British aid ‘funding Palestinian terrorists’ says Sir Eric Pickles in direct attack on his own Government
People ask MPs why money is being sent overseas when children are going hungry here
BRITISH aid money may be indirectly funding Palestinian terrorists, a former Cabinet minister has said in a direct attack on his own Government.
Sir Eric Pickles claimed the financial assistance Britain sends is being used to free up money to pay prisoners who have committed crimes in the clashes with Israel.
And during a parliamentary debate about international aid funding he said there are "worrying reports" that some non-governmental organisations supported by UK taxpayer's money are "promoting violence on social media pages".
International development minister Desmond Swayne insisted money given to the Palestinian Authority pays for civil servants, who are working on preparing a Government in the event of two state solution with Israel.
But Sir Eric called for an urgent investigation to take place.
“It’s no good just saying we don’t fund terrorism, there is a knock on effect.
“Surely it is not unreasonable to ask the minister and officials to check what is going on, and to say if you’re going to receive money from the British Government you should unequivocally denounce violence in all its forms,” he said.
He added: “I don’t think it’s unreasonable in times of stringency that we should address the quality of that aid as well as the quantity.
“Department for International Development’s stated goal is to help secure a lasting two-state solution.
“I regret the funding doesn’t follow that laudable ideal.”
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And Labour MP Joan Ryan suggested the aid frees up cash to pay ‘convicted Palestinian terrorists’, including Taleb Mehamara who targeted Israelis in a shooting attack.
She said the aid is failing the UK’s scrutiny tests, and said: “Let me give one example, the issue of the PA’s payments to convicted Palestinian terrorists.
“These are not, as one DfID minister claimed in 2012, ‘social assistance programmes to provide welfare payments’.
“Instead, by operating a perverse sliding scale where you receive more money the longer sentence you receive – in some cases as much as five times the average monthly wage in Ramallah – they actually incentivise people to commit the most terrible acts of violence.
“I simply do not see how that advances the cause of a two-state solution.
“What are the Government doing about it?”
reports the comments came during a debate on Britain’s pledge to spend 0.7% of its income on foreign aid.
Labour MP Liz McInnes said people in her constituency of Heywood and Middleton asked her why Britain sent money abroad when their children were going hungry.
She said: “In my constituency we have a plethora of food banks and some of my constituents are not in a position to feed their families.
“Until that problem is solved, my constituents will continue to ask me: Why are we spending money on foreign aid when our children are hungry here?”
And David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, said people who give cash to Comic Relief should ask more questions about where their money goes.
He said: “I am also concerned that, whether we are talking about Comic Relief or Sport Relief, there is an armchair approach to aid, whereby people just sit back, give money and do not ask hard questions about countries’ governance, transparency and trade—and in the end, it is trade that we want to see across the developing world.”
Mr Swayne said the list of aid recipients was thoroughly checked and insisted British taxpayers’ money does not fund terrorism.
He said: "Our taxpayers’ money goes to build the Palestinian Authority so that it is able to morph into the government of a Palestinian state when that opportunity arises and we pay named civil servants for the provision of public services."
Yesterday’s parliamentary debate came less than a month after a bombshell report revealed Britain has increased aid spending by 144 per cent in the past decade while other countries have cut back.
Our outlay has leapt from £5.4billion to £13.2billion in the past ten years — meaning Britain now accounts for a fifth of the entire G7 aid budget.
We are the only member of the group of leading nations to meet a 2005 pledge to spend 0.7 per cent of economic output on aid, according to the report published ahead of last month’s G7 summit in Japan.