Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the public’s trust, poses a simple question: Are our tax dollars helping terror organizations abroad? and P.P.T. claims that the State Department is being evasive on this issue. In 2018, Congress adopted, and the president signed the Taylor Force Act, which barred specific funding from going to the Palestinian Authority, whether directly or indirectly, unless specific requirements were fulfilled.
As a result of this legislation, the Trump administration withdrew $200 million in funding from the Palestinian Authority. Fast forward to 2021, early in the year in April, the State Department reversed that decision and reinstated providing that funding to the Palestinian Authority, despite media reports at the time indicating that they may not have met the necessary conditions to receive the funding that they were receiving. Israeli authorities slammed Biden’s decision to provide financing to the Palestinian Authority as essentially anti-Semitic.
The Palestinian Authority has a long history of receiving international funds, promoting anti-Israel propaganda, and funding anti-Israel terrorists. So, when P.P.T. realized what was going on, they filed a freedom of information act request with the state department, and what they’re trying to find out is, where were all the processes followed when they made these decisions? and if they took into account all of the legal constraints imposed by Congress on funding?
This was a bipartisan bill approved in 2018, and the parameters said that if the Palestinian Authority did not achieve specified criteria, such funds would not be released. The state department may have disguised some of the criteria, and how long has it been withholding information? P.P.T. submitted a freedom of information act request in May, and they sent multiple follow-ups, and P.P.T. recognized that the state department was not fulfilling its statutory requirements, as they have not only refused to release but have also failed to send any relevant records. The resolution that P.P.T. is proposing is that the State Department respond to their inquiry, which is only a request for clarity.
