Human rights groups slam draft UN plans to send #Rohingya to barren island
▻https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/03/25/human-rights-groups-slam-draft-un-plans-send-rohingya-barren
A document drawn up this month by the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN’s food aid arm, and seen by Reuters, has revealed how the agency supplied the Bangladeshi government with detailed plans of how it could provide for thousands of Rohingya being transported to the island on a voluntary basis.
The “Tragedy of the Commons” was invented by a white supremacist based on a false history, and it’s toxic bullshit / Boing Boing
▻https://boingboing.net/2019/03/07/scientific-fraud.html
In a brilliant Twitter thread, UCSB political scientist Matto Mildenberger recounts the sordid history of Garrett Hardin’s classic, widely cited 1968 article “The Tragedy of the Commons,” whose ideas are taught to millions of undergrads, and whose precepts are used to justify the privatization of public goods as the only efficient way to manage them.
Hardin’s paper starts with a history of the English Commons — publicly held lands that were collectively owned and managed — and the claim that commons routinely fell prey to the selfish human impulse to overgraze your livestock on public land (and that even non-selfish people would overgraze their animals because they knew that their more-selfish neighbors would do so even if they didn’t).
But this isn’t what actually happened to the Commons: they were stable and well-managed until other factors (e.g. rich people trying to acquire even more land) destabilized them.
Hardin wasn’t just inventing false histories out of a vacuum. He was, personally, a nasty piece of work: a white supremacist and eugenicist, and the Tragedy of the Commons paper is shot through with this vile ideology, arguing that poor people should not be given charity lest they breed beyond their means (Hardin also campaigned against food aid). Hardin was a director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform and the white nationalist Social Contract Press, and co-founded anti-immigrant groups like Californians for Population Stabilization and The Environmental Fund.
Mildenberger argues that Hardin was a trumpist before Trump: He served on the board of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), whose talking points often emerge from Trump’s mouth.
(Hardin quotes that didn’t make it into his seminal paper: “Diversity is the opposite of unity, and unity is a prime requirement for national survival” and “My position is that this idea of a multiethnic society is a disaster...we should restrict immigration for that reason.”)
As Mildenberger points out, this isn’t a case where a terrible person had some great ideas that outlived them: Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons was a piece of intellectual fraud committed in service to his racist, eugenicist ideology.
What’s worse: the environmental movement elevates Hardin to sainthood, whitewashing his racism and celebrating “The Tragedy of the Commons” as a seminal work of environmental literature. But Hardin is no friend of the environment: his noxious cocktail of racism and false history are used to move public lands into private ownership or stewardship, (literally) paving the way for devastating exploitation of those lands.
By contrast, consider Nobelist Elinor Ostrom’s Governing the Commons, whose groundbreaking insights on the management of common resources are a prescription for a better, more prosperous, more egalitarian future.
Update: If this kind of thing interests you, check out Tim Harford’s (previously) 2013 column on Hardin and Ostrom’s brilliant response to him.
“If the water finishes, we will leave”: Drought is forcing hundreds of thousands of Afghans from their homes
Afghanistan is besieged by decades of conflict, but more people this year have been displaced by drought than war.
The severe drought has dried up riverbeds and water sources, withered crops, and forced 250,000 people from their homes.
Journalist Stefanie Glinski spent a week between Herat and Badghis – two of the hardest-hit provinces in western Afghanistan. As these images show, she found parched fields, abandoned homes, and families struggling to cope.
In the barren hills of Badghis, a gravel road winds through a dusty landscape, where wells and rivers have dried up completely.
As desperation rises, some families have turned to selling off their daughters, through child marriage, in order to pay off swelling debt.
Tens of thousands have fled to urban centres, living under simple tents. Available water, food, and healthcare fall far short of what’s needed. Aid groups have stepped in with limited emergency aid, but they acknowledge it hasn’t been enough to reach all the estimated 1.4 million people who require help.
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, which tracks food security around the world, is warning of more difficulties ahead: it predicts that the combination of a stumbling economy, instability, and failing crops will increase the need for food aid into next year.
