Palestinian National Authority - International Aid

International Aid

The majority of aid to the Palestinian Authority comes from the United States and European Union. According to figures released by the PA, only 22 percent of the $530,000,000 received since the beginning of 2010 came from Arab donors. The remaining came from Western donors and organizations. The total amount of foreign aid received directly by the PA was $1.4 billion in 2009 and $1.8 billion in 2008.

Palestinian Authority officials have said the "Arab world" does not "care about the Palestinian." According to Palestinian officials, Arab states have "failed" to honor their previous pledges to provide Palestinians with financial aid. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinians haven't seen "one cent" of the hundreds of millions of dollars the Arab countries promised during the 2010 Arab League summit in Libya. Palestinian leaders stated the Arab world was "continuing to ignore" repeated requests for help.

Following the 2006 legislative elections, won by Hamas, Israel has ceased transferring the $55 million tax-receipts to the PA; since the PA has no access point (ports, airports, etc.) to receive taxes, it is Israel that is charged with this duty. These funds accounted for a third of the PA's budget, two thirds of its proper budget, and ensure the wages of 160,000 Palestinian civil servants (among them 60,000 security and police officers), on which a third of the Palestinian population is dependent.

The US and the EU responded to Hamas' political victory by stopping direct aid to the PA, while the US imposed a financial blockade on PA's banks, impeding some of the Arab League's funds (e.g. Saudi Arabia and Qatar) from being transferred to the PA. On 6 and 7 May 2006, hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated in Gaza and the West Bank demanding payment of their wages.

In 2010, the Palestinian Authority has managed to decrease dependence on "foreign aid-from Europe, the US, and Arab countries" by $600 million.