Posted on 12/03/25
| News Source: JPost
Saudi Arabia has delivered a major financial infusion to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as the PA struggles to function under mounting budget shortfalls and prolonged limits on revenue transfers from Israel.
The $90 million grant, handed over at the Saudi Embassy in Amman, is intended to keep basic services running in the West Bank, where many civil servants have been paid only partial salaries for months.
The contribution comes at a moment when the PA is facing its most severe financial pressure in years.
Israel’s Finance Ministry, led by Bezalel Smotrich, has repeatedly blocked the monthly transfer of tax revenue that Israel collects on Palestinian imports under longstanding economic arrangements dating back to the Oslo period. Those funds make up the bulk of the PA’s operating budget.
Smotrich halted the transfers as retaliation for the PA’s previous stipends to families of prisoners and terrorists under the “Pay for Slay” program.