BERLIN: A €30 million ($35.24 million) one-time payment to the Palestinian Authority, which Germany had hoped to announce next week to coincide with European allies’ formal recognition of a Palestinian state, has been held up by skeptical legislators, Bild newspaper reported.
The payment is designed to ensure that salaries of teachers and healthcare workers can be paid at a time when Israel, which collects customs and import taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority that exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, is withholding funds. The PA says Israel has withheld around $3 billion.
The German emergency payment was agreed by Development Minister Reem Alabali Radovan during a Middle East trip earlier this month and is supported by both conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his Social Democrat deputy, Lars Klingbeil.
But Alexander Hoffmann, a conservative legislator, told Bild that members of his powerful parliamentary budget committee had concerns about the payment, which they must approve.
“We need more clarity,” he told Bild. “Humanitarian aid is important, but it has to be clear what projects are being funded ... Projects that endanger Israel’s security have to be clearly excluded.”
