How US security aid to PA sustains Israel’s occupation
Scholars and activists regularly criticise the vast amount of funds - $3.1bn- that the US funnels to Israel each year. Recently, United States President Barack Obama provided Israel with $38bn in military aid over 10 years, making it the single largest pledge of military assistance in US history.
With the President-elect, Donald Trump, certain to continue or even increase this amount, the criticism is likely to escalate.
However, US military aid to Israel is not the only way in which the US subsidises the Israeli occupation of Palestine. US aid to Palestinians, averaging $400m a year since 2008, split between budget support to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and civilian project-based assistance, also ultimately sustains the Israeli occupation.
In the past two decades, the US has been second only to the European Union in its donations to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, having committed more than $5bn out of a total of $30bn in aid.
These funds have mostly been allocated to the PA's security sector. Half of Palestinian public sector civil servants are employed in security. Annually, the sector receives $1bn from the PA's budget and around 30 percent of total international aid.
