The Trump administration’s global freeze on foreign aid has brought security assistance to the Palestinian Authority to a halt, according to U.S. and P.A. officials cited by The Washington Post on Wednesday.
In addition, a meeting of U.S. and P.A. officials to evaluate Ramallah’s operation targeting Iranian-backed terrorists in the Samaria city of Jenin was postponed and has yet to be rescheduled, according to the report.
“The Department and USAID paused nearly all foreign assistance,” the State Department said in a statement cited by the Post. It noted waivers were issued for “critical programming that aligns with administration priorities in the region,” which apparently do not include the P.A.
Anwar Rajab, spokesperson for the P.A. Security Forces (PASF), told the Post that Washington had been a “big donor to the P.A. projects,” including what the newspaper described as “security and empowerment training” for Ramallah’s official police force.
The freeze has already led to cuts in some training, an anonymous P.A. official who directs training at the Central Training Institute in Jericho told the Post. Among other projects, Washington was funding a virtual shooting range, which the institute needs because Israel does not allow the importation of bullets for live-fire training, the official said.
Though the construction of the facility was nearing completion, the institute was said to be looking for new funding due to the U.S. freeze.
However, a former Israeli government official, who spoke with the Post on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, claimed that the P.A. security forces were “not affected in any meaningful way” by the move and that “other donors have committed to make up the shortfall.”
JNS sought comment from the U.S. State Department, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and the P.A. regarding the freeze, but had not heard back as of time of publication.
Under the terms of the Oslo Accords, which Israel signed with PLO leader Yasser Arafat in the 1990s, the newly created P.A. was tasked with fighting terror in Areas A and B of Judea and Samaria.
Many members of Israel’s security establishment support P.A. control over swaths of Judea and Samaria as a “moderating force” opposed to Hamas and other Iranian-backed terrorist groups.
However, P.A. forces have a long history of carrying out attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians. In 2023, Ramallah’s leading Fatah faction boasted that most of its “martyrs” had served in the PASF.
In addition, Hamas has reportedly recruited dozens of P.A. operatives, deploying them as terrorist combatants and for intelligence gathering.
Israel’s Regavim Movement, which last year compiled a report detailing almost 80 P.A. police officers implicated in acts of terrorism, applauded the funding freeze in a statement shared with JNS on Wednesday.
The right-wing NGO welcomed Washington’s decision to no longer send taxpayers funds to what it described as “armed and dangerous terrorists of the Palestinian Authority—terrorists who have been trained, armed and supported by previous American administrations despite their active pursuit of the same intentions and goals as Hamas.”
The statement went on to urge the Israeli government to “see reality as clearly as the current U.S. administration does, and to take the steps necessary to bring about the long-overdue change.”
Morton A. Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, also praised the administration’s move.
“The Zionist Organization of America applauds President Trump for halting U.S. funding to the extremist terrorist Palestinian Authority’s security forces as part of his recent aid reductions,” according to a statement released by the organization.
“President Trump is demonstrating true leadership by challenging the failed status quo and paving the way for a new future for both Israel and its Arab neighbors,” the statement continued.
