A thoroughly "distorted and misleading" article. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/12/07/why-the-discourse-about-palestinian-payments-to-prisoners-families-is-distorted-and-misleading/

1. It is not bigoted to point out that the Palestinian Authority incentivizes the murder of Israelis. The sliding scale of payments according to prison sentence, which correlates with the heinousness of the crime, demonstrates that the PA is rewarding terrorism.

2. These are not symbolic payments. They are 7% of the PA's budget, around $360 million a year. The PA has played a game of cat and mouse, disguising the payments and shifting who (the PLO or PA) pays it.

3. Palestinian violence cannot be excused as a reaction to an Israeli occupation that began in 1967. Palestinian violence predates 1967 by decades. The attempt to portray Palestinians as agentless reactors is disingenuous (and possibly bigoted).

4. Using conviction rate as a measure is misleading. In the U.S., the vast majority of cases that make it to trial result in convictions. Prosecutors only proceed when they have a strong case. Some context is necessary.

5. The article fails to prove its thesis: that the PA's martyrs payments don't incentivize terrorism. Regardless of their effectiveness, they are a PA-sponsored program for promoting violence.