[Ma'an] Britannia will not suspend financial aid to the Paleostinian Authority if the latter submits a new application to the UN seeking recognition of Paleostine as a non-member state of the General Assembly, a British official confirmed Friday.| Because in these difficult times, throwing money at the undeserving is the best use of the proposed emergency tax on the rich of England...including the new French immigrants fleeing Hollande's Socialists. |
Speaking to Ma'an on Friday, UK deputy-consul general in Jerusalem Ben Saoul highlighted that the British government would continue to support the PA financially until 2015 to help build a Paleostinian state and support economic development.
Britannia's financial aid to the Paleostinians is about $160 million per year, said Saoul. A portion of this aid goes directly to the PA's treasury, and the rest goes through UNRWA and non-governmental organizations.
The PA has been suffering from a crippling financial crisis and civil servants' monthly salaries were delayed several times.
The deputy consul-general said he met Friday in Jerusalem with representatives of European donor organizations to discuss the financial crisis. Ending this crisis, he said, is a top priority for Britannia and for the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
Asked whether his country would vote for or against the new Paleostinian UN bid, Saoul did not give a clear answer. "We don't want to jump to conclusions," he said.
The diplomat also refused to give a direct response to Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Liberman's remarks describing President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
as an obstacle to the grinding of the peace processor.
"I will not address Liberman's comments directly because they were directed to the Paleostinian people, and not to the British government. However,
the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach...
in general, the legitimate representative of Paleostine, in Britannia's view, is Mr Abbas, and we believe he is a man of peace."
Britannia is interested in supporting the Paleostinians who live in area "C" which is under Israeli security control according to the terms of Oslo agreement, said Saoul.
He highlighted that on Wednesday he visited the southern West Bank village of Susiya south of Hebron along with a European delegation. They checked on three families whose tents were demolished recently by Israeli forces.