The Brussels-based office of the American Jewish Committee on Tuesday urged “strict oversight” of the European Union’s proposed $1.8 billion aid package to the Palestinian Authority to prevent taxpayer funds going to support terrorism or incitement.
The European Union on Monday unveiled a financial aid package of up to €1.6 billion ($1.8 billion) to support the P.A. More than a third of the money, to be provided over two years, will come as direct budget support to the P.A. and is aimed at improving financial sustainability, democratic governance and services to help the private sector develop.
“The [aid] program aims to foster a two-state solution and is conditioned on the Palestinian Authority implementing comprehensive reforms—goals AJC has long supported,” said Benedetta Buttiglione, Director ad interim of the AJC Transatlantic Institute. “We call on the European Commission to be fully transparent about how EU funds are spent and to issue regular, public updates on the implementation of PA reforms.”
A 2021 E.U.-commissioned report confirmed that Palestinian school textbooks continue to include antisemitism, incitement to violence and the glorification of terror, while the PA continues its longstanding “pay for slay” policy, whereby terrorists in Israeli prisons receive stipends that scale with the length of their sentences.
“If the EU wants to remain a credible supporter of a two-state solution, it must insist the P.A. dismantles these ‘pay-for-slay’ programs and replaces them with initiatives that promote coexistence with Israel,” said the Transatlantic Institute.
The AJC’s continued support of the two-state solution in line with longstanding E.U. foreign policy puts it at odds with both the current Israeli government and Israeli public opinion in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel.