PA offering ‘grants’ to Palestinians who move to Jordan Valley

The Palestinian Authority government will offer grants to Palestinian university graduates who are prepared to live in the Jordan Valley, PA Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh announced on Monday.

In an opening statement at the beginning of the weekly PA cabinet meeting in Ramallah, Shtayyeh said that his government will study giving a grant “to any Palestinian university graduate who is prepared to live in Jordan Valley areas and villages and work with the residents there on production projects.”

Shtayyeh did not provide details about the proposed grant or “production projects.”

The Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea constitute almost 30% of the West Bank. Nearly 65,000 Palestinians and some 11,000 Jews live there. Palestinians have complained that Israel has plans to reduce the Palestinian population in the area by preventing them from using most of the land and imposing restrictions on house construction.

According to the Israeli human rights group B’TSELEM, “almost 90% of this region has been designated as Area C, the West Bank land which remains under full Israeli control, and constitutes nearly 40% of all Area C.”

The group noted that “the remaining 10% of the region is home to Palestinian communities, including the city of Jericho, which have been designated Area A or B,” which are controlled by the PA.

Shtayyeh said that the PA has begun preparing files concerning the controversy over the tax revenues with Israel and all Israeli activities in Area C, especially quarries and other economic projects carried out by Israel there.

He was referring to Israel’s deduction of funds for families of Palestinian security prisoners and “martyrs” from monthly tax revenues Israel collects on behalf of the PA.

Accusing Israel of “robbing” the funds, PA officials have said that they would lodge complaints against Israel with international forums over the deduction of the payments.

Shtayyeh strongly criticized Israel in the aftermath of the violence that erupted at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem during the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha.

He claimed that Israel was trying to change the status quo at the holy site in Jerusalem by allowing “settlers to repeatedly carry out assaults there.”

PA President Mahmoud Abbas and the PA government are following the situation in Jerusalem on a daily and strenuous basis, Shtayyeh said. The Palestinians, he added, are in coordination with Jordan on this issue.

On Sunday, Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Israeli Ambassador in Amman and asked him to convey a message to the Israeli government that it “must immediately cease all violations and attempts aimed at changing the historical and legal situation in the holy compound,” the Jordanian news agency Petra said.

“Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zaid Lozi told the Israeli ambassador that the recent remarks by Israeli Public Security Minister [Gilad Erdan] over changing the status quo in the Al-Aqsa Mosque are condemned and rejected. Lozi made it clear that the 144-dunam Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif is a place of worship and prayer for Muslims only.”

Last week, Erdan said that he believes the status quo at the Temple Mount should be changed to allow Jewish worshippers to pray at the site. “I think there is an injustice in the status quo there that has been in place since 1967, and we need to act to change it so that Jews in the future can pray on the Temple Mount,” he said in a radio interview.

In response, Mahmoud Habbash, Abbas’s religious affairs adviser, expressed outrage over Erdan’s “racist and disgusting” remarks.” Habbash warned that the Palestinians “will never allow the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque to be harmed” and will resist any attempt to change the status quo at the holy site.