BICOM

What happened: The US Congress is set to pass amendments to how it provides financial aid to the Palestinian Authority as part of its budget for next year. The amendments would allow an estimated $150 million of security and economic aid to resume.

• Most aid to the Palestinians was cut by the Trump Administration in 2018, while assistance to the Palestinian Authority Security Forces was suspended after a separate piece of legislation went into effect in February 2019.
• The legislation, the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act (ATCA), stipulated that any U.S. aid accepted by the PA would imply consent to “personal jurisdiction” of US civil courts in lawsuits totaling more than $600 million for past terror-related offences committed by PA-affiliated personnel.
• In order to avoid liability and potential bankruptcy, the PA refused to accept all remaining US aid early this year, which at that point consisted solely of training and funding to the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF).

Context: The PASF are considered a reliable partner to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in maintaining security and stability in the West Bank. Security coordination between the two forces is assisted by a U.S-led mission — with a major British component  — headquartered in Jerusalem. For this reason the resumption of aid to the PASF was viewed as a bipartisan priority in Washington, with the Israeli government known to be lobbying for it discreetly.

• Negotiations over a “fix” to ATCA dragged on throughout most of this year with major differences in how best to resume such security aid while still allowing American victims of Palestinian terrorist attacks some form of legal redress.
• Instead of providing a jurisdictional “trigger” via the acceptance of US aid, the amendments set to be passed would now allow the PA to accept U.S. aid. However, the new “triggers” will now include any payment of stipends by the PA to Palestinian prisoners (or the families of dead individuals killed whilst carrying out terrorist attacks)  implicated in attacks against US nationals. The PA has made clear that it will not stop such stipends — termed “pay to slay” by international critics of the practice, but defended as a welfare policy or social safety net by Palestinian officials.
• An additional “trigger” implying jurisdictional consent included in the amendment is any non-official travel to the US by Palestinian officials — that is, travel not for purposes of meeting with US officials, United Nations meetings and similar trips.

Looking ahead: While positive in the sense that economic assistance and security aid to the PA will now be able to resume, the two amended “triggers” for ATCA could have far-reaching consequences. The PA has made clear it will not stop its prisoner payment system, a reality that in itself could trigger extensive lawsuits against it in US civil courts. Moreover, the additional clauses relating to Palestinian officals traveling to the US included in the amendment could be read — if strictly enforced by the Trump Administration — as a travel ban.