The UK will provide an extra £10 million for the Palestinian Authority (PA) across 2026 to help pay salaries, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has confirmed.
The money will be handed over despite an apparent lack of progress on the PA’s part in implementing reforms demanded by the UK, US and EU, including greater democratisation in the West Bank and the end of the pay-for-slay programme, which provides stipends to the families of convicted Palestinian terrorists.
Speaking in the Commons, Cooper said: “We are keeping up the pressure on the PA, the Palestinian Authority, to deliver its vital reform commitments on education, welfare payments and elections.
“We are expanding the direct practical help to the PA (for) reform and to deliver effective government for its people, drawing on the deep expertise of the UK envoy for PA governance, Lord Michael Barber.
“But the PA faces an enormous fiscal and healthcare crisis because the Israeli government has a stranglehold on the Palestinian economy, including withholding five billion dollars of Palestinian tax revenue. That means schools and health facilities struggle to stay open for more than one or two days a week.
“An effective PA is directly in Israel’s interest – it is both utterly wrong and incredibly short-sighted for the Netanyahu government to seek to undermine it at every turn.”
She went on: “Today I can announce we will provide at least £10 million further to support the PA over 2026 to pay salaries, bolstering the PA’s ability to function, helping dedicated health professionals to do their essential work across hospitals, clinics and maternity services, and our focus will be to build more effective, more democratic, more accountable governance, and to reinforce the unity of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem as inseparable pillars of the state of Palestine. ”
Cooper added that she would travel to Paris later this week in advance of the peace-building conference dedicated to advancing a two-state solution.
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