German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock discusses the future role of the Palestinian Authority (PA) with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa, with a view to reforming the PA.
Before Tuesday’s meeting with Mustafa, Baerbock had Oliver Owcza, head of the German Representative Office for Palestine in Ramallah, show her the situation in the West Bank and the border area with Israel.
Critics accuse right-wing extremist parts of the Israeli government of trying to strangle the PA by cutting Israeli payments to the body. As a result, some salaries of PA employees can no longer be paid.
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also recently announced that he would withhold a total of $32.5 million from the PA and use that money to pay Israeli terror victims.
At the Herzliya security conference near Tel Aviv on Monday, Baerbock condemned these measures.
“In the current situation, it is dangerous and self-defeating to destroy and destabilize established PA structures,” she said.
She said that if the PA at some point wants to assume the role of the legitimate governing authority in Gaza, it must be in a position to support its legitimacy – including in the police and security forces.
Baerbock also plans to meet her counterpart Israel Katz in Jerusalem. Against the backdrop of growing concerns about an escalation of the conflict between Israel and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, Baerbock will fly to Lebanon in the afternoon.
