Palestinians on Wednesday condemned as blackmail President Trump’s threat to withhold aid payments to the Palestinian Authority over what he called its…
Palestinians on Wednesday condemned as blackmail President Trump’s threat to withhold aid payments to the Palestinian Authority over what he called its unwillingness to talk peace with Israel.
The president on Tuesday tweeted that the US gives Palestinians “HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect.
“They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with Israel… with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?” he wrote.
Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee, declared in response: “We will not be blackmailed.”
Trump recently incurred Palestinians’ wrath after his Dec. 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and vow to move the US Embassy there from Tel Aviv.
His declaration, which upended decades of American policy, ignited protests and sparked outrage across the Arab world and concern among Washington’s Western allies.
Ashrawi said in a statement Wednesday that Trump had “singlehandedly destroyed the very foundations of peace” with his Jerusalem declaration.
Commenting on Trump’s tweets, Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said: “Jerusalem is not for sale, neither for gold nor for silver.”
Abu Rdainah said the Palestinians were not against returning to peace talks that collapsed in 2014, but only on the basis of establishing a state of their own along the lines that existed before Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in 1967’s Six-Day War, according to Reuters.
“If the United States is keen about peace and about its interests it must abide by that,” he said.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley foreshadowed Trump’s warning earlier Tuesday at the UN Security Council.
She said the president doesn’t want to give more funds “until the Palestinians are willing to come back to the negotiation table.”
“We still very much want to have a peace process. Nothing changes with that. The Palestinians now have to show they want to come to the table,” Haley said. “As of now, they’re not coming to the table, but they ask for aid. We’re not giving the aid. We’re going to make sure that they come to the table.”
Since a Dec. 21 UN vote condemning Trump’s Jerusalem decision, American officials have been weighing various options for retaliating against the Palestinians for pushing the resolution, which passed by a 128-9 margin.
Those options included several involving cutting off some or all aid to the Palestinian Authority. Another would cut funding to the UN agency that provides services to the Palestinians in places like Gaza, Jordan and Lebanon.
According to US officials, only a relatively small amount of the more than $220 million that the US was planning to send to the Palestinians in the current budget year actually goes to the Palestinian Authority.
Most of that assistance flows to nongovernmental groups that are involved in building civic organizations that promote good governance, anti-corruption efforts, and health and education projects.
With Post Wires
