India on Wednesday contributed USD one million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East to support Palestinian refugees who have been facing extreme challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a move hailed by the UN body as "timely help".

The Government of India handed over the contribution cheque to the UN agency through its representative in Palestine, Sunil Kumar. 
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has thanked India for its "timely help".

"India has been a solid and consistent supporter of Palestinian refugees for decades. This contribution is even more significant as it comes at a critical time," Sami Mshasha, Director of Communications at UNRWA, told PTI.

"India is facing a difficult situation at home due to the pandemic and it has still not forgotten the Palestinian refugees and stepped in to help stabilise basic services, including education, health care, relief and social services for Palestinian refugees. I would like to thank the Government of India for its continued funding to UNRWA and its backing of Palestine refugees across the Middle East,''&nbsp;Mshasha told PTI.

Reiterating India's continued support for UNRWA services, Kumar in a press release said, ''On behalf of the Government of India, I would like to express my appreciation for the remarkable efforts carried out by UNRWA. India shall continue supporting the Agency's activities in providing vital services and necessary humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees.''

During an Extraordinary Virtual Ministerial Pledging Conference for UNRWA held on June 23 2020, Minister of State for External Affairs, V. Muraleedharan, had announced that India will contribute USD 10 million US to UNRWA over the next two years.

India increased its annual financial contribution to UNRWA from USD 1.25 million in 2016 to USD 5 million in 2018 and 2019. It had also contributed USD 2 million to the agency in May 2020 which brings the total contribution for this year to USD three million so far.

"UNRWA has been facing a huge budgetary deficit and with an overwhelming majority of the 5.6 million refugees living under poverty line, the ongoing pandemic has broken the backbone of the basic infrastructure in the area they live. India's contribution seen in that background is timely and much appreciated," Mshasha said.

India has also sent medicines and other supplies to the Palestinian National Authority to help in dealing with the COVID-19 situation. 
UNRWA is facing an increased demand for services resulting from a growth in the number of registered Palestine refugees, the extent of their vulnerability and their deepening poverty.

It is a United Nations agency established by the General Assembly in 1949 and mandated to provide assistance and protection to some 5.6 million Palestine refugees registered with UNRWA across its five fields of operation.

Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip achieve their full human development potential, pending a just and lasting solution to their plight.

UNRWA services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, protection, and microfinance among Palestinian refugees.

Under an India-Palestine development partnership, India is currently funding eight on-going developmental projects worth 59 million US dollars, including building a 215 Bed Super Specialty Hospital in Bethlehem, Information Technology Park, National Printing Press, Turathi-Women Empowerment Project, Diplomatic Training Institute and three schools in various governorates in Palestinian Territories.

India on Wednesday contributed USD one million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East to support Palestinian refugees who have been facing extreme challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a move hailed by the UN body as "timely help".

India on Wednesday contributed USD one million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East to support Palestinian refugees who have been facing extreme challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a move hailed by the UN body as "timely help". The Government of India handed over the contribution cheque to the UN agency through its representative in Palestine, Sunil Kumar. United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has thanked India for its "timely help". "India has been a solid and consistent supporter of Palestinian refugees for decades. This contribution is even more significant as it comes at a critical time," Sami Mshasha, Director of Communications at UNRWA, told PTI. "India is facing a difficult situation at home due to the pandemic and it has still not forgotten the Palestinian refugees and stepped in to help stabilise basic services, including education, health care, relief and social services for Palestinian refugees. I would like to thank the Government of India for its continued funding to UNRWA and its backing of Palestine refugees across the Middle East,'' Mshasha told PTI. Reiterating India's continued support for UNRWA services, Kumar in a press release said, ''On behalf of the Government of India, I would like to express my appreciation for the remarkable efforts carried out by UNRWA. India shall continue supporting the Agency's activities in providing vital services and necessary humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees.'' During an Extraordinary Virtual Ministerial Pledging Conference for UNRWA held on June 23 2020, Minister of State for External Affairs, V. Muraleedharan, had announced that India will contribute USD 10 million US to UNRWA over the next two years. India increased its annual financial contribution to UNRWA from USD 1.25 million in 2016 to USD 5 million in 2018 and 2019. It had also contributed USD 2 million to the agency in May 2020 which brings the total contribution for this year to USD three million so far. "UNRWA has been facing a huge budgetary deficit and with an overwhelming majority of the 5.6 million refugees living under poverty line, the ongoing pandemic has broken the backbone of the basic infrastructure in the area they live. India's contribution seen in that background is timely and much appreciated," Mshasha said. India has also sent medicines and other supplies to the Palestinian National Authority to help in dealing with the COVID-19 situation. UNRWA is facing an increased demand for services resulting from a growth in the number of registered Palestine refugees, the extent of their vulnerability and their deepening poverty. It is a United Nations agency established by the General Assembly in 1949 and mandated to provide assistance and protection to some 5.6 million Palestine refugees registered with UNRWA across its five fields of operation. Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip achieve their full human development potential, pending a just and lasting solution to their plight. UNRWA services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, protection, and microfinance among Palestinian refugees. Under an India-Palestine development partnership, India is currently funding eight on-going developmental projects worth 59 million US dollars, including building a 215 Bed Super Specialty Hospital in Bethlehem, Information Technology Park, National Printing Press, Turathi-Women Empowerment Project, Diplomatic Training Institute and three schools in various governorates in Palestinian Territories.

India provides $1 million for Palestinian refugees

By Yehudah Mirsky

January 28, 2020, is a date that will be remembered in Middle Eastern history – but it will take some time before anyone knows for sure how it will be remembered.

The day didn’t start well for Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel’s longest-serving prime minister also became the country’s first prime minister to be indicted while still in office. He faces multiple charges of corruption.

But Netanyahu didn’t have much time to sulk. Just a few hours later, he was standing alongside Donald Trump as the pair unveiled the US administration’s long-anticipated plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, written in no small part in coordination with – and deeply in tune with – Netanyahu’s policies.

The fact that the plan’s unveiling came as both men face intense domestic scrutiny – the press conference interrupted coverage of Trump’s impeachment – should not be overlooked.

I have been following developments in the Middle East for a long time as a US State Department official, a lifelong student and now a professor of Israeli history, and as a dual citizen of the US and Israel. I know how complex the issues are and how past attempts at peace have fallen well short.

In Black and White

Trump’s plan comprises two different goals.

The first – fostering Israeli-Palestinian peace, or at least coexistence – is there in black and white for all to read.

The second – tying Trump and Netanyahu’s respective domestic critics into knots – is everywhere between the lines.

While the Trump administration worked on the plan in coordination with Israel and 'friendly'&nbsp;Arab states like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, it crucially did not involve the Palestinians. Palestinian resistance to the very development of this plan – out of suspicion, weakness and resentment – was met not with a carrot but a stick, with the US&nbsp;cutting all aid to Gaza and the West Bank in February 2019.

As a result, positions in the plan that might have been viewed as difficult compromises, had they been negotiated, are instead rightly seen as terms of surrender. Yes, the plan gives Palestinians a path to limited statehood, but only after ceding on the core issues of Israeli settlements, refugees and control of much of Jerusalem.

The plan was successfully kept behind the curtains while being drafted, but it now steps out onto a complicated stage.

Relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank have for some years been in utter political stalemate, even as the two have maintained working-level security cooperation. In Hamas-run Gaza, Israel has been in a long war of attrition, mixing ongoing less-than-total violence with tacit mutual understandings aimed at managing the conflict.

Meanwhile, Israel’s ties with several Sunni Arab states, especially in the Gulf, have been deepening, united by a desire to ward off Iran and its Shia proxies in Lebanon and what remains of Syria. Jordan, structurally weak but strategically important due to its location and links to Arab and Islamic actors, balances contending forces with skill and jitters.

Internal Palestinian politics are riven by the bitter rivalry between the nationalist Palestinian Authority and the Islamist group Hamas and by discontent with the Palestinian Authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas’ hold on power amid claims of corruption and mismanagement in the Palestinian semi-government.

Israeli politics is stalemated, too, and headed for its third round of parliamentary elections in less than a year, spurred by fallout from Netanyahu’s corruption scandals and fragmented opposition.

Many Israelis are alienated by Netanyahu’s endless legal troubles and divisive politics, but others are kindled by his attacks on political opponents. Meanwhile the Israeli left has failed to recover the credibility it lost on security issues following the collapse of 2000’s Camp David talks and the ensuing Second Intifada.

As for Trump, he remains popular in Israel – including among centrists, who don’t necessarily follow day-to-day US&nbsp;politics and look unfavourably on former President Barack Obama’s handling of the Middle East.

At home, Trump’s policies on Israel do not reflect that of the majority of American Jews, who tend to be politically liberal and supportive of a mutually negotiated two-state solution. Rather, Trump’s views chime with that of the smaller but more fervent American Jewish right, and above all with the millions of evangelicals who are a key plank of the president’s base.

Into all this drops the 180-page peace plan – whose heart is creating a legally recognized but geographically tiny and fragmented Palestinian state without full military powers – something that falls way short of Palestinian aspirations. Some parts of the plan are not unreasonable, and the many failed attempts at peacemaking to date call for fresh thinking. But the problems in this plan are very real.

It stakes out strong positions on the three hard issues that have bedevilled negotiations time and again: Israeli settlements, the status of Jerusalem and the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

The Trump plan leaves all Israeli settlements in place and proposes a network of roads and tunnels to help Palestinian move around the cantons that would make up their state.

It also freezes Jerusalem’s status quo and makes permanent Israel’s security barrier between the city’s east and west. As for the Palestinians who fled or were forced out of their homes in the 1948 war and their descendants, the plan says they are to be financially compensated. A few will be absorbed into Israel, but most will be integrated into either the envisioned Palestinian state or their current country of residence – which includes the Arab states that have refused to absorb them to date.

These stances will be politically helpful to Netanyahu and congenial to many Israelis, who want to end the country’s occupation of the Palestinians, if their own personal security can be assured.

To the Palestinians, they represent bitter pills, each of which would be hard enough to swallow on its own.

Reaction to the plan has led to talk of a possible reconciliation between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, something Israel has been trying to avoid – and put security forces on alert for further violence.

Another problem is in the thinking that is evident in the plan’s title, “Peace to Prosperity.” Blueprints for economic development are woven throughout. The ideas are laudable. But the notion that the most fervently committed Jews and Arabs will trade away their deepest convictions for financial gain is as unlikely to take hold now as it did in the Oslo Accords of the 1990s.

&nbsp;And red lines all over 
 
So what happens now?

Netanyahu has announced he will begin to annex territory, in a move his main political challenger, former Army Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, described as “reckless and irresponsible,” even as he says he accepts the plan’s broad outlines for an eventual settlement. The Palestinians for their part have rejected the proposals and taken to the streets in protest.

The plan raises some serious, immediate questions: How much unilateral action will Netanyahu take without paying a domestic price – especially with Israelis returning to the polls in March? And what responses are open to the Palestinians, other than the tried-and-failed turns to violence and appeals to the UN&nbsp;– neither of which will move Israeli public opinion in their direction?

Above all, the questions we should be asking are: What does this or any plan do concretely to improve the lives of people in the region? What practical steps could be taken to make viable coexistence – peace is too strong a word – further down the line possible or at least avert new violence triggered by thwarted expectations?

There is no easy solution to the bitter Israel-Palestinian conflict. Unilateral annexation by Israel will only further Palestinian resentment and rejectionism. Too many people, in Washington as well as the Middle East, view the conflict in terms of ideological dreams and agendas, paying little heed to the real needs of people on the ground, Israeli and Palestinian alike. Should this plan become, like so many of its predecessors, a political football on both sides of the ocean, the people who make their homes and live their lives on politicians’ playing fields will lose. 
 
(Yehudah Mirsky is Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University)

(This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/has-trump-proposed-a-middle-east-peace-plan-or-terms-of-surrender-for-the-palestinians-130677">original article</a>)

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)&nbsp;

By Yehudah Mirsky January 28, 2020, is a date that will be remembered in Middle Eastern history – but it will take some time before anyone knows for sure how it will be remembered.

