Arab States Promise $100 Million Monthly Aid To Palestine
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Arab League foreign ministers have unanimously agreed to send at least $100 million in monthly aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) starting later this year, reported Al Jazeera on Sunday, after Israel declared last week that it would be withholding tax receipts to the PA in response to Palestine’s bid for statehood.
Arab League foreign ministers have unanimously agreed to send at least $100 million in monthly aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) starting later this year, reported Al Jazeera on Sunday, after Israel declared last week that it would be withholding tax receipts to the PA in response to Palestine’s bid for statehood.
In a statement on Sunday after a meeting in Doha, Arab foreign ministers announced that they would be calling for the immediate implementation of a resolution passed at an Arab summit in Baghdad in March, which had proposed the creation of a “financial safety net” for Mahmoud Abbas’s government in the event of an economic crisis.
Though the statement did not give details of how the money would be paid or who would pay, Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby told Reuters that a donation mechanism had already been agreed, with countries expected to start contributing within the next “15 days.”
[quote]”The mechanism is that the chair of the committee (Qatar) and the secretary-general will contact each country with the exact amount they have to pay,” Elaraby said after the meeting. “I want an answer in 15 days,” he added.[/quote]Related: Israel Cuts Off $118 Million In Tax Funds To Palestine After UN Vote
Related: Gaza To Be ‘Unliveable’ By 2020: UN Report
Related: Palestine’s Economy Not Ready For Independence, Says World Bank
At the meeting, the Arab League also announced plans to create a special committee to help guide future negotiations with Israel. According to the Associated Press, the move was a direct swipe at the so-called Quartet on the Middle East – the U.S., UN, European Union and Russia – who the Arab League blame for failing to move Israeli-Palestinian peace talks ahead and rein in Israeli plans to expand settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
As a start, Qatar’s Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani proposed that the Arab League could rethink the so-called Arab Peace Initiative, which stalled in 2002, but offered normalized relations with Israel in exchange for a withdrawal from the occupied territories and a “just settlement” for Palestinian refugees.
[quote]”It is logical after 10 years to objectively reconsider the peace process, including the Arab initiative,” Hamad said, though he warned that the proposal “would not be on offer forever.”[/quote]Related: Economic Peace Between Israelis and Palestinians?
Related: IMF Rejects Israel’s $1 Billion Loan Request For Palestinian Authority
