US pulls plug on last source of aid for Palestinian civilians

Advocates had hoped the last $10 million would remain available for projects

As part of its policy to end all aid for Palestinian civilians, the United States is blocking millions of dollars to programmes that build relationships between Israelis and Palestinians, say current and former American officials briefed on the change.

The move to prevent Palestinians — including many children — from benefiting from the funds squeezes shut the last remaining channel of American aid to the civilians.

The money had already been budgeted by Congress for allocation in fiscal year 2017, which ends this month. In the past, these designated funds went mostly to programmes that organised people-topeople exchanges between Palestinians and Israelis, often for youth. Some went to programmes for Israeli Jews and Palestinians of the 1948 areas.

White House pressure

Advocates had hoped this last $10 million (Dh37 million) would remain available to projects with Palestinians, even as the Trump administration cut all other aid.

But last week, officials from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) told congressional aides that programmes that benefit Palestinians alongside Israelis would not receive any new money, said Tim Rieser, foreign policy aide to Senator Patrick Leahy. Leahy established the broader programme managed by USAID.

The officials did not want to cut programmes with Palestinians, but had to accommodate a White House that does not want to send US funds to Palestinians, Rieser said.

Now on, only programmes with Israeli Jews and Palestinians of the 1948 areas will get funding, contrary to the tradition of the funds and intent of Congress.

“Essentially, USAID was faced with the choice of shutting down the programme and losing the funds, or keeping something going,” Rieser said. “They decided to support programmes that involve Israeli Jews and [Palestinians of the 1948 areas].”

Programmes currently on multi-year grants will still get all their funds, Rieser said.

In a statement on Friday, USAID said it is “currently unable to engage Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza as a result of the administration’s recent decision on Palestinian assistance.”

The broad push to cut all funding to Palestinian civilians is promoted by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump and the top White House adviser on the Middle East. Kushner has been working on a peace proposal for the Israelis and Palestinians, and is seeking maximum negotiating leverage over the Palestinians.

He also has criticised the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and President Mahmoud Abbas for refusing to negotiate after Trump declared that the United States was recognising occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

‘Redirecting’ aid

“Nobody is entitled to America’s foreign aid,” Kushner told The New York Times on Thursday. In late August, the Trump administration announced it was redirecting $200 million that was set aside last year for bilateral aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Soon afterward, American officials said they were ending funding to a UN aid agency for Palestinians and redirecting $25 million intended for hospitals in occupied East Jerusalem, with a mostly Palestinian population.

Until those moves, the United States one of the largest national donors of aid to Palestinians. Before last week, advocates of aid to Palestinians had said they hoped US officials would not bar Palestinians from access to the $10 million in funds from what is known as the Conflict Management and Mitigation Programme. The programme gets a total of $26 million annually from Congress and was established in 2004 by Leahy. (The other $16 million is spent elsewhere in the world.)

Annual practice

The change means members of Congress will revisit the annual practice of setting aside $10 million, mostly for Israeli-Palestinian exchange programmes, Rieser said.

“Senator Leahy regards the decision to cut off funding for the West Bank and Gaza as a sign that this White House has failed at diplomacy,” he said. “This is not a partisan view. It’s the view of those who recognise that you don’t advance the cause of peace by cutting off programmes that are designed to promote tolerance, understanding and address shared problems.”