EU, Spain donate $28.5m to Palestinian families

The European Union (EU) and Spain have donated €28.5 million ($28.5 million) towards the payment of social allowances for Palestinian families, based in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip.

The fund will be provided through the National Cash Transfer Programme, in collaboration with the Palestinian Ministry of Social Development, which will support up to 111,000 vulnerable Palestinian households.

The EU representative to the Palestinian territories, Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff, said: “Social protection is a basic human right that should be guaranteed by the government to all its people. In the Palestinian context, the most vulnerable families are facing enormous challenges.”

“The rights of the most vulnerable families should be protected as a priority. These families deserve a predictable and reliable social allowance mechanism which we will continue to support,” he continued

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The EU, the PA’s largest donor, contributed $28million, while Spain allocated its annual contribution to the scheme.

Ventura Rodríguez García, head of the Spanish Cooperation, explained that the donation has been given in order to help improve the livelihood of Palestinians.

She added, “For many years, Spain has been providing reliable and predictable support to the Palestinian Government for the delivery of essential public services to the Palestinian population, ensuring ownership and contributing to the reduction of multi-dimensional poverty.”