UK contributes financial aid to Occupied Palestinian Territories to increase stability

• UK to contribute financial aid to the Palestinian Authority, delivering £10m this financial year.
• Funding will go towards the provision of basic services and the payment of salaries in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
• The UK will also contribute up to £5 million in technical assistance this financial year to support the Palestinian Authority’s programme of reform.

The UK will provide vital financial support to the Palestinian Authority to support the provision of basic services, providing £10 million in aid this financial year. As the Foreign Secretary has said, a strong and effective Palestinian Authority is vital for lasting peace and progress towards a two-state solution.

This £10 million funding package will provide vital support for key services, for example through the payment of salaries for 8,200 health workers over two months, and will send a clear message to other donors to consider making similar pledges.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa has committed to implementing reforms across the Palestinian economy to fight corruption and tackle inefficiency. The Foreign Secretary has spoken with the Prime Minister on a number of occasions, most recently on 10 June, to reiterate the UK’s support for his agenda.

The Minister for the Middle East Lord Ahmad will discuss the funding package in a meeting with Prime Minister Mustafa at the Gaza Humanitarian Conference in Jordan later today.

The Minister of State for the Middle East Lord (Tariq) Ahmad said:

The UK remains committed to providing serious, practical and enduring support to the Palestinian Authority as they take much-needed steps to enact reform.

An effective Palestinian Authority is vital to ensure lasting peace and progress towards a two-state solution but without international support, it is on the brink of collapse.

Today’s meeting of vital regional partners will be another constructive step towards achieving tangible progress on this key issue.

The Palestinian Authority is facing a severe financial crisis – it has only been able to pay its employees half of their salaries, and Israel has withheld tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority, further deepening the crisis.

The financial aid will be delivered through a trusted multilateral mechanism, the World Bank’s Palestinian Umbrella for Resilience Support to the Economy (PURSE) Trust Fund’s Palestine Emergency Financing Facility (PEFF) project. A further amount of up to £5 million will be available in technical assistance to support the Palestinian Authority’s programme of reform, with the objective of increasing transparency, fighting corruption, and improving public sector efficiency.