U.S. law has long barred direct assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA), unless the President determines that such assistance is necessary for U.S. national security. In this case, the law then requires extensive reporting to Congress on how the funds are used and accounted for. Otherwise, U.S. assistance is provided directly to the Palestinian people through non-governmental organizations. Here, too, Congress has over the years piled on an ever-increasing number of far-reaching conditions and oversight requirements on all such assistance.

Today, assistance to the Palestinians is arguably the most conditioned, restricted, audited, and monitored U.S. aid program in the world.

APN supports continued assistance to the Palestinians and believes it is vital that Congress leave intact the President's authority to waive restrictions on aid to the PA, as he deems necessary and with proper reporting to Congress. APN rejects efforts to add gratuitous new conditions, restrictions, and oversight requirements to Palestinian assistance, and urges Americans and their elected officials to recognize the difference between legitimate accountability concerns and over-burdensome requirements that undermine the aid program altogether.

(Feb. 2011)