US lawmakers campaign to cut funding to PA

US legislators are to vote on a bill later this year that would halt funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA) if the group refuses to cut aid given to the families of slain Palestinians.

The Taylor Force Act, which passed through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month, was added to a larger foreign operations bill yesterday, a strategy used in order to give the legislation a chance at being authorised more quickly, according to the Times of Israel.

The bill is scheduled to be voted on by the end of the year and, if signed into law, would cut payments to the PA, allegedly amounting to some $300 million, until the authority stops its regular subsidies to Palestinian resistance fighters and their families.

Whilst it is not certain that US President Donald Trump would sign the bill into law, he reportedly supports the law’s principal objective.

The PA has condemned the measure, saying shortly after its committee passage that the “unacceptable” legislation would violate Palestinians’ human rights.

Read:  I do not understand Trump’s peace plan says Abbas

To garner support for the bill, the original act was modified to take into account the need for humanitarian aid and now exempts assistance for the East Jerusalem Hospital Network. It also details the steps the PA can take for aid to resume.

However, Palestinian officials have said they intend to continue the payments, which support those who they see as working against the occupation. Many families survive entirely on allowances from the PA, as they suffer financially when Israeli occupying forces kill, wound, or imprison Palestinians during regular raids and administrative detentions.

Read: PA triggers outrage donating medicine to Venezuela not Gaza

Opponents of the bill have warned that cutting off economic aid to the Palestinians would increase poverty and instability in the West Bank and other occupied territories, fuelling more violence.

The US is not the only country to cut funding to the PA. Last month, Israeli sources reported that Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, had reduced their aid to PA President Mahmoud Abbas by a half.