US pledges $15m. to Palestinians in first step to restoring funding

"In addition, this assistance will support emergency food assistance programming."

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
US AMBASSADOR to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield holds a news conference at UN headquarters in New York last week. (photo credit: MIKE SEGAR / REUTERS)
US AMBASSADOR to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield holds a news conference at UN headquarters in New York last week.
(photo credit: MIKE SEGAR / REUTERS)
The Biden administration took its first step toward restoring funding to the Palestinians when it announced Thursday that it would spent $15 million on humanitarian assistance in the West Bank and Gaza.
“The United States is pleased to announce today $15 million in humanitarian assistance to support the most vulnerable communities in the West Bank and Gaza,” US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the UN Security Council in New York during its monthly meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Former US president Donald Trump had cut all US funding to the Palestinians, including assistance to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees which had amounted to nearly $500 million annually.
The Biden administration has already promised to restore funding and spoke of its intention in the UN Security Council.
“President Biden is restoring US assistance programs that support economic development and humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
Her comments marked the first concrete details with respect to that aid, which she said would be distributed through the US Agency for International Development.
Among the beneficiaries would be the Catholic Relief Services’ COVID-19 response efforts, she said.
“In addition, this assistance will support emergency food assistance programming to communities facing food insecurity, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.” Such a gesture, she said, “aligns with our efforts to stamp out the pandemic and food insecurity worldwide.”
Thomas-Greenfield also appeared to state that the US would soon be reopening channels of communication with the Palestinian Authority halted during the Trump administration.
The US would “take steps to re-open diplomatic channels of communication that were halted during the last administration,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
Any “progress toward peace must be based on active consultations with both sides.”
Thomas-Greenfield called on both Israel and the PA to refrain from unilateral action, including settlement activity and IDF demolitions of Palestinian structures. She also spoke against the PA policy of providing monthly financial stipends to terrorists jailed by Israel as well as to their families.
“We call for an end to all acts of violence, including acts of terrorism, as well as incitement to violence and acts of provocation and destruction,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
In her brief speech Thomas-Greenfield said that her country would stand by Israel, “especially when it is unfairly singled out by one-sided resolutions and actions in international bodies.”
To often, she said, criticism of Israel “veers dangerously into antisemitism. Antisemitism, as with all forms of hate, works directly against the cause of peace,” Thomas-Greenfield said.