The British Department for International Development has frozen a Palestine aid program worth some $30 million, justifying the move as an attempt to avoid providing “salaries to terrorists.”
Since 2011, the Palestinian Authority has provided monetary resources to Palestinians held in custody in Israeli prisons. In case these people were killed by Israelis, that money would go to relatives. These payments are made partly with aid money from various foreign entities, including European countries, such as the UK and Germany.
Earlier, these payments were made from the Palestine
Authority budget. After 2014, these payments became the responsibility
of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Earlier this summer, UK lawmakers demanded that the
Department for International Development aid program be canceled,
claiming the Palestinian Authority diverts aid money to the PLO, who
they claim is a sponsor of terrorism. At the time, the department
rejected the demand.
But this year MP Priti Patel, appointed new head of the
Department, reportedly ordered a review of where department funding
goes. Until the results are compiled, she has ordered that
about one-third of the total UK aid to Palestine be frozen, according to reporters.
According to a source in the
department, "we are not stopping [funding] for the Palestinian Authority
overall, just delaying it to a date when we know our money won't be
going to people who do nothing in return for it."
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