In remote Qapchiq, a village in Badghis’ Abkamari district, community leader Saskidad says his family has already lost their entire harvest.
This year’s drought, he says, is “the worst I’ve ever seen”.
https://assets.irinnews.org/s3fs-public/afghanistan-droughtphotos-2.jpg?iRWIBHTed_F3wtG3mlt8CPA.hcMB31DY#.jpg 
https://assets.irinnews.org/s3fs-public/afghanistan-droughtphotos-3.jpg?o.qKhJ1pFg2S3faJiIV8hWGjwhGpdi5N#.jpg 
https://assets.irinnews.org/s3fs-public/afghanistan-droughtphotos-5.jpg?UAnzPqofPEh3H3r_n1hqPyKEcq0TK7AF#.jpg 
https://assets.irinnews.org/s3fs-public/afghanistan-droughtphotos-6.jpg?igthB8aEmgRvZTPM.tR5A8CxSEIpILG0#.jpg 
https://assets.irinnews.org/s3fs-public/afghanistan-droughtphotos-10.jpg?zOCN5811Yxc2PsnqNDQz7NZNH7o5ovlT#.jpg ▻https://www.irinnews.org/photo-feature/2018/10/04/if-water-finishes-we-will-leave-drought-forcing-hundreds-thousands-afghans
#sécheresse #Afghanistan #eau #migrations #réfugiés #asile #réfugiés_environnementaux #désertification
On l’ajoute à la troisième compilation :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/680147
#effondrement #collapsologie #catastrophe #fin_du_monde #it_has_begun #Anthropocène #capitalocène
Climate-resilient ’super beans’ boost food rations for refugees in Uganda | Global development | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jan/24/climate-resilient-super-beans-boost-food-rations-south-sudanese-refugee
South Sudanese refugees in Uganda are being given drought-resistant “super beans” to reduce their reliance on food aid and encourage self-sufficiency.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is distributing the fast-growing, high-yield Nabe 15 super bean, which refugees can plant immediately to replenish their stocks.
The bean, which is not genetically modified, was developed by scientists at the National Agricultural Research Organisation of Uganda, in collaboration with the Colombia-based International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (Ciat).
#agriculture #climat #Ouganda #haricots #café
Nighttime Lights Illuminate Positive Impacts of Refugee Camps
Satellite data from Kenya’s remote northeast shows increased economic activity around Kakuma camp. New research suggests a connection between refugees and growing agricultural production.
To help answer some of these questions we examined the impact of long-run refugee inflows on the host population in Kakuma, northwestern Kenya. Previous studies of refugee-host interactions, which have largely been qualitative, have established continuous and important relationships without being able to directly estimate net benefits to locals of refugee and aid presence. One exception to this is recent work showing positive net impacts of cash aid to refugees on the local economy in a calibrated simulation of Congolese refugee camps in Rwanda. The long-run impacts of refugee presence, however, remain unclear.
To tease out these different effects, we combined data from a recent household survey with price data, refugee population and food aid deliveries to examine changes in labor, livestock and agricultural markets. The data showed that proximity to the refugee camp is associated with more low skill jobs and wage labor, particularly for households with secondary education.
In a traditionally pastoralist region like Turkana, these findings are meaningful. If there is labor market competition from refugees, its overall impacts are swamped by the job opportunities provided by the camp and the increased demand generated by refugees.
With regard to agricultural markets, in a context where food aid is externally provided, as it is in Kakuma, food prices may decrease for products in the aid package as a result of increases in supply. However, they may also increase across a variety of products due to the increase in the number of people purchasing goods, and from the sale of aid packages for income. Information from our household surveys showed that agriculture in the Turkana region occurs almost exclusively close to the refugee camp, suggesting that the camp presence incentivizes increases in, rather than depression of, agricultural production.
We also find that livestock prices are positively correlated with high refugee and aid presence, and although absolute numbers of livestock are not higher closer to the camp, larger amounts of livestock sold in the immediate vicinity of the camp suggests that herding households benefit from the presence of the refugee market.
Overall, the positive effect of refugees on the local economy seemed to come through the availability of employment opportunities and price changes in agricultural and livestock markets that encourage new production.
Nonetheless, it is important to recognize that refugee camps can provide important economic opportunities to local populations, and that policies could be designed to amplify these positive effects. For example, interventions supporting locals’ ability to exploit the increased demand from the refugees could result in even more beneficial outcomes. These interventions might include equipping locals with the skills necessary to take advantage of new wage work, and providing technical support to improve agricultural and livestock production could help spread the benefits more widely.
Au-delà l’étude sur le camp, voici un extrait qui met en lien #lumière et #consommation :
Using a census of household data collected in 2012, we estimate the correlation between lights and consumption. Back of the envelope calculations suggest that a 10 percent increase in the refugee population raises consumption by approximately 5.5 percent within the same proximity of the camp.
v. aussi : ▻http://seen.li/e2ud
réponse à cette vision positive de l’accueil des réfugiés pour la communauté locale
Exclusive: White House weighs tightening U.S. food aid shipping rules - sources | Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-aid-exclusive-idUSKBN19K33S
President Donald Trump’s administration is preparing an executive order that will require all U.S. food aid to be transported on American ships, according to four sources with knowledge of the deliberations.
Currently, 50 percent of such aid must be transported on U.S.-flagged vessels. The sources said Trump is considering going as far as doubling that to 100 percent, a move likely to stir opposition from both Republicans and Democrats.
[…]
Although unlikely to have any significant effect on the $4 trillion global cargo shipping industry, the initiative touted as part of Trump’s “#America_First” platform may slow food aid getting to millions of people and do little to create jobs, critics said.
Aid groups, and members of Congress from both parties have been working for years to lower, or eliminate, the 50 percent shipping requirement. The United States, the world’s largest provider of humanitarian assistance, spent about $2.8 billion on foreign food aid in 2016. About half of that is estimated to go to shipping and storage.
The conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute said in a November report that shipping food aid on U.S.-flagged vessels costs 46 percent more than aid shipped at internationally competitive rates and can take as much as 14 weeks longer.
Contre-ordre…
Exclusive : Trump Drops Plans for Order Tightening Food Aid Shipping Rules-Sources - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2017/06/30/us/politics/30reuters-usa-trump-aid.html
Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stopped short of confirming information about the order but said he had discussed the issue with Trump and that he understands that the shift would have increased the cost of food aid and caused more people to starve.
“I had a good conversation today with President Trump,” Corker said in a statement emailed to Reuters.
“As a businessman, he understands that expanding the cargo preference would substantially drive up the cost of food aid and cause more people to starve around the world,” Corker said.
Il faut dire que R. P. Corker Jr milite depuis longtemps pour la suppression de l’obligation existante de transport sous pavillon états-unien de 50% de l’aide alimentaire.
Quant aux motivations…
Corker has been pushing for years to reform the U.S. food aid program, including by eliminating the cargo preference. He said in his statement he looked forward to working with Congress and the administration to achieve “long overdue reforms.”
After hearing about the possible executive order, several members of Congress called the White House to express their concern, congressional aides said.
The administration’s budget proposal has suggested slashing foreign aid in general while increasing defense spending.
That plan was also met with stiff opposition in Congress, as lawmakers argued that “#soft_power” options such as food and medical aid and disaster recovery assistance can be effective tools in foreign policy that should not be discounted.
End the Fit For Work tests as not fit for purpose, and investigate 9,580 deaths. - Petitions
▻https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/170364
The DWPs ’Fit For Work’ tests are not fit for purpose, and are routinely abused to cause stress and harm to vulnerable people.
From Dec 2011 to Feb 2014, 2,380 people died shortly after being declared ’fit for work’ and having their benefits stopped. I call on the House to hear their stories.
In the same period, 9,200 people in receipt of ESA were found ’fit to work in future’ and died shortly afterwards. These statistics are from a Freedom Of Information request to the DWP.
I call on the House to hear their stories, and to abolish this test. To allow GPs opinions to override that of a ’decision maker’ with no medical qualifications. And to investigate how 2,380 people were declared fit enough to work and financially penalised, when they were not fit enough to live, let alone work.
