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Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29740-2003Jul8.html?nav=hptop_tb
U.S. Plans to Provide Direct Aid to Palestinians
(Washington Post)- The White House has decided to provide direct funding to the PA for social service projects, Bush administration and congressional officials said Tuesday. The initial funding - $20 million - has great symbolic value. In the past, successive administrations and congressional restrictions had limited aid to the Palestinians to indirect channels, such as the UN or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). President Bush will seek a waiver from congressional restrictions, officials said. Though the administration has placed great hopes in Mahmoud Abbas, the PA is still led by Yasser Arafat, who has been scorned by the administration over his links to terrorism and corruption. In the fiscal year ending in September, the U.S. plans to provide about $95 million in aid to a UN agency that assists Palestinian refugees and $125 million to NGOs working with the PA.