The World Keeps Rewarding The Palestinian Authority - So Why Change?

Mahmoud Abbas stood before the United Nations last week--virtually--and delivered an astonishing message to the world.

The Palestinian Authority's reform job is essentially finished.

"We have completed the national reform program," Abbas declared, claiming his government had strengthened transparency, accountability, financial management, the rule of law and the fight against corruption.

He said the Palestinian welfare system had been transformed. Education was being reformed according to international standards. Democratic renewal was underway. The Palestinian leadership rejected terrorism, extremism, antisemitism and hatred.

There was just one problem.

Nine days earlier, the United States government had reached almost the opposite conclusion.

The State Department reported that the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization had "once again failed to live up to their commitments," specifically accusing them of continuing payments to terrorists and glorifying terrorists through public statements and school textbooks. Washington responded by extending visa sanctions against PA and PLO officials.

So which Palestinian Authority are we talking about?

The transformed institution Abbas described at the UN?

Or the institution the United States says continues practices the international community has demanded it abandon?

Increasingly, that question doesn't seem to matter--because the money keeps coming anyway.

Canada announced another C$100 million in assistance for Palestinians during the UN General Assembly meetings while the European Union has proposed a €1.6 billion program through 2027. That includes €620 million in direct financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority, which the European Commission says is partially linked to reform commitments. 

But what actually happens when the Palestinian Authority doesn't reform?

Apparently, another opportunity to reform.

Consider perhaps the most notorious issue.

Abbas abolished the old prisoner-payment system and announced a new social welfare arrangement supposedly based upon financial need rather than a prisoner's offense or sentence.

Problem solved?

Not according to the U.S. government.

An April State Department report to Congress concluded that despite changing the mechanism, the PA continued providing payments and benefits to terrorists and their families. According to the report, approximately $156 million was paid during 2025.

Its conclusion was devastatingly simple: the PA continued a system of compensation supporting terrorism through "new mechanisms and under a different name."

That isn't reform.

That's rebranding.

Education provides another test.

Abbas told the UN that Palestinian education was being reformed according to international standards.

Yet IMPACT-se examined 290 textbooks and 71 teacher guides from the 2025-26 Palestinian curriculum and concluded they remained substantively unchanged from previous editions.

Its researchers documented material they classified as promoting jihad and martyrdom, glorifying terrorism, encouraging antisemitism, rejecting peacemaking and erasing Israel from maps.

If the next generation continues being taught many of the narratives the international community has spent years demanding be removed, what exactly has been reformed?

Then there is democracy.

Abbas speaks about "democratic renewal," yet Palestinians have not held legislative elections since 2006.

That may finally change. Abbas has decreed legislative elections for November 28, 2026, with presidential elections expected in 2027.  Naturally his hand picked successor, Hussein al-Sheikh is expected to win and continue his policies.

But promising an election is not the same thing as holding one.

Palestinian human-rights organization Lawyers for Justice continues documenting allegations of political detention, restrictions on expression and disregard for judicial release orders. Its latest annual report was released just one day before Abbas addressed the UN.

Those aren't Israeli accusations against the Palestinian Authority.

They are Palestinians raising concerns about their own government.

There is a serious argument for keeping the Palestinian Authority functioning.

Western governments fear that its collapse could produce chaos in the West Bank, undermine basic services, weaken security cooperation and potentially create opportunities for Hamas or other armed groups.

The UN warned this month that the PA is facing an "acute fiscal and institutional crisis" and called for international support to sustain Palestinian institutions. Interestingly, the same UN report praised progress in some areas of reform while acknowledging that significant work remains in areas including judicial independence, access to information, social protection and education.

And therein lies the problem.

If Western governments believe the Palestinian Authority is too important to fail, Mahmoud Abbas knows it too.

That fundamentally changes the leverage behind every demand for reform.

The international community says: Reform, or else.

But what is the "or else"?

When the PA faces another financial emergency, donors mobilize. When reforms stall, another reform program appears. When promises aren't fulfilled, new promises are made.

And now Abbas simply announces that the reforms have been completed.

The normal order of conditional assistance should be straightforward:

Reform. Verify. Reward.

Increasingly, the Palestinian model looks dangerously close to:

Promise. Reward. Fail. Promise again. Reward again.

That creates precisely the wrong incentive.

If Western governments truly want a Palestinian leadership capable of peacefully governing a future state alongside Israel, they should have every reason to insist upon measurable results.

Have terrorist-linked payments actually ended?

Have textbooks actually changed?

Are political opponents free to criticize their government?

Are corruption and abuses investigated?

Will genuine elections actually occur?

Those questions can be answered with evidence.

Mahmoud Abbas says the reforms are complete.

Fine.

Then stop measuring Palestinian reform by speeches at the United Nations and start measuring it by what happens in Ramallah, Palestinian classrooms, government ministries, welfare payments and polling stations.

Because there is a larger lesson here.

Governments generally change behavior when refusing to change carries consequences.

If the Palestinian Authority receives financial rescue, diplomatic support and greater international legitimacy whether reforms succeed or fail, we shouldn't be surprised when "reform" eventually becomes little more than a word inserted into another speech.

The international community keeps demanding that the Palestinian Authority change.

Perhaps it is time to ask the more uncomfortable question:

Why would it?