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| Sweden increases aid to PA despite Israel's sanctions
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Sweden’s government aid organization has pledged to provide the Palestinian Authority with over five million Euros in additional funding.
The proposal, announced on 20 February, came as a result of Israel, the US and the EU stopping aid to the Palestinians following the Hamas electoral victory.
The Swedish government is responding to a call from the United Nations to continue to aid the Palestinians and provide them with humanitarian support.
"Humanitarian situation worsened"
"The humanitarian situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has worsened," the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) said in a recently released statement.
The agency’s spokesman said over ten million Euros was set aside for the aid program in 2005. SIDA, the agency that distributes Swedish foreign aid, said in a press release that the aid is channeled through the UN relief agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, the UN children’s agency UNICEF and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA.
A member of the humanitarian affairs group IDCA, Peter Lundberg said Swedish aid is required since Israel "as an occupying force does not fulfill its responsibilities."
Israel ceased the transfer of taxes to the Palestinian Authority on Sunday and defines Hamas as a terrorist organization so has refused to assist it in any way.
Bloated payroll
The Palestinian Authority is in desperate need of the funds to pay its extremely bloated payroll. The Palestinian administration currently employs over 137,000 people and has a monthly wage bill approaching 100 million Euros.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mark Regev, said Israel was ’’not out of sync" with the rest of the world in holding up the transfer of taxes. Regev said that in the past, when Israel suspected that the Palestinian Authority was using funds to support violence, Israel put its money into escrow accounts, releasing it later.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar have also promised to provide the Palestinian Authority with funds. Saudi Arabia has promised 17 million Euros, and Qatar has pledged 11 million Euros to help the Palestinian Authority to pay the January salaries, a senior Palestinian official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement was not final.
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