US to cut indirect aid to Palestinians
The US will cancel or suspend more than $240m in projects aimed at assisting Palestinians out of concern that the money could go to help the new leadership of the militant Islamist movement Hamas, a senior State Department official said today.
At the same time, the US will redirect some of that money to humanitarian projects for the impoverished Palestinian people. Humanitarian assistance will rise by 57% to $287m over several years, the official said.
Another $13m will go for new vetting procedures, including a special inspector general, to ensure that even humanitarian aid funnelled through the United Nations Relief Agency and approved charities does not end up in Hamas hands, said the official.
That was expected later today.
The US and the European Union consider Hamas a terrorist organisation and each bans official dealings with it. Hamas won parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories in January and it formed a government that took power this month.
The US began a review of its aid package to the Palestinians shortly after the election, and has already eliminated direct aid to the Palestinian Authority.
The US has long channelled most of its assistance to the Palestinians through indirect means, to humanitarian efforts such as food, maternal and child health programmes and education and also for projects that only indirectly benefited the Palestinian government.
These include such projects as roads, water works and training programmes for judges, electoral workers and others.
The US will redirect about $100m from cancelled projects to humanitarian assistance, the official said. Some of the remaining pot of approximately 140 million dollars (£80 million) will be eaten up in the process of ending or disengaging from those projects, but it is not clear where all the money will go.
The official said the State Department will consult with Congress on the next move. Congress has already approved all the spending under review, and has not yet considered how to apportion new money now that Hamas is in place.
The west has been threatening to cut nearly $1bn in annual aid to the Palestinians since the election, which turned out the moderate Fatah Party that Washington had hoped could gradually move toward peace with Israel.
Hamas has refused to renounce violence or recognise Israel’s right to exist.
Without money from the Arab world, Europe and the United States, a Hamas-led government would be nearly broke.
President George Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have said Washington would not give aid to a Hamas-led government unless it changed what they call extremist policies.
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