Denmark and Holland contribute over €7m to Palestinians

Denmark and Holland jointly contributed approximately €7.2 million to the payment of the December salaries and pensions of more than 80,000 Palestinian civil servants and pensioners in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, said a press statement by the European Union office in Jerusalem. It said the European Union (EU) made the contribution to the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Sunday, which was channeled through the PEGASE mechanism. Denmark’s contribution amounted to approximately €6 million and Holland’s contribution was around €1.2 million earmarked specifically to the PA’s salaries in the justice sector. The contribution to the recurring expenditure of the PA was part of the EU’s 2012 commitment, said the EU representative in Jerusalem, John Gatt-Rutter. “The severe financial crisis the Palestinian Authority is facing has dire consequences for the Palestinian people whose salaries are delayed and services disrupted,” he said in the statement. Gatt-Rutter criticized Israeli withholding of over $200 million in tax revenues it has collected over the last two months on behalf of the Palestinian Authority on Palestinian-imported goods that go through its ports. The PA relies heavily on these funds to pay over $170 million in monthly salaries to its around 180,000 civil and security personnel. “I hence want to stress the crucial importance of the full, timely, predictable and transparent transfer of tax and custom revenues to the PA by Israel,” he said, adding that “I would also like to renew our call on other donors to deliver on their pledges and step up their financial efforts to preserve the PA's ability to deliver services to the Palestinian people. Modest Arab and European aid helped the PA pay on Sunday only half of the December salary to its employees while it has not yet been able to pay the second half of the November salary.