July 31, 2017 -- Claims are made that the Palestinian Authority paid Jerusalem Arabs to protest during the recent Temple Mount crisis.

An article appeared on the JewishPress.com website yesterday in which Hana Levi Julian claimed that Jerusalem Arabs were paid by the Palestinian Authority to riot over the Temple Mount.  According to Julian,

Jerusalem Arabs were promised monetary stipends of $1,000 per month for up to three months. They were also given discounts and exemptions from payments to the Jerusalem District Electric Company, which supplies power to the Arab-majority neighborhoods in the area.

Arab college students in the Old City of Jerusalem who participated in anti-Israel clashes were promised free tuition by the Palestinian Authority, according to the report.

All the employees of the Islamic Waqf Authority – which manages the holy sites on the Temple Mount but which falls under the auspices of the Government of Jordan – were also promised cash payments, according to the report, as were Arab merchants in the Old City of Jerusalem. 

The only evidence provided in Julian’s article is from Gal Berger from Kann News and Berger’s Twitter account posting from July 30, 2017.  Once on his site, I found a copy of a letter written in Arabic dated July 25, 2017 that appears to have come from the Palestinian Authorities. 

On a critical note, I say appears to have come from the Palestinian Authority.  It would be nice to have additional verification on the story.  The story does appear on i24 News and The Times of Israel sites, however, their source is Channel 2.  There is no reference to a primary source or document.