USAID stops all aid to the PA following Abbas request to avoid potential lawsuits
Headline: “The American Agency for International Development has stopped all of its aid to the Palestinians”
“A senior American official said yesterday [Feb. 1, 2019] that the American Agency for International Development USAID has stopped all of its aid to the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and noted that at this moment they will not take any steps to completely close the delegation’s office. This comes as the result of a new American anti-terror law coming into force on the war against terror that determines that every government that receives American funding will be subject to [American] law and exposed to lawsuits in the American courts (i.e., the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act of 2018; see note below). [PA] transitional government Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah sent a letter on orders from [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas to the American State Department, in which he requested to stop the funding at the end of January [2019] out of concern of exposure to lawsuits in light of the new law, and this includes the aid to the [PA] Security Forces.”
Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act of 2018 - Among other things, this law gives US courts the jurisdiction to seize assets from any body that receives foreign aid from the US government, viewing their acceptance of US foreign aid as consent to US jurisdiction. This enables past and present victims of terror to successfully pursue lawsuits in US courts against such bodies that were connected in any way to the acts of terror. In the past many such cases have been thrown out due to lack of US jurisdiction.
“A senior American official said yesterday [Feb. 1, 2019] that the American Agency for International Development USAID has stopped all of its aid to the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and noted that at this moment they will not take any steps to completely close the delegation’s office. This comes as the result of a new American anti-terror law coming into force on the war against terror that determines that every government that receives American funding will be subject to [American] law and exposed to lawsuits in the American courts (i.e., the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act of 2018; see note below). [PA] transitional government Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah sent a letter on orders from [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas to the American State Department, in which he requested to stop the funding at the end of January [2019] out of concern of exposure to lawsuits in light of the new law, and this includes the aid to the [PA] Security Forces.”
Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act of 2018 - Among other things, this law gives US courts the jurisdiction to seize assets from any body that receives foreign aid from the US government, viewing their acceptance of US foreign aid as consent to US jurisdiction. This enables past and present victims of terror to successfully pursue lawsuits in US courts against such bodies that were connected in any way to the acts of terror. In the past many such cases have been thrown out due to lack of US jurisdiction.