By Yehudah Mirsky January 28, 2020, is a date that will be remembered in Middle Eastern history – but it will take some time before anyone knows for sure how it will be remembered. The day didn’t start well for Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel’s longest-serving prime minister also became the country’s first prime minister to be indicted while still in office. He faces multiple charges of corruption. But Netanyahu didn’t have much time to sulk. Just a few hours later, he was standing alongside Donald Trump as the pair unveiled the US administration’s long-anticipated plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, written in no small part in coordination with – and deeply in tune with – Netanyahu’s policies. The fact that the plan’s unveiling came as both men face intense domestic scrutiny – the press conference interrupted coverage of Trump’s impeachment – should not be overlooked. I have been following developments in the Middle East for a long time as a US State Department official, a lifelong student and now a professor of Israeli history, and as a dual citizen of the US and Israel. I know how complex the issues are and how past attempts at peace have fallen well short. In Black and White Trump’s plan comprises two different goals. The first – fostering Israeli-Palestinian peace, or at least coexistence – is there in black and white for all to read. The second – tying Trump and Netanyahu’s respective domestic critics into knots – is everywhere between the lines. While the Trump administration worked on the plan in coordination with Israel and 'friendly' Arab states like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, it crucially did not involve the Palestinians. Palestinian resistance to the very development of this plan – out of suspicion, weakness and resentment – was met not with a carrot but a stick, with the US cutting all aid to Gaza and the West Bank in February 2019. As a result, positions in the plan that might have been viewed as difficult compromises, had they been negotiated, are instead rightly seen as terms of surrender. Yes, the plan gives Palestinians a path to limited statehood, but only after ceding on the core issues of Israeli settlements, refugees and control of much of Jerusalem. The plan was successfully kept behind the curtains while being drafted, but it now steps out onto a complicated stage. Relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank have for some years been in utter political stalemate, even as the two have maintained working-level security cooperation. In Hamas-run Gaza, Israel has been in a long war of attrition, mixing ongoing less-than-total violence with tacit mutual understandings aimed at managing the conflict. Meanwhile, Israel’s ties with several Sunni Arab states, especially in the Gulf, have been deepening, united by a desire to ward off Iran and its Shia proxies in Lebanon and what remains of Syria. Jordan, structurally weak but strategically important due to its location and links to Arab and Islamic actors, balances contending forces with skill and jitters. Internal Palestinian politics are riven by the bitter rivalry between the nationalist Palestinian Authority and the Islamist group Hamas and by discontent with the Palestinian Authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas’ hold on power amid claims of corruption and mismanagement in the Palestinian semi-government. Israeli politics is stalemated, too, and headed for its third round of parliamentary elections in less than a year, spurred by fallout from Netanyahu’s corruption scandals and fragmented opposition. Many Israelis are alienated by Netanyahu’s endless legal troubles and divisive politics, but others are kindled by his attacks on political opponents. Meanwhile the Israeli left has failed to recover the credibility it lost on security issues following the collapse of 2000’s Camp David talks and the ensuing Second Intifada. As for Trump, he remains popular in Israel – including among centrists, who don’t necessarily follow day-to-day US politics and look unfavourably on former President Barack Obama’s handling of the Middle East. At home, Trump’s policies on Israel do not reflect that of the majority of American Jews, who tend to be politically liberal and supportive of a mutually negotiated two-state solution. Rather, Trump’s views chime with that of the smaller but more fervent American Jewish right, and above all with the millions of evangelicals who are a key plank of the president’s base. Into all this drops the 180-page peace plan – whose heart is creating a legally recognized but geographically tiny and fragmented Palestinian state without full military powers – something that falls way short of Palestinian aspirations. Some parts of the plan are not unreasonable, and the many failed attempts at peacemaking to date call for fresh thinking. But the problems in this plan are very real. It stakes out strong positions on the three hard issues that have bedevilled negotiations time and again: Israeli settlements, the status of Jerusalem and the right of return for Palestinian refugees. The Trump plan leaves all Israeli settlements in place and proposes a network of roads and tunnels to help Palestinian move around the cantons that would make up their state. It also freezes Jerusalem’s status quo and makes permanent Israel’s security barrier between the city’s east and west. As for the Palestinians who fled or were forced out of their homes in the 1948 war and their descendants, the plan says they are to be financially compensated. A few will be absorbed into Israel, but most will be integrated into either the envisioned Palestinian state or their current country of residence – which includes the Arab states that have refused to absorb them to date. These stances will be politically helpful to Netanyahu and congenial to many Israelis, who want to end the country’s occupation of the Palestinians, if their own personal security can be assured. To the Palestinians, they represent bitter pills, each of which would be hard enough to swallow on its own. Reaction to the plan has led to talk of a possible reconciliation between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, something Israel has been trying to avoid – and put security forces on alert for further violence. Another problem is in the thinking that is evident in the plan’s title, “Peace to Prosperity.” Blueprints for economic development are woven throughout. The ideas are laudable. But the notion that the most fervently committed Jews and Arabs will trade away their deepest convictions for financial gain is as unlikely to take hold now as it did in the Oslo Accords of the 1990s. And red lines all over So what happens now? Netanyahu has announced he will begin to annex territory, in a move his main political challenger, former Army Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, described as “reckless and irresponsible,” even as he says he accepts the plan’s broad outlines for an eventual settlement. The Palestinians for their part have rejected the proposals and taken to the streets in protest. The plan raises some serious, immediate questions: How much unilateral action will Netanyahu take without paying a domestic price – especially with Israelis returning to the polls in March? And what responses are open to the Palestinians, other than the tried-and-failed turns to violence and appeals to the UN – neither of which will move Israeli public opinion in their direction? Above all, the questions we should be asking are: What does this or any plan do concretely to improve the lives of people in the region? What practical steps could be taken to make viable coexistence – peace is too strong a word – further down the line possible or at least avert new violence triggered by thwarted expectations? There is no easy solution to the bitter Israel-Palestinian conflict. Unilateral annexation by Israel will only further Palestinian resentment and rejectionism. Too many people, in Washington as well as the Middle East, view the conflict in terms of ideological dreams and agendas, paying little heed to the real needs of people on the ground, Israeli and Palestinian alike. Should this plan become, like so many of its predecessors, a political football on both sides of the ocean, the people who make their homes and live their lives on politicians’ playing fields will lose. (Yehudah Mirsky is Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University) (This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article) (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Has Donald Trump proposed a Middle East peace plan – or terms of surrender for the Palestinians?

