After millions of dollars intended for building a new hospital disappear into the hand of the PA, Palestinians demand "Ask the PA government where the donations went!"
Headline: “In documents – a [PA] presidential order that changed the role of the Khaled Al-Hassan Institute for Cancer Treatment”
“Speculations have arisen in recent days regarding the fate of the Khaled Al-Hassan Hospital for Cancer and Bone Marrow Transplants, regarding which Palestinian [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas] issued order no. 7 of 2018…
In order to build the hospital $12 million and 10 million [Israeli] shekels were collected, in addition to the donation of the [PA] government employees who donated a day of work [from their salaries], according to the statements of the donation campaign to establish the hospital that was launched by the Palestinian president and the center’s board of trustees in 2016.
The Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction ‘PECDAR’ signed a contract in March 2017 with a coalition of [Jordanian consulting agency] Dar Al Omran – [British architectural firm] John Cooper – engineering and planning center to begin the planning at a sum of $2.47 million, and the cost of the contract was covered by a $2 million grant from the Islamic Development Bank and from money donated to the national campaign to collect donations.
But interestingly enough, despite the $1 million that was paid for the initial steps of building the hospital, President Abbas issued order no. 2 of 2021 on Jan. 30, 2021, which cancels the previous order regarding the Khaled Al-Hassan Institute for Cancer Treatment and Bone Marrow Transplants…
According to sources of [the Palestinian news website] Quds News Network, the idea of the hospital has been cancelled once and for all and the new order in 2021 came to give the cancellation legal force. According to the official report of the PLO investment fund, they began to work from the middle of 2021 on establishing the Cancer Consulting Hospital with a capacity of 170 beds at the initial stage on a territory for construction that reaches up to 27,000 square meters.
While the investment fund was responsible for managing the Khaled Al-Hassan Hospital project that was cancelled and was supposed to be governmental, the fund also manages the Cancer Consulting Hospital project, but the latter is a private hospital and private investment, and this is what raises questions regarding the fate of the donations. In this context, Quds News Network attempted to find out whether the donors know where their donations went. Khaled Al-Hassan Hospital project board of directors member Munib Al-Masri responded on this in an interview with Quds News Network: ‘I committed to donating $1 million and paid $250,000 of it, and I sent them a question regarding the progress of the project, but no one answered me. Ask the [PA] government and the one responsible for the project where the donations went!’
In parallel, the [PA] Ministry of Health said that the donations that were collected to establish the Khaled Al-Hassan Center for Cancer Treatment and Bone Marrow Transplants are being kept in the bank account of the Khaled Al-Hassan Institute… and added: ‘As a result of the lack of money required to establish the project it has been frozen for now, and the ministry and government are working to provide the monetary aid to establish the center in stages for the service of the sick.’”