Belgium joins coalition providing financial support to Palestinian Authority
Twelve countries, including Belgium, France, the UK, Spain and Saudi Arabia, are forming a coalition to provide financial support to the Palestinian Authority. The political organisation is in financial difficulty because Israel is withholding tax revenues following the terrorist attack by Hamas on 7 October 2023.
The Emergency Coalition for the Financial Sustainability of the Palestinian Authority was “established in response to the urgent and unprecedented financial crisis” facing the Palestinian Authority, the Spanish ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement. The aim is to stabilise the finances of the Ramallah-based organisation so that it can provide essential services and ensure security, “all elements that are essential for regional stability and the preservation of the two-state solution”.
The statement mentions “significant financial contributions” made in the past and the coalition's pledges of “sustained support”. Japan, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Slovenia and Switzerland also joined the coalition.
The Palestinian prime minister's office stated that the donors have committed to providing at least 170 million dollars. Saudi Arabia will provide 90 million dollars, the Saudi foreign minister said on Thursday evening, according to state media.
The countries are demanding that Israel immediately release all Palestinian tax revenues and cease all measures that impede, weaken or jeopardise the survival of the Palestinian Authority. According to the ministers involved, these actions threaten not only the livelihoods and institutional stability of the Palestinians, but also regional and international peace and security.
President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority © PHOTO Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP