JERUSALEM — U.S. security funding to the Palestinian Authority was set to dry up by midnight Thursday unless a fix is found to circumvent a law designed to help American victims of terrorist attacks secure damages.
The funding cutoff would end more than a decade of assistance in a move that Israel is concerned could backfire and hurt its security.
The Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act, passed unanimously by the House and Senate last year, comes into force on Friday, leaving the Palestinian Authority open to huge lawsuits if it accepts U.S. funds. The Palestinian Authority has said it will therefore forgo receiving U.S. financing, including the $60 million that Washington provides in security assistance.
However, an Israeli official said Israel is supporting efforts now underway by State Department and other Trump administration officials to find a legal fix that will “maintain security cooperation on one hand and also justice to the families of the victims of terror.”
The central concern is that the end of U.S. funding to the Palestinian security forces, including to a training program in Jordan, would erode the security capabilities of the Palestinian Authority and threaten its security coordination with Israel. Although cooperation has stopped in times of conflict, Israel and the Palestinian Authority share intelligence and coordinate on arrests.
The U.S. security funding is “the glue that has helped ensure the security coordination continues and that has successfully thwarted terrorist attacks,” said Dan Meridor, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel. The implications of the act “have alarmed the Israelis sufficiently that a week ago they went to the administration and Congress to try to find a fix.”
He said that with most of the money targeted toward training, a cutoff of funds may not have an immediate effect but would degrade the ability of Palestinian forces over time. “It is also a political signal which shows the Palestinian security forces and Palestinian people that the U.S. is no longer a partner,” Meridor said.
Eitan Dangot, Israel’s military governor of the Palestinian territories between 2009 and 2014, said that coordination between the Palestinian security forces and Israel is “better than ever before” and that “any damage to their budget will cause problems.”
If the Palestinian Authority declines the funding, he said, “we will all pay a price.”
