Congressional Action Threatening Palestinian Aid

Oct 6, 2011

Take Action: Urge Congress to Support Palestinian Aid!

Background: Congress Seeks to Punish Palestinians

Congress committed to slashing Palestinian aid long before the Palestinians presented their case for full-membership at the United Nations.

Resolutions calling for punitive measures against the Palestinians passed with overwhelming support in the House and unanimously in the Senate. A wave of retaliatory initiatives has followed, threatening to unjustly punish the most vulnerable Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian refugees, the Palestinian Authority, and even the entire U.N. system which provides life-saving assistance the world over.

FCNL strongly opposes these punitive measures, and lobbies in support of Palestinian humanitarian and development assistance. Unfortunately, Congress has accelerated its push to exact a price from Palestinians for seeking statehood recognition at the United Nations.

Four Categories of Palestinian Aid

U.S. assistance to the Palestinians can be broadly divided into four funding streams, each of which is currently threatened by Congress, and explained in greater detail below:

USAID/NGO Development Assistance

Security Assistance for the Palestinian Authority

Economic Funding/Budgetary Support for the Palestinian Authority

Funding for UNRWA, the U.N. Agency for Palestinian Refugees

1) BLOCKED: USAID/NGO Development Assistance

Several members of Congress have blocked some $192 million in humanitarian and development assistance for Palestinians this year, threatening programs that provide food for impoverished families and life-saving equipment for hospitals. According to the Independent, these delays threaten “a wide range of humanitarian, educational and state capacity building projects”.

Senator Richard Lugar (IN) and Rep. Kay Granger (TX) have been identified by name as two of the members of Congress responsible for placing a hold on this aid. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL) has put a hold on an undisclosed sum of Palestinian funding, which likely includes humanitarian and development aid.

Members of Congress can theoretically place a hold on funding simply to gather more information. In this case, however, Rep. Granger, the Chair of the House foreign operations subcommittee, explained that she placed a hold on humanitarian and development assistance for Palestinians “until the issue of statehood is resolved”, highlighting the political motives involved.

The Obama administration has lobbied for Congress to release the funds, with both President Obama and Defense Secretary Panetta stressing the importance of Palestinian aid for regional stability and U.S. national security.

This is a particularly alarming development since USAID only funds humanitarian and development programs for the most vulnerable Palestinians—which is kept entirely separate from the Palestinian Authority (PA). Even after Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, Congress continued to fund these humanitarian aid programs for the West Bank and Gaza.

As Lara Friedman from Americans for Peace Now points out in her excellent analysis on the topic, “the U.S. [aid] program for the West Bank and Gaza, it should be emphasized, is probably the most congressionally restricted, conditioned, vetted and overseen U.S. assistance program in the world - all to ensure that not a dollar benefits the PA and that not a dollar serves any purpose but to address humanitarian concerns and promote U.S. policy objectives."

2) BLOCKED: Security Assistance for the PA

In addition to blocking Palestinian development aid, the Washington Post reported that Sen. Richard Lugar and other Republican members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have blocked about $150 million in security aid for the Palestinian Authority.

3) THREATENED: Economic Funding/Budgetary Support to the PA

Both House and Senate appropriators have passed legislation to slash economic support for the Palestinian Authority. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved their version of the State and Foreign Operations funding bill, which would eliminate aid to the Palestinian Authority “if Palestine becomes a member or non-member state of the United Nations outside of an agreement negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians”, unless the Obama administration certifies that Palestinian funding is in the national security interests of the United States.

The House Appropriations Committee’s draft report for the House version of the funding bill is far more stringent. Most importantly, the House version does not contain a waiver provision like the Senate version does. The current draft of the House bill would prohibit economic assistance to the PA “until the Secretary of State certifies that the Palestinian Authority is not attempting to seek recognition at the United Nations of a Palestinian state.”

It is likely that neither the House nor Senate version of the funding bill will come to a vote on the floor. The differences in the FY 2012 State and Foreign Operations bill could be worked out in conference, and then be attached to an omnibus appropriations bill.

4) THREATENED: Funding for UNRWA, Palestinian Refugees

Fortunately, neither the House nor Senate version of the State and Foreign Operations funding bill would cut funds to UNRWA, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which provides life-saving humanitarian and development support for Palestinian refugees.

The House draft report for the State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill does place significant conditions on UNRWA funding.  This legislation requires that before UNRWA funding is released, the Secretary of State must verify that UNRWA meets specified requirements. UNRWA has regularly met these requirements in the past.

Additionally, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen is preparing to move her anti-U.N. legislation through the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which she chairs. This so-called U.N. “reform” bill would effectively eliminate U.S. funds to UNRWA, which accounts for a quarter of UNRWA’s budget. It would also cut funds for any U.N. agency which recognizes an upgrade to the status of the Palestinian status at the United Nations. While it seems plausible the bill may pass the House if it comes for a vote, it is unlikely that this legislation would gain traction in the Senate. (See FCNL's letter opposing this dangerous legislation here, and take action here.)