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1 1 (February 5, 2019)

handle is hein.crs/govyha0001 and id is 1 raw text is: ACongressional *aResearch Service Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-253) and U.S. Aid for the Palestinians Updated February 5, 2019 The Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act (ATCA, P.L. 115-253) became law on October 3, 2018. Congress passed the law in the wake of a U.S. federal court case dealing with past acts of terrorism by Palestinians (discussed below, U.S. Policy Implications and Options). The law amended the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) (at 18 U.S.C. 2334) by stating that a defendant consents to personal jurisdiction in U.S. federal court for lawsuits related to international terrorism if the defendant accepts certain types of U.S. foreign aid after the law has been in effect for 120 days. In December, Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the PA would not accept aid that subjected it to federal court jurisdiction. Consequently, U.S. bilateral aid to the Palestinians ended on January 31, 2019. Apparently, it will not resume unless Congress amends or repeals the ATCA, or the Administration channels the aid differently. The end of bilateral aid has halted U.S.-funded programs that began in 1975 with a focus on economic and humanitarian needs, and were expanded from 1994 (in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process) to assist with security and Palestinian self-governance after the PA was formed. The effect of ending aid is as follows: * Economic assistance. Although the Trump Administration decided in September 2018 to reprogram all of the FY2017 Economic Support Fund (ESF) aid from the West Bank and Gaza to other recipients, some aid projects continued in the West Bank and Gaza using prior-year funding. These projects have now shut down, though the USAID mission that manages them remains in the region. * Security assistance. After the Administration reprogrammed or discontinued various funding streams for the Palestinians during 2018, the main U.S. aid category remaining was the International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement account (INCLE). This security assistance account supported nonlethal train-and-equip programs for PA West Bank security forces (PASF). INCLE assistance, along with $1 million per year in Nonproliferation, Anti-terrorism, Demining, and Related Programs (NADR) assistance, ended due to the ATCA. Reportedly, the office of the U.S. Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority (US SC), a U.S.-led multilateral mission based in Jerusalem, Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov IN11025 CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress