The Obama administration on Thursday said it would reassess aid to Palestinians if the militant group Hamas should join the US-backed Palestinian government, with several lawmakers already clamoring for funding to be cut off.
State Department spokeswoman Heide Bronke Fulton said the US was continuing its assistance programs for now, while seeking more information on the emerging alliance between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ pro-Western Fatah party, which governs in the West Bank, and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
“Our current support ... serves as an important contribution to U.S. efforts to support the building of Palestinian institutions that are necessary for a future state,” she said. “If a new Palestinian government is formed, we will assess it based on its policies at that time and will determine the implications for our assistance based on US law.”
The two Palestinian groups said this week they have reached a tentative deal to end a four-year rift, but the US considers Hamas a terrorist group, making it ineligible for direct US aid. When the Palestinians last had a unity government, the US continued to channel some money to Abbas, but with strict and complicated controls that barred diplomats from contacts with Hamas members and US money from being directed to Hamas-run agencies.
The administration had hoped to provide more than US$500 million in aid programs for Palestinians next year, but several lawmakers already are threatening to cut off the money.
“The Palestinian Authority has chosen an alliance with violence and extremism,” said a joint statement on Wednesday from seven Democratic and two Republican members of Congress after they met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv.
They said US law forbids US assistance if Hamas is included in the Palestinian government.
And Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican who chairs the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, said “US taxpayer funds should not and must not be used to support those who threaten US security, our interests, and our vital ally, Israel.”
Abbas on Thursday sought to play down the concerns, insisting he will retain control over Palestinian foreign policy and pledging his commitment to peace with Israel. Speaking in Ramallah, he stressed that there would be no Hamas representatives in the new government.
Fulton said the US supports Palestinian reconciliation, but “on terms which promote the cause of peace.” Any new government needs to accept past agreements and recognize Israel’s right to exist, she said.
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