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Press Releases 2008

Press Release

October 22, 2008

Jerusalem

 

For Immediate Release

U.S. Provides Additional $150 Million in Budget Support to Palestinian Authority 

RAMALLAH – In a ceremony at the Office of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Consul General Jake Walles and USAID Director Howard Sumka announced that the United States had provided an additional $150 million in budget support for the Palestinian Authority (PA).  This assistance is in addition to the $150 million in budget support delivered to the PA in March of this year.

  

The Palestinian Authority has taken important steps to promote a peaceful, negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to reform Palestinian institutions.  The Prime Minister has undertaken effective reform of the PA’s public financial management structure and steps to control government spending.  At the same time, he has paid back substantial arrears owed to the Palestinian people that his government inherited from its predecessors.  International donors who met in New York last month agreed on the priority of providing continuing budget support to the Palestinian Authority. 

 

Under the terms of the latest budget transfer, the U.S. has provided the PA $150 million to be used for agreed purposes, subject to strict auditing and accountability mechanisms.  With this transfer of $150 million in budget support, the United States has provided more than $700 million in humanitarian, development and budget support in 2008, exceeding the commitment made by Secretary Rice at the Palestinian Donors Conference that took place in December 2007.

 

At the ceremony in Ramallah today, Prime Minister Fayyad said, “The U.S. has again delivered a significant sum of money directly to the Palestinian budget, which is needed by the PA to cover its needs.  I thank President Bush and the many Members of Congress for making this assistance possible and for their ongoing efforts to build a secure, independent Palestinian state that will live in peace and security with Israel and all its neighbors.”

 

Consul General Walles commented that, “The U.S. government is pleased to be able to support the Prime Minister and his government’s efforts to ensure a future of economic and political security for the Palestinian people.”  USAID Director Sumka added that “USAID is pleased to continue its commitment to helping the Palestinian people.” 

 

In addition to this direct support to the Palestinian budget, the U.S. continues an active humanitarian and development assistance program in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 

 For more information please contact the U.S. Consulate’s Press Office at 02-622-6908 or 02-622-6909 or Public Affairs Officer Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm at 054-678-8456.