Arab States Drastically Reduce Aid to Palestine

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is witnessing one of the worst financial crises because it is unable to fulfill its obligations to Palestine without lighting at the end of the tunnel. There are many reasons behind the current crisis, mainly because of the local economic impact of the covid-19 pandemic.

The covid-19 pandemic caused a decline in domestic income collected by the Palestinian Authority. The PA has stopped receiving permit funds raised by Israel since its decision in June to end all agreements signed with Israel. Recently, there has been a decline in Arab grants and aid allocated to the Palestinian state budget.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Finance, Arab financial aid and grants to the Palestinian budget fell 81.6 percent over the first eight months of 2020. This year, total grants and aid amounted to 132.3 million Israeli shekels (US $ 39.2 million) from the beginning of the year to end of August compared with 716 million shekels (212 million US dollars) during the same period last year.

Saudi support decreased 77.2 percent as total support since the start of this year amounted to 107 million shekels (US $ 31.7 million), compared with US $ 130 million last year. Meanwhile, Algeria has not provided financial assistance since the start of this year.

Palestinians attribute the reasons behind this decline to the economic impact of the covid-19 pandemic in countries such as Algeria.

PLO Executive Committee member Ahmad Majdalani said the reason behind some Arab countries decline in support for the PA was due to their submission to US President Donald Trump's decision to cut aid to the PA.

Prior to the signing of the normalization agreement between Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Sept. 15, Trump said during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Palestine is dealing with the wealthy nations that finance them.

"Why do you pay when they treat the United States with disrespect?" Said Ahmad to Al Monitor , Sunday (25/10).

Majdalani said several Arab countries, which he did not identify, had complied with Trump's decision and officially informed the US government asked them not to support and fund the PA. These countries have told us, we will not be able to help you move forward.

Majdalani stressed that the decline in financial support for the PA reflects the decline in official Arab positions. This shows, Arab countries deny their obligations to the Palestinian people while choosing to join the US project which aims to solve the Palestinian problem without achieving Palestinian rights.

Apart from that, the extraordinary progress made on the level of reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas is also the reason behind the decline in Arab support. Hamas deputy head of political bureau, Saleh al-Arouri said, there are Arab countries that have stopped financial support for the PA based on the US decision.