UK aid ‘going to Palestinian terror groups’
Funding ‘encourages terrible violence’
BRITISH aid money may be indirectly going into the hands of Palestinian terrorists, Sir Eric Pickles said last night in a direct attack on his own Government.
The former communities secretary said funding sent to the Palestinian Authority is used to free up money to pay prisoners who have committed attacks in the Israeli conflict.
And he warned of ‘worrying reports’ that some charities funded by taxpayers’ money were ‘promoting violence on social media pages’.
Sir Eric joined a queue of MPs who said cash from the Department for International Development was acting as an incentive for violence in the Middle East.
The comments were made during a debate on Britain’s pledge to spend 0.7 per cent of its income on foreign aid.
While no MP questioned the size of the aid budget, one Labour member said she was asked by her constituents why we were sending money abroad while their children were going hungry.
Liz McInnes said: ‘In my constituency we have a plethora of food banks and some of my constituents are not in a position to feed their families. Until that problem is solved, my constituents will continue to ask me: Why we are spending money on foreign aid when our children are hungry here?’
Another Labour MP, David Lammy, suggested Comic Relief donors should ask more questions about how their cash is used.
He expressed concern about ‘armchair’ donors who give money without fully considering the governance of the countries they are seeking to help. And he criticised the use of ‘ poverty porn’ on TV adverts by charities.
International development minister Desmond Swayne insisted that money given to the Palestinian Authority funds specific civil servants, helping to prepare a govern- ment in the event of a two- state agreement. But Sir Eric suggested that UK aid payments are freeing up money which in turn is being spent on criminals in prison for terrorism offences.
‘It’s no good just saying we don’t fund terrorism, there is a knock on effect,’ he said.
He also attacked charities working in Palestine – some of them funded in part by DfID – for promoting violence on their websites.
‘Surely it is not unreasonable to ask the minister and officials to check what is going on, and to say if you’re going to receive money from the British Government you should unequivocally denounce violence in all its forms.’
He added: ‘I don’t think it’s unreasonable in times of stringency that we should address the quality of that aid as well as the quantity. DfID’s stated goal is to help secure a lasting two-state solution. I regret the funding doesn’t follow that laudable ideal.’
Labour MP Joan Ryan suggested the aid frees up cash to pay ‘convicted Palestinian terrorists’, including Taleb Mehamara who targeted Israelis in a shooting attack.
She said the aid is failing the UK’s scrutiny tests, adding: ‘Let me give one example, the issue of the PA’s payments to convicted Palestinian terrorists. These are not, as one DfID minister claimed in 2012, social assistance programmes to provide welfare payments. Instead, by operating a perverse sliding scale where you receive more money the longer sentence you receive – in some cases as much as five times the average monthly wage in Ramallah – they actually incentivise people to commit the most terrible acts of violence.’
The complaints were echoed by Labour former minister Ian Austin, who said the aid payments were in contradiction to the demands of the international community.
Mr Swayne insisted ‘British taxpayers’ money does not fund terrorism’ and defended the thoroughly scrutinised list of aid recipients.
He said: ‘Our taxpayers’ money goes to build the Palestinian Authority so that it is able to morph into the government of a Palestinian state when that opportunity arises and we pay named civil servants for the provision of public services.’