June 23 (UPI) — The White House offered a $50 billion economic stimulus package to the Palestinian economy that will be contingent upon signing an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, the Trump administration announced.
This will be the linchpin for the Middle East Peace to Prosperity plan senior White House adviser Jared Kushner will present during the two-day conference in Bahrain this week. The majority of the funds will be spent in Palestinian territories while the rest goes to neighboring Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan.
“For too long the Palestinian people have been trapped in inefficient frameworks of the past,” Kushner said Saturday.
He called it a “vision of what is possible if there is peace.”
It includes $13.5 billion in grants, $26 billion in low-interest loans and $11 billion in private capital investments.
“If implemented, Peace to Prosperity will empower the Palestinian people to build the society that they have aspired to establish for generations,” the White House said in a statement. “Ultimately, however, the power to unlock it lies in the hands of the Palestinian people. Only through peace can the Palestinians achieve prosperity.”
White House officials told CNN the plan would be funded by wealthy Arab countries and private investors. It would create one million new jobs in the West Bank and Gaza while doubling the Palestinian GDP.
But the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee has already dismissed the U.S. plan.
“First lift the siege on Gaza, stop the Israeli theft of our land, resources & funds, give us our freedom of movement & control over our borders, airspace, territorial waters etc,” PLO executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi tweeted. “Then watch us build a vibrant prosperous economy as a free & sovereign people.”
The political components, including the creation of a Palestinian state, was not addressed in the plan. Neither were security issues and refugees. The White House could reveal that in September, after Israeli elections.
