[{"imageUrl":"","description":"PMW's report \"The PA's Billion Dollar Fraud\" led to public debate in the UK, which culminated in the UK freezing aid to the PA pending an investigation. ","news":false,"tagIds":["190","191","1035","1036","1037","1045","1511"],"authorId":[420],"published":true,"contentType":"Article","content":" \n \n

The UK freezes £25 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority in response to PMW reports
\n

\nPMW's report "The PA's Billion Dollar Fraud," is having a major international impact, on both the image and funding of the PA. The PMW report shows that according to PA law and in practice the PA continues to finance terror by paying salaries to terrorist prisoners, contrary to its promises to donor countries. The British press reported the UK's decision to suspend £25 million from this year's funding to the PA, in response to what PMW exposed: \n

"Millions of pounds of British aid money is being suspended amid fears it is going straight into the hands of Palestinian terrorists... It means £25 million - a third of the Palestine aid program - is on hold... The move follows fears money intended for civil servants was being spent on paying terrorist prisoners."

[Daily Mail, Oct. 7, 2016]

\n
\nWhen PMW released the report in March 2016, the British Mail on Sunday published a front-page story highlighting the significance of PMW's report which led to a parliamentary debate:
\n\n

\n "A devastating new report to be released this week by Palestinian Media Watch suggests that Western donors have been duped by assertions that the Authority no longer funds terrorists... Itamar Marcus, the report's author, said: 'There is willful blindness by the UK and EU, who were happy not to even carry out the simplest investigation.'"
\n

[The Mail on Sunday, March 27, 2016]
\n
\n

\nThe UK government's decision to cut PA funding follows demands by British Members of Parliament who cited PMW findings in Parliament:
\n
\n\n

MP Joan Ryan, Labour Party, UK Parliament, June 13, 2016:

\n \n

"Last month, Palestinian Media Watch showed how the PA sought to deceive international donors by shutting the Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs and claiming that the Palestine Liberation Organisation would assume responsibility for those

payments, but that was merely financial sleight of hand... I wrote to Ministers last month demanding that direct aid to the PA be suspended while these serious allegations are investigated."
\n
\n

MP Jim Shannon, Democratic Unionist Party, UK Parliament, June 13, 2016:

\n
\n\n

"All the Minister has to do is turn on his computer and visit www.palwatch.org [PMW website] and see for himself that the Palestinian Authority is misusing the funds given to it by Britain."
\n

MP Ian Austin, Labour Party, UK Parliament, June 13, 2016:
\n

"[It] is completely wrong to say that it's a myth that the Palestinian Authority fund terrorists."
\n
\n

MP Andrew Percy, Conservative Party, to The Mail on Sunday:
\n

"How can we justify foreign aid as a noble endeavor when taxpayers money goes to pay terrorists? The government has got to get a grip."
\n

[The Mail on Sunday, Mar. 27, 2016]

","tags":[],"indexId":"index54","title":"UK freezes £25 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority in response to PMW reports","date":{"type":"firestore/timestamp/1.0","seconds":1475798400,"nanoseconds":0},"author":[{"about":"","name":{"en":"daniel martin","he":""},"id":420,"citeName":{"he":"","en":"Martin, D."}}],"id":10934,"lang":"en","thumbnail":""}]

Daniel Martin