RAMALLAH, West Bank — By the end of August, international financial aid to the Palestinian government registered an unprecedented decline, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said during an interview Aug. 27 on Maan TV. He said financial aid dropped by 70% over the last four years, and had fallen to $350 million between January and August of this year. On Sept. 7, Palestinian Finance Minister Shukri Bishara said that the overall foreign financial aid this year had risen to $400 million.
After the Palestinian Authority (PA) was established in 1994 following the 1993 Oslo Accord, the international community pledged to provide financial support worth $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion a year. Hamdallah said the donor countries generally met their pledges until 2012, after which the budget support started declining until it fell to $750 million in 2015, according to Palestinian Ministry of Finance figures.
