The Associated Press reported on Friday that the Trump administration has decided to cut more than $200 million in economic assistance to the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA), according to United States officials and congressional aides.
The US State Department notified Congress of the decision Friday, said the officials and aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the fact that they were not authorized to publicly discuss the move ahead of its formal announcement.
But in a brief three-paragraph notice sent to lawmakers and obtained by AP, the department said it will redirect the money to “high-priority projects elsewhere.”
“At the direction of President Trump, we have undertaken a review of U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority and in the West Bank and Gaza to ensure these funds are spent in accordance with U.S. national interests and provide value to the U.S. taxpayer,” the State Department said in the notice.
“As a result of that review, at the direction of the President, we will redirect more than $200 million… originally planned for programs in the West Bank and Gaza,” it added.
Although the White House announced earlier this year that it had decided to re-examine the aid provided by the United States to the PA, in light of the PA boycotting Trump’s Middle East team, it was reported earlier this month that the State Department had transferred several million dollars to the PA’s American-trained security forces.
Nine Democratic members of Congress recently sent a letter to President Trump, demanding he publish whether aid to the PA has been reduced or eliminated without first speaking to Congress.
While this is obviously another transparent attempt by Trump and his Middle East team to beat the Palestinian political leadership into submission and force them to accept his two-state initiatives, the damage it could potentially do to Palestinian society would be unprecedented.
Roughly one third of Palestinians currently hold civil service jobs, with over 50% of people dependent on paychecks from the PA. The US abruptly cutting funds to the PA could create a disastrous economic crisis on the ground.
But Trump’s behavior could also be an opportunity for Israel and the Palestinian people. The average Palestinian civil servant currently takes home roughly 25-35% of what his Israeli counterpart in the same job earns each month.
If the PA is suddenly unable to pay wages, Israel should step in and in one move sideline the PA and thwart Trump’s plans for partitioning the country into two states.
If Israel’s national camp is serious about applying full Israeli sovereignty to the Samaria and Judea regions, there is no better way to advancing this goal than to push our government to take responsibility for the people on the ground.
Offering Palestinian civil servants Israeli paychecks identical to what Israelis earn could not only avert a severe humanitarian crisis but also be a game changer in solidifying Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, marginalizing the increasingly irrelevant PA and engaging the Palestinian people directly without any American involvement.