Israel and the United States are putting the financial squeeze on the Palestinian Authority, where opposition to a long-awaited US&nbsp;peace plan and anger over Israeli sanctions remain strong.

Analysts see steep cuts in US&nbsp;aid to the Palestinians over the past year as an attempt to draw them towards a blueprint that Washington promises will have economic benefits but which the PA predicts will fall short of endorsing Palestinian statehood.

And during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu`s successful re-election campaign, his right-wing government imposed sanctions that have pushed the Authority towards financial crisis.

In February, Israel announced it would cut by 5 percent the approximately $190 million in tax revenues it transfers to the Palestinian Authority each month from imports that reach the occupied West Bank and Hamas-run Gaza Strip via Israeli ports.

The deducted sum represents the amount of money paid by the Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, to families of Palestinians convicted and jailed by Israel for security offences, including lethal attacks on Israelis.

Israel calls the stipends a "pay for slay" policy.

Palestinians hail their jailed brethren as heroes in a struggle for an independent state and their families as deserving of support.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has refused to accept the partial tax remittances from Israel, saying the PA is entitled to all the money under interim peace deals.

Unless the issue is resolved, the World Bank says, the Palestinians` financing gap could exceed $1 billion in 2019, putting further strain on an economy grappling with a 52 percent unemployment rate.

Already facing international donor fatigue, the Palestinians were dealt a heavy blow by the Trump administration`s cut last year of hundreds of millions of dollars of aid.

In February, the US&nbsp;Agency for International Development announced it had ceased all assistance to the West Bank and Gaza.

While the United States and Israel are applying financial pressure to the Palestinian Authority for different reasons, it is happening just as the PA is being leant on to accept the US&nbsp;peace plan.&nbsp;

Palestinian suspicions over the still-secret US&nbsp;proposals, due to be announced in June, and defiance of Israeli sanctions continue to run deep despite the arm-twisting.

SALARY CUTS

Khalid al-Asili, the Authority`s economy minister, told Reuters in an interview last week that it has been struggling to manage on just 36 percent of budgeted revenues.

The Authority slashed the salaries of government employees in February, March and April to whether the budget crisis, with some Palestinian public servants` wages cut in half.

"Unless they find a solution ... it will be a disaster for the Palestinian economy," Asili said.

With Trump`s "deal of the century" about to be unveiled, Tareq Baconi&nbsp;an analyst with the International Crisis Group questioned the wisdom of Washington`s financial pressure on the Palestinians.

