In Debt Because of Pay-for-Slay, Palestinian Authority Welcomes New Round of EU Funding
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appoints Mohammad Mustafa as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA), in Ramallah, in the West Bank March 14, 2024 in this handout image. Photo: Palestinian president office/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
In July, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported on a new grant of 400 million euros that the EU would be giving the Palestinian Authority (PA) in three installments in 2024.
The official PA news agency, WAFA, has now revealed that the EU had already transferred 150 million euros to it upon making the announcement, and that it has now received the second installment — a sum of 122.5 million euros.
These transfers are being made even as the PA openly admits to spending over 150 million euros a year on salaries to imprisoned terrorists and the families of so-called Martyrs.
The WAFA article explained:
The Palestinian government welcomed the European Union’s decision to transfer 122.5 million euros, which is the second installment of the special monetary aid package at a sum of 400 million euros. The second installment includes 38.5 million euros in the form of a grant through the PEGASE mechanism in order to pay the [PA public] employees’ salaries, and 84 million euros as credit easements for the Palestine Monetary Authority, which are being provided by the European Investment Bank.
[WAFA, official PA news agency, Sept. 5, 2024]
122.5 million euros is a sum equivalent to about $135 million dollars, and 400 million euros is a sum equivalent to about $440 million dollars.
The article describes the grant as being “part of a strategy that was agreed upon between the EU and Palestine to take care of the difficult monetary and economic situation of the PA and the Palestinian economy.”
WAFA also continued to tow the PA’s line, saying that the aid is significant “in the shadow of the deterioration in the financial situation as a result of the occupation’s aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and as a result of the financial siege that Israel is imposing through the continued illegal deductions from the [PA] tax money and the seizure of the sums that were deducted.”
As PMW has documented, the only reason that there is any “deterioration in the financial situation” of the PA is because the PA continues to prioritize the payment of salaries to terrorists.
Instead of encouraging the PA to take responsibility for its financial decisions and to end its Pay-for-Slay program, the EU pays certain employee salaries, thus enabling the PA to have other money to pay the terrorists. The EU can delude itself into thinking that it is only paying legitimate PA public employees, but the truth is that the EU’s money contributes to terrorism.
It is no wonder that the WAFA article’s headline is “The [PA] government welcomes the transfer of the second installment of European aid at a sum of 122.5 million euros.”
Of course it welcomes it, because the funds allow PA leader Mahmoud Abbas to make good on his constant refrain that even if the PA had only one penny left, it would use that money to pay the prisoners convicted of terrorist offense, and the “Martyrs.”
Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Itamar Marcus is PMW’s Founder and Director. A version of this article originally appeared at PMW.
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