Sign this petition (launched by @MxJackMonroe)
même principe de #guerre_aux_pauvres, mais aux #États-Unis (merci #Clinton) :
Snap Judgment | Mother Jones
▻http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/welfare-reform-snap-food-cuts
The tension between the rhetoric of welfare reform and the realities of poverty is nowhere more evident than in Mississippi, which has the nation’s highest rates of food insecurity and poverty and its fifth-highest unemployment rate. By reinstating the SNAP time limit, Gov. Bryant said he wanted to “steer people to jobs.” Yet with unemployment rates rising above 10 percent in some Mississippi counties, few jobs exist. And the loss of SNAP, which averages about $5 a day, will leave many low-income residents hungry
(...) more than 42,000 able-bodied adults disappeared from the state’s SNAP rolls in the first half of this year, about 7 percent of the Mississippians who’d been getting food aid.
Congolese Refugees in Rwanda Battle Hunger
Congolese refugees in Rwanda’s #Gihembe camp have complained for years that U.N. food rations are making them sick. Emily Lynch, an anthropologist at Marquette University, describes how the refugees cope with hunger and sickness in the first of a two-part story.
How Rwanda can do a better job of supporting refugees
One year ago 11 Congolese refugees were killed as they demonstrated against reductions in food aid in Rwanda’s Kiziba refugee camp. As fresh calls mount to prosecute the police officers who used force against the refugees grow, we spoke to #Evan_Easton-Calabria about Rwanda’s refugee operations and the challenges host countries face.
Across Africa, the worst famine since 1985 looms for 50 million | Global development | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/may/22/africa-worst-famine-since-1985-looms-for-50-million?CMP=twt_gu
Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Madagascar, Angola and Swaziland have already declared national emergencies or disasters, as have seven of South Africa’s nine provinces. Other countries, including Botswana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, have also been badly hit. President Robert Mugabe has appealed for $1.5bn to buy food for Zimbabwe and Malawi is expected to declare that more than 8 million people, or half the country, will need food aid by November.
More than 31 million people in the region are said by the UN to need food now, but this number is expected to rise to at least 49 million across almost all of southern Africa by Christmas. With 12 million more hungry people in Ethiopia, 7 million in Yemen, 6 million in Southern Sudan and more in the Central African Republic and Chad, a continent-scale food crisis is unfolding.
#climat #famine #Afrique #El_Nino #sécheresse
Zimbabwe is trying to sell off its wildlife because of severe drought - Chicago Tribune
▻http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-zimbabwe-selling-wildlife-20160506-story.html
First, they sold their elephants to China. Now, the Zimbabwe government has placed an ad in its state-run newspaper asking members of the public — at least those who have the money and space — to buy some more of the country’s wild animals.
The reason is a devastating, relentless El Nino-induced drought that has left as many as four million Zimbabweans in need of food aid and ravished the country’s natural resources, decimating crops and drying up water sources. At least 16,500 cattle have died.
Zimbabwe is home to 10 national parks, one of which claimed Cecil the lion, a beloved black mane lion that was killed by a U.S. dentist last year. The parks, filled with giraffe, buffalo, zebra, lion, cheetah and elephants, draws both tourists and poachers.
Last year, the Zimbabwean government drew scrutiny and the ire of conservationists when it began selling elephants to China. The sale, government officials admitted, would reduce the booming elephant population but also raise money so the country could buy things like anti-poaching and surveillance technology.
Drought and rising temperatures ’leaves 36m people across Africa facing hunger’ | Environment | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/16/drought-high-temperatures-el-nino-36m-people-africa-hunger
More than 36 million people face hunger across southern and eastern Africa, the United Nations has warned, as swaths of the continent grapple with the worst drought in decades at a time of record high temperatures.
The immediate cause of the drought which has crippled countries from Ethiopia to Zimbabwe is one of the strongest #El_Niño events ever recorded. It has turned normal weather patterns upside down around the globe, climate scientists say.
