BIDEN ADMINISTRATION TO RESTORE $235M IN US AID TO PALESTINIANS CUT BY TRUMP

Thu 08 March 2021:

The US is planning to resume financial assistance to the Palestinian people with a $235 million package that includes funding for development in the West Bank and Gaza along with assistance for the UN refugee agency and peacebuilding programs, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Wednesday.

The package, including humanitarian, economic and security aid, was announced by Secretary of State Antony Blinken as part of an effort to repair US ties with the Palestinians that all but collapsed during Trump’s tenure.

“We [United States] plan to restart US economic, development, and humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people. This includes $75 million in economic and development assistance in the West Bank and Gaza, $10 million for peacebuilding programs through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and $150 million in humanitarian assistance for the UN Relief and Works Agency,” Blinken said.

“The United States is committed to advancing prosperity, security, and freedom for both Israelis and Palestinians in tangible ways in the immediate term, which is important in its own right, but also as a means to advance towards a negotiated two-state solution,” Blinken said.

Biden also “affirmed that the United States supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” during a phone call with King Abdullah II of Jordan.

The Trump administration blocked nearly all aid after it severed ties with the Palestinian Authority in 2018. The move was widely seen as an attempt to force the Palestinians to negotiate with Israel on terms the Palestinian leadership branded as an effort to deny them a viable state.