Representatives of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee for economic aid to the Palestinians convened in New York on Sept. 26 for another round of talks on raising funds for the Palestinian Authority and the Gaza Strip. Prior to the conference, the United Nations issued an emergency report on the state of the PA and demanded immediate action on Gaza's health system, on the verge of collapse. Its top priority is infrastructure development plans for Gaza, most of which Israel has authorized. Some are already being implemented but require additional funding to be completed.
The donor states forum was established after the signing of the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accord in 1993. In its initial years and until the end of the second intifada in 2005, the group transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to the PA. The donations kept coming despite the widespread corruption in the PA, since all sides realized that stopping the funds would result in economic and humanitarian disaster. Donors did not always make good on their pledges for certain projects in Gaza or the West Bank, and sometimes the money that did reach its destination was caught up in red tape and not disbursed.