But with the world still reeling from record-high temperatures in February, there are fears that the long-term impacts of climate change are also undermining the region’s ability to endure extremes in weather, leaving huge numbers of people vulnerable to hunger and disease.
The worst hit country in the current crisis is Ethiopia, where rains vital to four-fifths of the country’s crops have failed. Unicef has said it is making plans to treat more than 2 million children for malnutrition, and says more than 10 million people will need food aid.
Pendant ce temps-là l’Éthiopie produit, entre autres, des agrocarburants pour l’Europe (et Israël)
In One Month We Will Begin Intentionally Starving Poor People
▻http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/in-one-month-we-will-begin-intentionally-starving-poor-people
At the end of March, 22 states will begin imposing work requirements on people who want food stamps. Hundreds of thousands of people will likely lose their food aid.
The Wall Street Journal...
الميادين | الأخبار - الطائرات السورية تستهدف رتل مساعدات تركية للمجموعات المسلحة
▻http://www.almayadeen.net/news/syria-ucM1j31jUkuAy6WQAI9XuA/الطائرات-السورية-تستهدف-رتل-مساعدات-تركية-للمجموعات-المسلحة
Al-Mayadeen : des avions syriens bombardent un convoi d’aide turque aux groupes armés au nord d’Alep.
Il y a quelques jours, les chasseurs syriens escortaient les bombardiers russes. Aujourd’hui, l’aviation syrienne est à la frontière turque... Pas de réaction d’Erdogan ? Etrange...
Pas de réaction d’Erdogan, mais réaction instantanée du fanboy Charles Lister qui sait de quoi il cause (« food aid ») :
▻https://twitter.com/Charles_Lister/status/688523501402103808
Like their ally in #Damascus, #Russia is engaged in a deliberate strategy of starving opposition areas by blocking/targeting aid deliveries.
▻https://twitter.com/Charles_Lister/status/688523811017199616
This morning, #Russia jets targeted a shipment of food aid from #Turkey as it crossed through northern #Aleppo:
▻https://twitter.com/Charles_Lister/status/688524468965097472
Learning from #Assad’s success besieging & starving areas of #Homs, Rif #Damascus & elsewhere, #Russia is breaking international laws.
#Ghana : Food for Thought
An undercover investigation into the disturbing theft and black market sale of international food aid in Ghana.
▻http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/africainvestigates/2014/12/ghana-food-thought-20141231227487439.html
#alimentation #aide_alimentaire #détournement
In Jordan, slashed UN food aid has even ’well off’ Syrians feeling the pinch
With Jordan limiting job opportunities and the UN reducing food aid, even middle-class refugees from war-torn Syria are asking how, and where, they can survive.
L’ONU réduit son aide alimentaire aux Syriens par manque de fonds -Ahram Online
▻http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/113028/World/Region/UN-cuts-Syria-food-aid-over-funding-shortfall-offi.aspx
The United Nations said on Monday that it has started cutting the food aid it provides to 4.2 million Syrians ravaged by war because of a shortfall in funding.
Deprivation in #Gaza Strip
By #Sara_Roy | JULY 19, 2014
▻http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/07/19/deprivation-gaza-strip/6HybezDQv6N0lGzsVWoB4N/story.html
UNRWA’s food aid to almost half the population is now under threat as some international donors such as #Canada have inexplicably defunded #UNRWA or fund at levels that do not meet Gaza’s burgeoning need. Without an increase in financial support to cover a $22 million shortfall, UNRWA may have to eliminate its food distributions by the end of 2014. If this happens there should be no doubt that Palestinians in Gaza will face starvation for the first time in their history, and the violence that will ensue from their deepened agony and abandonment will be calamitous.
The profound deprivation that has long defined life in Gaza is intensifying. Israel is deliberately targeting and bombing civilian infrastructure with the aim of ensuring Gaza’s continued decay. Even before Israel’s ground invasion, water and sewage treatment facilities in 18 different locations sustained damage, and presently, 900,000 people — half of Gaza’s total population — have no access to water. Fifty percent of sewage pumping and wastewater treatment systems are no longer operational, largely affecting Northern Gaza, Gaza city and Rafah. Damaged pipelines have resulted in the mixing of sewage and water, raising the risk of water borne diseases, a serious public health hazard. Several power lines have also been disabled by bombardments, leaving 80 percent of the population with only four hours of electricity a day, and critically disrupting the delivery of basic services, especially in hospitals.
