Is it time for the EU to stop funding the Palestinian Authority?
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa with European High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas, in Luxembourg on 14 April 2025
Tamam Abusalama writes in The New Arab on 22 February 2026:
The European Union and its member states have long presented themselves as supporters of the Palestinian people, mainly through their backing of the Palestinian Authority (PA). But is this actually ‘solidarity’ with Palestinian aspirations, or a tool to perpetuate the Israeli occupation?
In reality, the consistent support that the EU has given the PA is more of a token gesture, rather than a true effort toward Palestinian liberation and justice. Rather than challenging and confronting the Israeli occupation and its complicity through sanctions, the EU’s support has become a tool for managing it.
In 1980, the EU’s position on Palestine was officially formed in the Venice declaration. That declaration articulated the “two-state” logic by recognising Israel’s “right to exist” along with other vague statements around “justice for all the people” and Palestinian rights to self-determination and right to return.
In the 1990s, during the negotiations leading to the Oslo Accords, the EU solidified its position. It viewed this period as a key opportunity to position itself as a champion of Palestinian statehood, invoking “international law and the principles of Oslo.” However, at its core, the EU understood the creation of the Palestinian Authority (PA), established as a temporary administrative body under Israeli occupation, as a mechanism to ensure the continuity of the Zionist project, with little or almost no regard for Palestinian rights.
Former Israeli foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami described the role of the Palestinian Authority following Oslo as “Israel’s collaborator”, tasked with oppressing any political or social uprisings against the Israeli occupation and reducing the Palestinian struggle to economic reforms and security issues.