Hamas attacks.

The plaintiffs are Stuart Force, father of Taylor Force, an American who was stabbed to death in Israel in 2016, and Israeli-American Hananel Gez, who was wounded in a May 2025 shooting in Israel that killed his pregnant wife, Tzeela, and their infant son, Ravid Haim.

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The complaint alleges that the attackers knew their families would receive P.A.-funded benefits if they were imprisoned or killed.

“Pay-for-slay isn’t welfare,” said Mark Goldfeder, director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, which represents the plaintiffs. “It incentivizes murder.”

U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon ruled that the allegations plausibly described a publicized promise of payment that may constitute substantial assistance under the Antiterrorism Act.

McMahon wrote in her decision that whether the assailants knew of and relied upon the promised payments must be tested through discovery. The defendants must answer the complaint by Sept. 15.

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