#Assad calls for increase aid access without “compromising sovereignty”
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/assad-calls-increase-aid-access-without-compromising-syrian-sover
A handout picture released by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) on April 24, 2014 and taken the same day shows residents of #syria's besieged Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, south of Damascus, gathering to receive food aid from UNRWA. (Photo: AFP / UNRWA)
Syria’s President #Bashar_al-Assad has said government agencies should increase cooperation on aid work but it must be done without “compromising national sovereignty,” state media reported. #UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said last month none of the warring parties in Syria was meeting UN demands for aid access and demanded the Security Council take action on violations of international law. read (...)
For second time, Palestinians from Syria torch Hezbollah aid
▻http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2013/Jun-06/219614-for-second-time-palestinians-from-syria-torch-hezbollah-aid.ash
Some 1,500 packages of food aid donated by Hezbollah were burned by Palestinian refugees from Syria and local residents in the Bekaa Wednesday, the second such incident in a week. Omar Halabi, the head of the Saadnayel Youth League, told The Daily Star that a truck with boxes of aid was unloaded in the morning at the offices of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Halabi said when the aid was distributed, the refugees noticed the labels attached to each package explaining that the aid was a gift from the “Islamic Resistance in Lebanon to our brethren, the displaced Palestinians from Syria.”
“When the refugees realized that the aid was from the same party which is killing their people in Qusair and in other places, they, with dozens of locals, took the boxes from the Palestinian Cultural Center and burned them,” Halabi said.
[…]
Last Thursday, Palestinian refugees from Syria set fire to humanitarian aid donated by Hezbollah in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp, citing their anger over the party’s role fighting alongside the Syrian regime.
Refugees gathered in front of the camp’s Kifah School holding banners explaining their decision to destroy the aid, which the party is distributing across a number of Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.
Homelessness, social misery on the rise in US capital
►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/aug2012/dcho-a30.shtml
By Nick Barrickman
30 August 2012
As the impact of the economic crisis on working class families deepens, millions across the country are confronting the threats of foreclosure, bankruptcy, and homelessness. Those who fall through the cracks of society are being met with attacks on safety net programs at every level of government. The budgetary assault is accompanied by legislation aimed at criminalizing the poor, such as drug testing for welfare and food aid, laws against panhandling and homeless encampments, and aggressive use of child protective services against families who fall on hard times.
The nation’s capital—long crippled by high housing costs, a huge wave of foreclosures, and double digit unemployment across much of the city—has seen a sharp rise in homelessness. Family homelessness has spiked by 74 percent since the onset of the recession in 2008. A recent report from the Washington Post throws light on the effort by the city to suppress requests by struggling families for help.
US food aid programme criticised as ’corporate welfare’ for grain giants (The Guardian)
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/jul/18/us-multinationals-control-food-aid
US food aid programme criticised as ’corporate welfare’ for grain giants Three huge agribusinesses dominate $1bn US food aid policy, Guardian study reveals, with lobby groups ensuring agricultural surpluses are exported despite cost to developing countries (...) Source: The Guardian
US food aid programme criticised as ’corporate welfare’ for grain giants
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/jul/18/us-multinationals-control-food-aid
Three huge agribusinesses dominate $1bn US food aid policy, Guardian study reveals, with lobby groups ensuring agricultural surpluses are exported despite cost to developing countries
Abbas is punished by $200m cut in aid from US - The Independent
►http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/abbas-is-punished-by-200m-cut-in-aid-from-us-2363976.html
The United States Congress has blocked nearly $200m in aid for the Palestinians, threatening projects such as food aid, health care, and support for efforts to build a functioning state.
The decision to delay the payments runs counter to the wishes of the Obama administration and reflects Congressional anger at Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s so far unrealised pursuit of Fatah-Hamas reconciliation and statehood recognition at the UN.