Congress (mostly) signs off on Palestinian aid
Two Democratic lawmakers have singled out Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as the reason they are holding up the release of funds for an aid package to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
US lawmakers have released most of their holds on a $230.3 million aid package to the West Bank and Gaza, Al-Monitor has learned.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) notified Congress of the proposed spending in late September, prompting members upset with the Palestinian Authority (PA) to block the request. Since then, lawmakers have cleared all but $17.2 million of aid in their bid to bolster the PA and Fatah against its Hamas rivals while holding Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to account for what they view as his role in the worsening violence against Israelis.
The aid package aims in part to get around congressional prohibitions on direct aid to the PA following Fatah's reconciliation agreement with Hamas in April. It does so by applying $100 million directly to PA creditors, according to a recent analysis by the Congressional Research Service.
"While not provided directly to the PA, $75 million in requested funds will be used to make payments directly to two Israeli fuel companies to pay a portion of the debt owed by the PA, and to make payments to the Bank of Jordan to reimburse the Bank for payments that the Bank has made on behalf of the PA for debt incurred for fuel purchased for the West Bank and Gaza," Congressional Research Service expert Jim Zanotti wrote in the report. "An additional $25 million will be applied to a line of credit at the Bank of Jordan to reimburse the bank for debt payments made by the Bank on behalf of the PA to six non-governmental hospitals in East Jerusalem."
