WASHINGTON, April 17, 2019 (WAFA) – A coalition of 17 other international aid organizations led by Anera recently expressed their support for a resolution recently introduced in the US Senate calling for a restoration of humanitarian aid to the West Bank and Gaza.

The resolution, S. Res. 171, calls for “restoring United States bilateral assistance to the West Bank and Gaza,” citing the “dire health and economic conditions facing the Palestinian people.”

In a press release issued by Sen. Merkley’s office, the senator noted that “thousands of individuals are facing dire health and economic conditions in the West Bank and Gaza.”

Anera has previously warned of the devastating impact of the aid cuts on Anera’s ongoing and planned projects in the West Bank and Gaza, including a half-built school in the Bethlehem area.

Specifically, the resolution urges “the Executive branch [to] expend before the end of fiscal year 2019 all bilateral assistance to the West Bank and Gaza that Congress appropriated for such assistance in fiscal year 2018.”

Sen. Coons added that, “It is critical that we restore lifesaving aid to the West Bank and Gaza, which Congress has already appropriated.”

The resolution further calls for enacting legislation to “clarify that programs and activities funded through the Economic Support Fund and that are consistent with the Taylor Force Act… may not be used as a basis to assert jurisdiction over the Palestinian Authority pursuant to the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act.”

 “There are thousands of children and families in the West Bank and Gaza who need the aid the United States has historically provided,” Sen. Cortez Masto noted.

The resolution was introduced last week by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Chris Coons (D-DE), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).

M.N