PA triggers outrage donating medicine to Venezuela not Gaza

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is facing sharp criticism from online activists and social media users after it sent pharmaceutical aid to Venezuela while Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from a shortage in medical supplies and electricity as well as salary cuts.

Palestinian activists strongly criticised the PA, accusing it of contradicting itself by sending aid to a country located thousands of miles away from occupied Palestinian territory at the same time as contributing towards the suffering of its own people in Gaza, which is located only 83 kilometres away from the West Bank.

Read: PA hindering Gaza hospitals, but services continuing

The dispatch of pharmaceutical supplies to Venezuela was supervised by Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki and Health Minister Jawad Awaad.

Al-Maliki said in a press statement that the Palestinian aid “came in response to a call made by the Venezuelan government due to the difficult circumstances that the country is going through”.

He added that his government – under the supervision of President Mahmoud Abbas – wants to return the favour to the Venezuelan people as their country has made donations to Palestine over the years, such as establishing the Hugo Chavez ophthalmologist hospital in the West Bank.