Nabil Sha'at, Foreign Affairs advisor of PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas, said that the Palestinian leadership would not capitulate to American threats to stop funding terrorists jailed in Israel,
Sha'at termed the terrorists "heroes" and said that the PA is responsible to them and their families.
Every Palestinian prisoner, Israeli Arab and Arab, is entitled to receive from the PA a monthly stipend which grows in proportion to the number of years they serve in jail. Israel and the US see this as an expression of support for terror.