Such a strategy, he said, stemmed from the "misguided belief that economic benefits could be sufficiently compelling for Palestinians to relinquish their political demands".

One of the architects of the Trump plan, the president`s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, declined to say in public remarks in Washington last week whether it called for a two-state solution, a goal of past efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

Abbas and his officials have refused to deal at a political level with the Trump administration since the US President`s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel`s capital in 2017 and his move of the US&nbsp;embassy to the holy city last May.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh has rejected out of hand "any political initiative that does not call for ending Israeli occupation and establishing an independent and sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital".

The Palestinians have long sought to set up a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War.

Netanyahu further clouded the statehood issue when he said during the election race that he would annex Israeli settlements in the West Bank if he wins, a move that Palestinian leaders said would kill any prospects of peace.

RISKS FOR BOTH SIDES

While both sides await the US&nbsp;proposals, the financial sanctions on the Palestinian Authority could be a double-edged sword, posing risks to its stability and for Israel as well.

"Given that the PA`s main source of legitimacy is its capacity to employ a considerable proportion of the Palestinian workforce, internal discontent could challenge its ability to govern effectively," Baconi said.

For Israel, weakening the Palestinian Authority could have an impact on Palestinian security forces that cooperate with the Israeli military in the West Bank.

"Israel takes it for granted that it&nbsp;has not experienced any major terrorist attack for years now," said Avraham Sela, professor emeritus of international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

"Coordination with the PA is invaluable for Israel`s security," he said.

Economy Minister Eli Cohen, a member of Netanyahu`s security cabinet, said on Monday that Israel has "no interest" in the Authority`s collapse.

But, he said on Israel`s Reshet TV, withholding tax revenues equivalent to the sums of "stipends and pensions being paid to terrorists" is justifiable.

"CATASTROPHIC CUTS"

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Kadhim Harb, 50, who works in the economy ministry, said the salary reductions have forced him to delay loan payments.

"We are cutting back on everything. We only buy basic things,” Harb, said. &nbsp;&nbsp;

A police officer in Gaza, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Ahmed, said his wages were slashed by 65 percent in March.

"Salary cuts? Please say: catastrophic cuts. I haven`t been able to pay my son`s university tuition this semester," said Ahmed, 39.

Donor countries and institutions have stepped in to try to plug the growing budget deficit.&nbsp;

At Abbas`s urging, the Arab League at a meeting in Cairo last week promised $100 million per month to the PA.

Those pledges would add to an increase in funds from Gulf Arab states following the US&nbsp;cuts.

Saudi Arabia in 2018 gave $222 million to the Authority, up from $92 million in 2017, the World Bank said. Kuwait contributed $53 million last year.&nbsp;

Still, the PA faced a significant financing gap in 2018 - some $400 million, or roughly 10 percent of its budget - forcing it to accrue arrears on loans from local banks and other private sector financiers.

Israel and the United States are putting the financial squeeze on the Palestinian Authority, where opposition to a long-awaited US peace plan and anger over Israeli sanctions remain strong.

