Palestinians blame Trump as their funding tanks, down 85 percent

By Josh Plank, World Israel News

Palestinian Authority (PA) officials say President Donald Trump could be to blame for a dramatic drop in Arab aid to the PA, The New Arab reported Wednesday.

“Most of the Arab countries did not abide by the decisions of the Arab summits to provide a financial safety net of $100 million for Palestine in the face of U.S. and Israeli sanctions,” said PA Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki.

“We do not know if this was the result of the financial repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic, or at the request of the United States, as President Trump said. But the result is the same, unfortunately these decisions have not been done nor implemented,” he said.

The New Arab reported that Trump told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he had “asked the rich Arab countries not to pay the Palestinians.”

According to data from the PA finance ministry, the total Arab aid given to the PA in the first seven months of 2020 was $38 million, down 85 percent from the same period in 2019, which was $267 million.

The PA has not received any aid from Arab countries since March.

The PA reported a 50 percent decrease in all foreign aid in the first seven months of 2020 and a 70 percent decrease in total revenue.

In April 2019, the Arab League had pledged $100 million per month to the PA to make up for tax revenue withheld by Israel. They renewed the pledge on June 23, 2019, the day after Trump released the economic portion of his “Peace to Prosperity” plan.

Israel withheld a portion of the tax revenue due to the PA’s policy of paying salaries to terrorists and their families.

The PA first refused to accept any Israeli funds in protest, but later decided to take the money and continue their “pay-for-slay” policy.

In 2018, the U.S. passed the Taylor Force Act, which cuts most U.S. aid to the PA unless it stops paying the salaries of terrorists and their families.