PA minister: EU restoring funding to the PA is endorsement of PA terror salaries and PA curriculum
EU restoring funding to the PA is endorsement of PA terror salaries and PA curriculum, says PA minister
[Official PA TV, Talk of the Hour, June 16, 2022]
Official PA TV host: “Talking about the EU and the withheld funds, lately it was announced that [the money] will be released and that the EU will resume its funding to the Palestinian government. What is your response to this, Minister?”
PA Minister of Public Works and Building Muhammad Ziyara: “This [restoration of EU funding] is more of a political victory than a financial achievement. The challenge was that we would relinquish our rights, our positions, and our principles, both on the issue of our duty towards the families of the Martyrs and the prisoners (i.e., PA terror salaries), and also towards the Palestinian curricula and the Palestinian narrative.”
PA terror salaries - Under Palestinian Authority law, the PA pays thousands of terrorist prisoners monthly salaries from the day of their arrest. The PA also provides salaries and various grants and benefits to released terrorists. Moreover, the PA pays wounded terrorists and the families of dead terrorist "Martyrs" monthly allowances. Palestinian Media Watch has exposed and documented this PA practice for over a decade, and in doing so has brought about change in and cancellation of Western funding to the PA.
Already in 2021, the EU froze its funding to the PA, demanding the removal of antisemitic, violent, and hateful content from the PA’s school curriculum. Individual countries had already stopped funding the PA, demanding that the PA cease paying salaries to terrorists.
Although the PA has neither changed the contents of its schoolbooks, nor stopped paying salaries to terrorists, the EU is now renewing its funding.
On June 14, 2022, the European Commission approved a “new bilateral allocation to Palestine worth €224.8 million.”
The commission announced that “this package complements previous contributions, such as €92 million to support UNRWA, bringing the total EU assistance to the Palestinians in 2021 to €317 million.”