France hosted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris for a meeting on Tuesday, during which French President Emmanuel Macron committed to helping the PA draft a constitution for a future state.

Macron, whose country led the charge in recognizing a Palestinian state during the UN General Assembly in September, said France and the PA would set up a joint committee to work on drawing up a new framework for the state.

“This committee will be responsible for working on all legal aspects: constitutional, institutional and organizational,” he told reporters, adding that Abbas had presented him with the first draft of a potential constitution.

He added France would contribute 100 million euros ($116.62 million) in humanitarian aid to Gaza for 2025.

Ahead of the meeting, France raised its concern with the PA about recent illicit payments Ramallah made to Palestinian security prisoners, a senior French official told The Times of Israel.

Abbas ousted PA Finance Minister Omar Bitar on Monday for signing off on payments to Palestinian security prisoners through an old mechanism that awarded them based on the length of their sentence, a Palestinian official and a second source familiar with the matter revealed to The Times of Israel on Monday.

The payments amounted to an apparent violation of Ramallah’s pledge to France and other key backers in the international community that the PA would reform its prisoner payment system, which critics have dubbed “pay-to-slay.”

While........

© The Times of Israel