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Source: https://jcfa.org/the-pa-plan-to-steal-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars-in-foreign-aid/
The PA Plan to Steal Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in Foreign Aid
(Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch - The financial corruption of the Palestinian Authority intersects with sectors like health services that can raise funds relatively easily, especially from international donors. The PA takeover of Makassed Hospital in Jerusalem is one such example. The hospital is funded predominantly by the Al-Makassed Islamic Charitable Society, an NGO registered in Israel. While the PA is prohibited from operating in Jerusalem, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas appointed a list of Fatah activists to the NGO's management team. In recent years, the UAE has donated tens of millions of dollars to the hospital, but these donations are entirely absent from the NGO's financial reports, which are required by Israeli law to include donations from abroad. What happened to all the money donated by the UAE? And what happened to the money donated by the other foreign organizations? In 2016, the PA launched an international campaign to raise $250 million to build the Khaled Hasan Cancer Center. Promotional plans were drawn up and the international community donated tens of millions of dollars. The hospital was never built and the funds disappeared. If the international community is genuine in its desire to provide aid to the Palestinian people and not to further line corrupt PA officials' pockets, it should reconsider the manner in which the aid is provided. The writer, former director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria, is director of the Palestinian Authority Accountability Initiative at the Jerusalem Center.