MP calls for government clarity over PA

THEGOVERNMENThasbeenaccused of dealing with the Palestinian Authority under a “veil of secrecy”, after refusing to publish an official document analysing the PA’s performance on issues such as non-violence and human rights.

Ian Austin, MP for Dudley North, asked the Department for International Development (DfID) to publish its most recent assessment of the PA’s behaviour.

The PA has been accused of using aid money to pay salaries to convicted terrorists.

Mr Austin’s approach came as DfID wasaccusedof sendingmixedmessages over its aid to the Authority.

The department had denied a report earlier this month that it was freezing its funding, but a senior source later told the further aid had in fact been “postponed”.

In a letter last month to Mr Austin, a Parliamentary supporter of Labour Friends of Israel, Priti Patel, the Secretary of State for International Development, said May’s assessment had shown “the PA continues to deliver on the Partner- ship principles, even under increasingly fragile and volatile conditions”.

When Mr Austin subsequently asked for a copy of the assessment to be made public, he was told by Rory Stewart, Minister for International Development, that “DfID does not routinely publish Partnership Principles Assessments(PPAs)”.

Mr A u s t i n s a i d : “Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, DfID ministers are telling us the PA is upholding the principles of non-violence and respect for human rights to which it agreed in order to receive British aid. However, the department is now refusing to publish the formal assessment which apparently led them to this conclusion. I urge Priti Patel to publish this assessment and lift the veil of secrecy with which her department is conducting its dealings with the PA.”

Contacted by the DfID repeated that it does not publish PPAs.

DfID is now refusing to publish the formal assessment’