Norway
paid $10 million directly to the Palestinian Authority for the salaries of
civil servants.
The transfer announced Thursday by Jonas Gahr Stoere, the Norwegian
foreign minister, makes good on Norway’s
pledge in March to be the first Western nation to end the isolation of the
Hamas-led P.A. government. Stoere said he hoped the contribution would help
“alleviate the current social crisis in the Palestinian
Territory.”
Stoere has also said that the Palestinian government cannot
fight extremism without more money and encouraged other countries to follow Norway’s
lead. Norway
expects to donate roughly $100 million this year, including direct budget
support.
Western nations have stopped directly assisting the
Palestinian Authority since March of last year, when Hamas, a terrorist group
that rejects Israel’s
existence, assumed governance. They have set up a mechanism to bypass the
government and funnel money directly to Palestinians.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
