The United States recently touted some $40 million in emergency humanitarian assistance throughout the Middle East and North Africa to help combat the coronavirus pandemic. The West Bank and Gaza are not on the list of beneficiaries of this US largesse.

In fact, the Donald Trump administration is doubling down on its policy of eliminating Palestinian aid despite the COVID-19 pandemic. This has placed the White House at odds with the purse-string holders in Congress, particularly Democrats who worry that the Palestinian aid freeze could exacerbate the spread of COVID-19 throughout the West Bank and the densely populated Gaza Strip.

Bonnie Glick, the deputy administrator at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), defended the policy in an interview with Jewish Insider published today. 

“It actually isn’t controversial except it’s portrayed in a controversial way,” Glick said. “The Palestinians, through [Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas], asked us to stop our assistance to the Palestinian Authority, because under congressional legislation it would’ve meant that they would be on the hook to pay reparations to American terror victims.”