PA declines US security aid under new anti-terrorism law; ATCA to go into effect tomorrow.

 

The Palestinian Authority declined US financial aid on Thursday in order to avoid lawsuits under the United States anti-terrorism law.

The recently approved Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act (ATCA) goes into effect on February 1, 2019. The law was passed by the US Congress and Senate to combat funding of terrorism in countries receiving aid from the United States and allow for legal action if funds are used for terrorism.

The law’s writing and passing centered on the United States’ aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA), which the Trump Administration has continued to cut over the past year. The Palestinian Authority still continue to pay the families of terrorists for attacks on Israeli citizens. Referred to as the “Palestinian Authority Martyrs Fund”, monthly stipends, anywhere from $800 to $3000, are given to the families of terrorists. The fund includes resources for incarcerated Palestinian terrorists and their families, as well as funds for the families of terrorists who were killed by Israeli security forces.

In order to avoid anti-terrorism lawsuits under the new legislature, the Palestinian Authority notified the US State Department earlier this month that it would decline future aid. In a letter submitted by PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week, the “US economic aid to Palestine now has become a dividing force due to the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act of 2018… the ATCA references various forms of US assistance to the Government of Palestine. Further, the ATCA purports to alter the rules of the jurisdiction over the Government of Palestine on the US legal proceedings if it continues to accept such after January 31, 2019.”

The Trump Administration has cut millions in aid to the Palestinians over 2018, the recent rejection from the PA for US security aid due to ATCA is $60 million a year. Last summer, the Trump Administration cut $200 million in aid to the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians) in continued efforts to combat the UN’s Palestinian agenda.

The United States also rejected the Palestinian’s “right of return” and the UNRWA’s definition of Palestinian refugees, combatting the inflated number of Palestinian refugees claimed by the United Nations. Of the UN’s claim of over 5.3 million Palestinian refugees, only half a million are recognized.

 

 

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