After a months-long delay in the delivery of European Union aid to the Palestinians, member nations have decided to approve the funding after most EU member nations voted to turn the tap back on.
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On Tuesday, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen visited Ramallah and held a formal press conference with PA Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh at which the two officials announced the renewal of European aid to the Palestinians, which amounts to some 250 million euros a year. The money is due to reach the PA in the next few days.
Some of the money is earmarked for specific projects and aid in sectors such as healthcare and welfare, while the rest will go into the PA's general budget.
The EU funding has been held up due to attempts by representatives of various European countries to condition the aid on the PA making changes to its school textbooks. Shtayyeh noted on Monday in an interview to Palestinian television that the PA would not agree to aid that came with conditions.
Palestinian officials told Israel Hayom that senior PA officials had been in "intensive" contact with EU nations in recent months in an attempt to persuade them to renew the flow of aid, and said they expected it to be reinstated.
However, even the influx of EU money will not be enough to solve the PA's severe economic distress. PA public sector workers have not been receiving full salaries, and foreign contributions to the PA's budget have dropped significantly after the US and Arab states – with the exception of Algeria – stopped their aid to the Palestinians almost entirely.
"The [economic] problem will only be solved by the American and Arab aid being renewed, in addition to Israel unfreezing the tax money [it collects on behalf of the Palestinians," officials in Ramallah said.
Shtayyeh thanked ven der Leyen and said that the PA leadership hoped that Europe would "bring all its weight to bear on Israel to stop the steps that are destroying the two-state solution."
According to Shtayyeh, the Palestinians "now need diplomatic initiative to end the occupation, stop settlement construction, and defend the holy sites."
In a meeting with representatives of the EU Parliament in Ramallah on Tuesday, Shtayyeh called for a boycott of settlement products and said that marking goods produced in settlements was not sufficient.
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