The UK will provide vital financial support to the Palestinian
Authority to support the provision of basic services, providing
£10 million in aid this financial year. As the Foreign Secretary
has said, a strong and effective Palestinian Authority is vital
for lasting peace and progress towards a two-state solution.
This £10 million funding package will provide vital support for
key services, for example through the payment of salaries for
8,200 health workers over two months, and will send a clear
message to other donors to consider making similar pledges.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa has committed to
implementing reforms across the Palestinian economy to fight
corruption and tackle inefficiency. The Foreign Secretary has
spoken with the Prime Minister on a number of occasions, most
recently on 10 June, to reiterate the UK's support for his
agenda.
The Minister for the Middle East Lord Ahmad will discuss the
funding package in a meeting with Prime Minister Mustafa at the
Gaza Humanitarian Conference in Jordan later today.
The Minister of State for the Middle East Lord (Tariq) Ahmad
said:
The UK remains committed to providing serious, practical and
enduring support to the Palestinian Authority as they take
much-needed steps to enact reform.
An effective Palestinian Authority is vital to ensure lasting
peace and progress towards a two-state solution but without
international support, it is on the brink of collapse.
Today's meeting of vital regional partners will be another
constructive step towards achieving tangible progress on this key
issue.
The Palestinian Authority is facing a severe financial crisis –
it has only been able to pay its employees half of their
salaries, and Israel has withheld tax revenues from the
Palestinian Authority, further deepening the crisis.
The financial aid will be delivered through a trusted
multilateral mechanism, the World Bank's Palestinian Umbrella for
Resilience Support to the Economy (PURSE) Trust Fund's Palestine
Emergency Financing Facility (PEFF) project. A further
amount of up to £5 million will be available in technical
assistance to support the Palestinian Authority's programme of
reform, with the objective of increasing transparency, fighting
corruption, and improving public sector efficiency.
