US excludes security agencies from PA aid freeze

The US has admitted that it has not stopped financial aid to the Palestinian Authority security agencies as part of its general freeze of tens of millions of dollars which support civil programmes in the occupied territories, Safa News Agency reported on Friday. US President Donald Trump has praised the PA security agencies in the occupied West Bank for their efforts to undermine Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation.

“Direct and indirect US aid to the PA stopped at the beginning of July,” said local sources. “However, US assistance to the PA security services, which amounts to $100m a year, is ongoing because Congress is sure that stopping it would undermine US security and the security cooperation between the PA and Israel.”

Trump announced last year that he will stop America’s contribution to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the PA to put pressure on the authority to stop paying salaries to Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails and prisoners released by Israel, as well as to the families of Palestinians killed by Israel. The move was made at the request of the Israeli government.

The PA has refused to comply with this, even though President Mahmoud Abbas is on record as saying that the PA’s security cooperation with Israel is “sacred”. Critics point out that the PA security agencies exist solely to protect Israel and Israeli interests, not the people of Palestine.