The “overwhelming majority” of European Union (EU) countries supported continuing aid payments to the Palestinian Authority, according to the bloc’s top diplomat Josep Borrell.
“…The overwhelming majority was against the idea or the proposal of suspending the payments to the Palestinian Authority,” Mr. Borrell said in Muscat, where he had been for a meeting with the Gulf Cooperation Council. Mr. Borrell said that the payments, about €600 million per year, would be reviewed and not suspended. The EU is the top international funder of the Authority.
The clarification came late on Tuesday, a day after the EU declared that it was not suspending development aid to the Palestinian territories. The confusion had arisen after European Commissioner for neighbourhood and enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, had stated publicly that payments would “immediately” stop following Hamas’s bloody attack on Israel over the weekend. Over 1,000 people including children and the elderly were killed and over 150 were kidnapped by Hamas from Israeli sites.
In retaliation, Israel began bombing Gaza on a large scale and stopped food, water, medicine and fuel from entering the strip of land, home to 2.3 million Palestinians. Palestinian authorities reported that 1,055 have died since Saturday in the bombing.
Mr. Borrell said that Israel’s response to the attack, “like cutting water, cutting electricity and food to a mass of civilians” was against international law. Israel had a right to defend itself against the Hamas attack but its response had to be within the limits of international law, he said.
Several EU countries, including France, Spain, Ireland and Luxembourg had, on Monday, privately or publicly opposed the move to suspend payments to the Palestinian territories, while some others like Austria and Germany had temporarily suspended their bilateral assistance.
Foreign Ministers of EU countries on Tuesday met informally via video link and in Muscat and discussed how they could continue engaging the Palestinian Authority, as per Mr. Borrell, and they drew a clear distinction between Hamas, the Palestinian people, and the Palestinian Authority.
“We consider Hamas a terrorist organisation and what they have done shows – certainly – that they behave like this,” Mr. Borrell said in a televised press briefing, as he reiterated that the Palestinian Authority was a partner of the EU.
Mr. Borrell said that “collective punishment against all Palestinians will be unfair and unproductive” and “against our interests, and against the interests of the peace”. Collective punishment is prohibited under international humanitarian law.
Payments to the Palestinian territories was not going to be delayed, “because the Palestinian people are also suffering”, he said. The funds were going towards development activities, United Nations-supported activities and public services. Mr. Borrell said both EU countries individually and suggested the bloc might review the payments to ensure no payments were going to Hamas, which is an EU-designated terror group.
