Danish parliamentarians question the Danish Government's Funding of the PA

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik






MP Søren Espersen: "The idea was really to get some control over the money we (Denmark) send [to the PA]. Perhaps that is something the Foreign Minister could start to address. This is happening on a large scale in Norway at the moment. [They] are preparing a hearing on what the money from Norway [to the PA] is actually spent on. Is it, for example, as rumors have said on Norwegian TV, spent on [salary] payments for convicted terrorists [imprisoned] for life and their relatives, who are living good lives because one of their relatives has carried out a terrorist attack? Norway has started [investigating this], the UK has started and [they] are asking: What's going on?

What I want the [Foreign] Minister to do, is to say: "It matters to us very much that every coin we send for one purpose or another should be thoroughly checked. What is it spent on? Is this what we want?" This is what I ask of the Minister, especially in cases that have to do with rewarding jihadists and terrorists who detonate bombs among civilians. What will the Foreign Minister do to ensure us that our money is spent on its intended purpose, and not on terrorists?"   

Chairman of Parliament: "The Foreign Minister"

Foreign Minister Villy Søvndal: "We continuously monitor the money we send [to the PA] to make sure it ends up precisely at the humanitarian causes, we support: Among other things, the purpose of ensuring the payment of salaries to employees, ensuring that senior citizens receive their pensions, and ensuring that there is a security structure in Palestine or the West Bank, which, in the long run and also in the here and now, [will] mean security for Israel. Naturally, I am somewhat engaged in this discussion because I think this world would be a much more peaceful place the day we succeed in achieving a two-state solution.

I heard Obama's speech when he recently visited Palestine and Israel. He gave an excellent talk about the children, who, whether born in Israel [or not], have a legitimate right to live in safety, and Palestinian children who also have a claim to a hope for a future.

If we are not able to deliver the answers from the international community's side/on part of the international community, from the EU, the US, and the UN, then I'm afraid the current deadlocked situation will continue, to the detriment of the people living in Palestine in the long term and also to the detriment of those people living in Israel."

Speaker [of the Danish Parliament]: "The question is closed. I thank the Foreign Minister."




 
Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

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