At the behest of the Israeli government Australia has announced its decision to end direct financial aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) on allegations of preventing it from using this money to help families of Palestinians convicted of politically motivated violence.
In a press release on Monday Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop said Australia had cut funding to the World Bank’s Multi-Donor Trust Fund for the Palestinian Recovery and Development Program after writing to the PA in late May seeking assurance that Australian funding was not going to Palestinians who were involved in violence.
Bishop ignored that the Palestinians live under occupation and suffer on a daily basis from Israel’s tyranny and state terrorism and thus they have the right under international law to struggle for their freedom and defend themselves.
“Any assistance provided by the Palestine Liberation Organization to those convicted of politically motivated violence is an affront to Australian values and undermines the prospect of meaningful peace between Israel and the Palestinians” she claimed.
Last March the US government enacted a law that suspended some financial aid to the Palestinians over the stipends paid to families of Palestinians killed or jailed because of their resistance activities against the Israeli occupation.
