PA received under 10% of annual aid usually provided

Middle East Monitor  /  November 10, 2021

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is experiencing “the most difficult in years” as a result of its funding, Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said during a special session yesterday.

Shtayyeh told his cabinet that the financial situation “is the most difficult in years given that the amount of aid received so far did not exceed ten per cent of what usually reaches the treasury.”

He said that the lack of money “is reflected in the government’s operating expenses.”

According to Wafa news agency, the PA prime minister attributed the PA’s financial situation to the decline in international aid, along with the Israeli deductions from the tax revenues and the economic and financial repercussions caused by COVID-19.

Shtayyeh said that the PA did not receive any financial aid from Arab countries over the past two years.

“Despite the fact that the United States has resumed some of its assistance to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the laws of the US Congress prevent the US administration from directly assisting the PA.”

The donor countries, he added, “are going to meet in Oslo next week and the PA will ask them to pressure Israel to stop its deductions from the Palestinian tax revenues, as well as to increase their aid to the Palestinian government in order to fulfill its obligations toward its people.”

“We hope that we will be able to overcome this crisis in the near future.”