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In Debt Because of Pay-for-Slay, Palestinian Authority Welcomes New Round of EU Funding
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appoints Mohammad Mustafa as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA), in Ramallah, in the West Bank March 14, 2024 in this handout image. Photo: Palestinian president office/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
In July, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported on a new grant of 400 million euros that the EU would be giving the Palestinian Authority (PA) in three installments in 2024.
The official PA news agency, WAFA, has now revealed that the EU had already transferred 150 million euros to it upon making the announcement, and that it has now received the second installment — a sum of 122.5 million euros.
These transfers are being made even as the PA openly admits to spending over 150 million euros a year on salaries to imprisoned terrorists and the families of so-called Martyrs.
The WAFA article explained:
The Palestinian government welcomed the European Union’s decision to transfer 122.5 million euros, which is the second installment of the special monetary aid package at a sum of 400 million euros. The second installment includes 38.5 million euros in the form of a grant through the PEGASE mechanism in order to pay the [PA public] employees’ salaries, and 84 million euros as credit easements for the Palestine Monetary Authority, which are being provided by the European Investment Bank.
[WAFA, official PA news agency, Sept. 5, 2024]
122.5 million euros is a sum equivalent to about $135 million dollars, and 400 million euros is a sum equivalent to about $440 million dollars.
The article describes the grant as being “part of a strategy that was agreed upon between the EU and Palestine to take care of the difficult monetary and economic situation of the PA and the Palestinian economy.”
WAFA also continued to tow the PA’s line, saying that the aid is significant “in the shadow of the deterioration in the financial situation as a result of the occupation’s aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and as a result of the financial siege that Israel is imposing through the continued illegal deductions from the [PA] tax money and the seizure of the sums that were deducted.”
As PMW has documented, the only reason that there is any “deterioration in the financial situation” of the PA is because the PA continues to prioritize the payment of salaries to terrorists.
Instead of encouraging the PA to take responsibility for its financial decisions and to end its Pay-for-Slay program, the EU pays certain employee salaries, thus enabling the PA to have other money to pay the terrorists. The EU can delude itself into thinking that it is only paying legitimate PA public employees, but the truth is that the EU’s money contributes to terrorism.
It is no wonder that the WAFA article’s headline is “The [PA] government welcomes the transfer of the second installment of European aid at a sum of 122.5 million euros.”
Of course it welcomes it, because the funds allow PA leader Mahmoud Abbas to make good on his constant refrain that even if the PA had only one penny left, it would use that money to pay the prisoners convicted of terrorist offense, and the “Martyrs.”
Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Itamar Marcus is PMW’s Founder and Director. A version of this article originally appeared at PMW.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.