In Last Hours, Obama Approved Funds for Palestinian Authority

Moments before his presidency officially ended, former President Barack Obama authorized the transfer of US$221 million to the Palestinian Authority despite Republicans’ attempt to block the funds.

The money accounts for 97 percent of the total US$227 million he released to foreign accounts dealing with climate change programs (US$4 million), U.N. peace building efforts (US$1.25 million) and bureaus of interest in Afghanistan, Pakistan and South and Central Asia ($1.05 million).

The money had already been approved by Congress in the 2015-2016 fiscal year and was slated for humanitarian aid efforts in the West Bank and Gaza, but at least two Republican members stood against it.

Among them was Rep. Ed Royce, a Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who claimed the Palestinian Authority – an interim self-governing body established in 1994 – funded terrorism, RT reported.

“It’s hard to see how this ‘pay to slay’ policy wouldn’t put them on the state sponsor of terrorism list,” Royce said in a July 2016 statement, adding that the PA used the money as a “martyr’s fund” to pay the “families of Palestinian prisoners and suicide bombers."

Traditionally, presidents have respected the holds placed on funds, though these are not legally binding once the money is allocated, AP reported.

But tired of waiting for Republicans to come around after pressing them to release the funds for years, Obama – an alleged supporter of the Palestinian Authority – decided to use his power in the last hours of his presidency.

According to state officials speaking to AP under anonymity, the outgoing administration formally notified Congress it would spend the money just hours before Trump took the oath of office on Friday.

The funds were originally blocked in 2012, when Congress froze a $192 million aid package for the PA due to President Mahmoud Abbas’ bid for U.N. statehood the year prior. Royce and Kay Granger, a GOP lawmaker of Texas who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, were the main culprits behind that block.

Citing the importance to “the security interests of the United States,” Obama lifted the ban, according to the Times of Israel.

The move is certainly going to meet with resistance from the new Trump administration, which has been unabashedly pro-Israel and has criticized the U.N. for recognizing the PA. Trump also recently invited right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington, D.C.

In a recent letter to Trump, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas slammed his musings about moving the Israeli Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He said it would have a “disastrous impact on the peace process, on the two-state solution and on the stability and security of the entire region,” RT reported.

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