Washington: US lawmakers on Friday released $88.6 million (Dh325.40 million) in development aid for the Palestinians that they had held up since last summer, a move that should help ease a fiscal crisis in the aid-dependent Palestinian economy.
Representative Kay Granger announced she was ready for the entire $147 million in US assistance that had been frozen since August to go to the Palestinians.
But the other Republican who had a "hold" on the funds, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, limited the release to $88.6 million, saying in a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that was all she was willing to free up.
Ros-Lehtinen also said she was releasing the money with the understanding it would not be used for "assistance and recovery in Hamas-controlled Gaza", West Bank road construction, or trade and tourism promotion in the Palestinian territories. The letter did not say how the freed-up funds would be spent, but Ros-Lehtinen suggested earlier this week she would be willing to approve money targeted for water programmes, health and food for the Palestinians.
Statehood
Both Granger and Ros-Lehtinen had barred expenditure of the US funds since last year because they objected to the Palestinian push for recognition at the United Nations. They argued that the path to Palestinian statehood was through a peace treaty with Israel.
Granger said on Friday she had decided the money should be released for humanitarian reasons and to help stability in the Palestinian territories in a time of uncertainty across the Middle East.
"I have taken a strong position on aid to the PNA [Palestinian National Authority] to send a message that seeking statehood at the United Nations, forming a unity government with Hamas and walking away from the negotiating table with Israel were not pathways to peace," Granger said in a statement.
"Right now it is in our interest — and the interest of our allies in the region — to allow aid to flow to address security and humanitarian concerns." Granger chairs the House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee in charge of foreign aid, while Ros-Lehtinen chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Technically, the Obama administration can override the objections of individual lawmakers and spend aid money once it has been appropriated by Congress.
Colonist push: teenager wounded
A young Palestinian was shot and wounded yesterday in a clash with Jewish colonists in the West Bank, Palestinian security sources said.
The trouble erupted when a group of around 40 Israeli colonists entered the Burqin area in the north of the occupied territory and clashed with residents, they said.
At least one colonist opened fire, the Palestinian security sources said, adding that 14-year-old Hassan Barkawi was hit in the shoulder by a bullet.
They said the Israeli military intervened to separate the two groups and then forced the colonists to leave the area.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said she was not immediately able to provide details about the reported incident.
