US Agency for International Development (USAID) director-general Saeed Erekat said on Tuesday that he was " Said Tuesday that he had not been consulted by administration officials before US President Trump announced last year that US assistance to the Palestinian Authority would end.
"I was not asked if the relief agency had recommended cutting off US aid," Green said in response to questions from Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris van Hollen during a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which was devoted to discussing the proposed 2020 budget for the US Agency for International Development.
During the Appropriations Committee hearing, Democratic senators pressed Green on the implications of US cuts to humanitarian projects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and rejected all aid from the Palestinian Authority after the ATCA´s Terrorism Clarification Act was implemented in February.
The administration of US President Donald Trump announced on February 1, 2019, that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has terminated all aid to the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip in line with the law adopted by Congress and begins Sirean was effective on January 31, 2019. The deadline also saw the end of nearly $ 60 million in US aid to the Palestinian security forces, which helps its cooperation with Israeli forces maintain relative calm in the West Bank.
The US House of Representatives´ Anti-Terrorism Act (ATCA) enables Americans to sue foreign aid recipients in US courts for alleged complaint in "acts of war", prompting the Palestinian Authority to refuse more US funding for fear of US court proceedings.
On February 1, 2019, a US official confirmed that "at the request of the Palestinian Authority, we have completed some projects and programs financed with the assistance of the authorities specified in the ATCA law in the West Bank and Gaza." "All aid provided by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been stopped," the official said, adding that no steps had been taken to close the USAID mission in Palestinian territory at that time. US Embassy in Jerusalem.
It should be noted that the United States Agency for International Development began to close its operations in the West Bank and Gaza and the demobilization of Palestinian employees last March in line with the law.
Trump´s administration cut all forms of US civil assistance to Palestinians in 2018, but did not touch on security assistance, saying security coordination between the Palestinian Authority and Israel served the interests of US foreign policy.
The ATCA bill was promoted by supporters of Israel in the US Congress without thinking of its implications to satisfy the powerful Israeli lobby in Washington, the American Israel-AIPAC Committee, before the midterm elections of 2018 in response to US court decisions that rejected millions of dollars of lawsuits against the Palestinian Authority Was filed by US citizens claiming to have "injured or lost their loved ones in terrorist attacks by Palestinians", most of them during the second intifada, especially after the US Supreme Court in Washington confirmed a court ruling that the system American law does not have the authority to deal with such cases.
Under the ATCA Act, US courts will have jurisdiction over terrorism-related cases against any foreign entity receiving US government assistance, which means that if the PA receives up to $ 1 of US funding, it may face lawsuits demanding Hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation. The law has also raised concern in other countries in the Middle East that rely on US assistance.
It should be noted that the law excludes Israel because of the specific funding sources through which Israel obtains American aid.
On May 1, 2019, US Army Insider said that Senator Jeff Merkeley, a Democrat from Oregon, told the site after the hearing that he was seeking "clarification" on the consequences of ATCA. "My understanding is that Congress did not intend Cutting aid going directly to non-profit organizations operating in the West Bank and Gaza to be affected (negatively) by this decision, and I would like to ask for this clarification. "
