Arab League pledges $100 million to Palestinians, rejects Trump’s ‘deal’

CAIRO — The Arab League has pledged to pay $100 million a month to the Palestinian Authority to plug the gap left when Israel blocked tax transfers earlier in the year.

“We confirm that Arab countries will support the Palestinian state’s budget... [to] resist the political and financial pressure it faces,” the League said Sunday following a meeting in Cairo.

Israel collects taxes on behalf of the PA, but withheld $138 million in transfers in February over Palestinian payments to political prisoners jailed for alleged attacks against Israelis.

The Arab League’s move comes as the Trump administration prepares to unveil a much-touted “Deal of the Century” for peace between the Palestinians and Israel in the coming months.

The Palestinian leadership, which has boycotted Washington over a series of moves including recognising the bitterly disputed city of Jerusalem as capital of Israel, says it can no longer trust the United States as a broker.

The Arab League said the deal “will not succeed in achieving long-lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East”.

The peace plan is being developed by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, whose close ties to right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have heightened Palestinian suspicions.

Israel seized the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.