Israel and the United States are putting the financial squeeze on the Palestinian Authority, where opposition to a long-awaited US peace plan and anger over Israeli sanctions remain strong. Analysts see steep cuts in US aid to the Palestinians over the past year as an attempt to draw them towards a blueprint that Washington promises will have economic benefits but which the PA predicts will fall short of endorsing Palestinian statehood. And during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu`s successful re-election campaign, his right-wing government imposed sanctions that have pushed the Authority towards financial crisis. In February, Israel announced it would cut by 5 percent the approximately $190 million in tax revenues it transfers to the Palestinian Authority each month from imports that reach the occupied West Bank and Hamas-run Gaza Strip via Israeli ports. The deducted sum represents the amount of money paid by the Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, to families of Palestinians convicted and jailed by Israel for security offences, including lethal attacks on Israelis. Israel calls the stipends a "pay for slay" policy. Palestinians hail their jailed brethren as heroes in a struggle for an independent state and their families as deserving of support. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has refused to accept the partial tax remittances from Israel, saying the PA is entitled to all the money under interim peace deals. Unless the issue is resolved, the World Bank says, the Palestinians` financing gap could exceed $1 billion in 2019, putting further strain on an economy grappling with a 52 percent unemployment rate. Already facing international donor fatigue, the Palestinians were dealt a heavy blow by the Trump administration`s cut last year of hundreds of millions of dollars of aid. In February, the US Agency for International Development announced it had ceased all assistance to the West Bank and Gaza. While the United States and Israel are applying financial pressure to the Palestinian Authority for different reasons, it is happening just as the PA is being leant on to accept the US peace plan. Palestinian suspicions over the still-secret US proposals, due to be announced in June, and defiance of Israeli sanctions continue to run deep despite the arm-twisting. SALARY CUTS Khalid al-Asili, the Authority`s economy minister, told Reuters in an interview last week that it has been struggling to manage on just 36 percent of budgeted revenues. The Authority slashed the salaries of government employees in February, March and April to whether the budget crisis, with some Palestinian public servants` wages cut in half. "Unless they find a solution ... it will be a disaster for the Palestinian economy," Asili said. With Trump`s "deal of the century" about to be unveiled, Tareq Baconi an analyst with the International Crisis Group questioned the wisdom of Washington`s financial pressure on the Palestinians. Such a strategy, he said, stemmed from the "misguided belief that economic benefits could be sufficiently compelling for Palestinians to relinquish their political demands". One of the architects of the Trump plan, the president`s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, declined to say in public remarks in Washington last week whether it called for a two-state solution, a goal of past efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Abbas and his officials have refused to deal at a political level with the Trump administration since the US President`s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel`s capital in 2017 and his move of the US embassy to the holy city last May. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh has rejected out of hand "any political initiative that does not call for ending Israeli occupation and establishing an independent and sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital". The Palestinians have long sought to set up a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War. Netanyahu further clouded the statehood issue when he said during the election race that he would annex Israeli settlements in the West Bank if he wins, a move that Palestinian leaders said would kill any prospects of peace. RISKS FOR BOTH SIDES While both sides await the US proposals, the financial sanctions on the Palestinian Authority could be a double-edged sword, posing risks to its stability and for Israel as well. "Given that the PA`s main source of legitimacy is its capacity to employ a considerable proportion of the Palestinian workforce, internal discontent could challenge its ability to govern effectively," Baconi said. For Israel, weakening the Palestinian Authority could have an impact on Palestinian security forces that cooperate with the Israeli military in the West Bank. "Israel takes it for granted that it has not experienced any major terrorist attack for years now," said Avraham Sela, professor emeritus of international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "Coordination with the PA is invaluable for Israel`s security," he said. Economy Minister Eli Cohen, a member of Netanyahu`s security cabinet, said on Monday that Israel has "no interest" in the Authority`s collapse. But, he said on Israel`s Reshet TV, withholding tax revenues equivalent to the sums of "stipends and pensions being paid to terrorists" is justifiable. "CATASTROPHIC CUTS" In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Kadhim Harb, 50, who works in the economy ministry, said the salary reductions have forced him to delay loan payments. "We are cutting back on everything. We only buy basic things,” Harb, said. A police officer in Gaza, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Ahmed, said his wages were slashed by 65 percent in March. "Salary cuts? Please say: catastrophic cuts. I haven`t been able to pay my son`s university tuition this semester," said Ahmed, 39. Donor countries and institutions have stepped in to try to plug the growing budget deficit. At Abbas`s urging, the Arab League at a meeting in Cairo last week promised $100 million per month to the PA. Those pledges would add to an increase in funds from Gulf Arab states following the US cuts. Saudi Arabia in 2018 gave $222 million to the Authority, up from $92 million in 2017, the World Bank said. Kuwait contributed $53 million last year. Still, the PA faced a significant financing gap in 2018 - some $400 million, or roughly 10 percent of its budget - forcing it to accrue arrears on loans from local banks and other private sector financiers.

As Trump team prepares Mideast plan, Palestinians face financial crisis

Israel's army said Tuesday it has opened a military police investigation into the killing of a Palestinian medical volunteer along the Gaza border in June.

Razan al-Najjar, 21, was fatally shot on June 1 near the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis during protests and clashes along the border.

The Palestinian Medical Relief Society said at the time she was hit "as she was attempting to provide first aid to an injured protester", adding that three other first responders were also hit by live fire on the same day.

Israel's army said in the days after her death that its troops did not deliberately shoot her, but the incident was further reviewed by the military advocate general.

"A military police investigation has been opened regarding the death of the volunteer medic Razan al-Najjar," the army said in Tuesday's statement, noting the probe was ordered following the advocate general's review.

At least 218 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the months of demonstrations and clashes.

One Israeli soldier has been killed along the border since the protests began on March 30.

Israel says its actions are necessary to defend the border and stop infiltrations and attacks, which it accuses Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip, of seeking to orchestrate.

Palestinians and rights groups say protesters have been shot while posing little threat.

Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008.

Israel's army said Tuesday it has opened a military police investigation into the killing of a Palestinian medical volunteer along the Gaza border in June. Razan al-Najjar, 21, was fatally shot on June 1 near the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis during protests and clashes along the border.

Israel's army said Tuesday it has opened a military police investigation into the killing of a Palestinian medical volunteer along the Gaza border in June. Razan al-Najjar, 21, was fatally shot on June 1 near the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis during protests and clashes along the border. The Palestinian Medical Relief Society said at the time she was hit "as she was attempting to provide first aid to an injured protester", adding that three other first responders were also hit by live fire on the same day. Israel's army said in the days after her death that its troops did not deliberately shoot her, but the incident was further reviewed by the military advocate general. "A military police investigation has been opened regarding the death of the volunteer medic Razan al-Najjar," the army said in Tuesday's statement, noting the probe was ordered following the advocate general's review. At least 218 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the months of demonstrations and clashes. One Israeli soldier has been killed along the border since the protests began on March 30. Israel says its actions are necessary to defend the border and stop infiltrations and attacks, which it accuses Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip, of seeking to orchestrate. Palestinians and rights groups say protesters have been shot while posing little threat. Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008.

Israeli army opens probe into killing of Gaza medic

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the Jewish state's president and a former minister of conspiring to have him toppled, triggering charges of "paranoia" ahead of elections.

"I know that a former Likud minister has been holding discussions with the coalition and concocted a subversive plot, with me winning a large victory at the next elections and him making sure I am not prime minister," he told a gathering of his right-wing Likud party on Wednesday night celebrating his 69th birthday.

Under the scheme, President Reuven Rivlin would use his prerogative as head of state to name an alternative Likud candidate to head a post-election government.

Although Netanyahu did not explicitly name him, Gideon Saar, a former minister and leading rival within Likud, on Thursday publicly denied any such manoeuvre, while Rivlin mocked it as "paranoia" on the premier's part.

Israel's next legislative elections are scheduled for November 2019 but early polls could be held in case of a crisis within Netanyahu's ruling Likud-led coalition.

"If Netanyahu decided against moving up the elections it's not because President Rivlin or former Likud minister Saar is out to get him, but rather to avoid coinciding with an indictment that might lose him the elections," Haaretz newspaper commented.

Netanyahu, who maintains his innocence in several corruption cases, is not obliged to step down as prime minister even if he is formally charged.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the Jewish state's president and a former minister of conspiring to have him toppled, triggering charges of "paranoia" ahead of elections.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the Jewish state's president and a former minister of conspiring to have him toppled, triggering charges of "paranoia" ahead of elections. "I know that a former Likud minister has been holding discussions with the coalition and concocted a subversive plot, with me winning a large victory at the next elections and him making sure I am not prime minister," he told a gathering of his right-wing Likud party on Wednesday night celebrating his 69th birthday. Under the scheme, President Reuven Rivlin would use his prerogative as head of state to name an alternative Likud candidate to head a post-election government. Although Netanyahu did not explicitly name him, Gideon Saar, a former minister and leading rival within Likud, on Thursday publicly denied any such manoeuvre, while Rivlin mocked it as "paranoia" on the premier's part. Israel's next legislative elections are scheduled for November 2019 but early polls could be held in case of a crisis within Netanyahu's ruling Likud-led coalition. "If Netanyahu decided against moving up the elections it's not because President Rivlin or former Likud minister Saar is out to get him, but rather to avoid coinciding with an indictment that might lose him the elections," Haaretz newspaper commented. Netanyahu, who maintains his innocence in several corruption cases, is not obliged to step down as prime minister even if he is formally charged.

Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu warns of plot to topple him