World Bank: Abbas Has Withheld Roughly Half a Billion Dollars from Gaza so Far
by Elder of Ziyon
US President Donald Trump with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem, May 23, 2017. Photo: Shealah Craighead/White House.
The World Bank recently issued a report on the dire situation in Gaza — and it reveals some interesting facts in the recommendations section.
For example:
Restore transfer flows
1. Restore aggregate PA payments to Gaza (these have declined by $30 million per month from 2017). Priority should be given to social assistance payments, medical supplies, and salaries for PA employees who are working.
2. Reverse the decline in donor funding to key service delivery agencies such as UNRWA.
The cuts began around April 2017 — and $30 million a month since April 2017 comes out to more than half a billion dollars!
For some reason, the US withholding funds from the Palestinians is big news. But when other countries do it it is no big deal. (International support for the Palestinian budget has gone down by 2/3 since 2008.) And worst of all, when Palestinian leaders themselves withhold huge amounts from Gaza, no one reports it at all until it is buried as a parenthetical statement in a 37-page report.
And the situation could get much, much worse. The Palestinian Authority still sends $96 million a month to Gaza — and Mahmoud Abbas might reportedly cut that entire amount.
Elder of Ziyon has been blogging about Israel and the Arab world for a really long time now. He also controls the world, but deep down, you already knew that.
