Congress forces Trump to restore Palestinian aid
Congress has a plan to restore some of the Palestinian aid that President Donald Trump eliminated.
![USA-PALESTINIANS/UNRWA A Palestinian woman sits in a motorised vehicle loaded with aid, outside a distribution center run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa - RC1A87FA4580](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2019/12/RTS1ZYW0.jpg/RTS1ZYW0.jpg?h=a5ae579a&itok=hda0OnOD)
President Donald Trump is expected to sign a government funding bill today that would force him to restore a portion of the humanitarian and economic assistance he eliminated for Palestine.
The compromise spending legislation would only restore approximately one-third of the annual economic and humanitarian aid that the United States had provided to the West Bank and Gaza prior to Trump’s 2018 decision to eliminate it. However, the spending package also includes new restrictions limiting Trump’s ability to divert assistance to other countries, as he did last year when the State Department reprogrammed $215 million in Palestinian economic aid.