JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinian officials voiced outrage on Wednesday over President Donald Trump’s threat to cut funding to the Palestinian Authority, calling his tweets “blackmail” in the aftermath of the U.S. administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s office rebuffed the U.S. leader’s remarks, saying that “Jerusalem is not for sale, neither for gold nor silver.” Abbas’ spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh said that “if the United States is keen on its interests in the Middle East, it must implement the international resolutions which call for a state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
“Without this, the United States will push the region to the abyss,” Abu Rdeneh added. Trump expressed frustration on Tuesday over the lack of progress in his attempts to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and pointed his finger at the Palestinians.
“We pay the Palestinians HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect,” he tweeted. “But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”
Trump upset the Palestinians last month by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and announcing plans to move the U.S. Embassy to the holy city. The Palestinians, who claim Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem as their capital, accused Trump of siding with Israel on the most sensitive issue in the conflict and subsequently said the U.S. could no longer serve as a mediator.
International support for the Palestinians increased sharply after the creation of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, an autonomy government that was meant to last for five years as a prelude to a final peace deal. But negotiations have repeatedly sputtered, and the Palestinian Authority has become a permanent fixture, propped up by billions in international aid to prevent a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories.
The U.S., as one of the largest donors to the Palestinians, could inflict great pain on the Palestinians by cutting off aid. Yet it could also have a negative effect on Israel, which also relies on the Palestinian Authority to help maintain calm.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem — areas claimed by the Palestinians for a future state — in the 1967 Mideast war. As an occupying power, Israel is formally responsible for the welfare of Palestinians. The existence of the international-funded Palestinian Authority means Israel no longer needs to shoulder that financial burden. Israel also has a security interest in the continued functioning of the authority, since Palestinian security services cooperate with Israel to prevent attacks by Hamas and other militant groups.
The United States has contributed over $5 billion in economic and security aid since the mid-1990s, according to Congressional research figures. Annual economic aid since 2008 has averaged around $400 million, much of it devoted to development projects. Between 2012 and 2016, the United States Agency for International Development provided over $1.7 billion in development and humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, according to the U.S. State Department.
Additionally, the U.S has donated an average of $100 million annually to Abbas’s security services — and cutting that funding could prove disastrous for Israel. The World Bank says there is currently no feasible alternative to aid as budget support to the Palestinian Authority, given the poor state of the Palestinian economy. It blames Israeli restrictions in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as a continued rift between the PA and the Hamas rulers in the Gaza Strip for the economic troubles.
Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi said the Palestinians “will not be blackmailed” by the president, adding that Trump “singlehandedly destroyed the very foundations of peace” by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last month.
“Trump has sabotaged our search for peace, freedom and justice,” she said Wednesday. American officials have been weighing possible retaliatory actions against the Palestinians for a U.N. resolution condemning Trump’s Jerusalem decision. The resolution passed last month by a 128-9 margin.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley presaged Trump’s threat on Tuesday, saying 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.”
In addition to its support for the Palestinian Authority, the U.S. is also the largest donor UNRWA, the U.N. agency that assists Palestinian refugees. The U.S. donated $355 million to UNRWA in 2016, nearly 30 percent of its total funding. A large portion of the organization’s activity is focused on providing health care, education and food aid to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Ending this aid could precipitate a humanitarian crisis, particularly in impoverished Gaza, where a majority of residents are eligible for UNRWA support.
UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said it had not been informed of any changes to U.S. funding at this time. Culture Minister Miri Regev, a senior member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet, said she was “very pleased” by Trump’s call to cut funding to the Palestinians. She said the Trump administration’s call to cut aid to UNRWA was “correct and important.”
Why are we giving Israel BILLIONS when our infrastructure is falling apart…..cut ALL foreign aid and keep it in the US…..simple!!!!!!
Why are Palestinians outraged? Have the decades of billions of American tax dollars to israel not shown them just where the puppet government of the U.S. stands on the issue of Israeli occupation of Palestine? Israel takes American tax dollars and lives the good life while Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and that’s considered middle class. Palestinians didn’t ask for the situation they’re in, it was put on them by zionists from America and Europe along with their wahabi prostitutes in the middle east. Trump talks so tough, demanding respect and appreciation for the millions of dollars that are nothing more than a payoff to the cuckold party of Abbas while bending over (literally) for israel while they take billions upon billions of dollars from Americans to do things Americans aren’t even able to do. Paid education, healthcare, housing and so much more on top of espionage and attacks against America…9/11, liberty, false flag shootings. Not to mention the wars created for israel and fought by Americans to kill and die for the ” chosen ” ones. No, trump isn’t tough at all. He’s just another Zionist puppet bitch doing the bidding of international bankers, Zionist globalist who are ramping up the efforts to establish israel as the new superpower when America runs dry. Palestine doeant want your money, your interference, your bullshit. Palestine will prevail without any deals from the devil. Its Americans who will fall to Zionist crimes and manipulation, wars and economic downfall. Meanwhile, keep waving your flags and worshipping trump, your God. Keep paying your taxes and being arrested for trying to live off the grid or collecting rainwater. Keep being submissive to the police that beat and murder you. Keep giving up your rights to Zionist lawmakers. And when you find it hard to pay bills, taxes, healthcare, education or just survive….Keep telling yourself that this is what God wants you to be and live as for the sake of israel.
Jamal, the mega church preachers kept coming to mind when I read your comment. “If America blesses Israel, America will be blessed.”
If this is what blessed looks like, I’d rather NOT be blessed.
We are the new Germany saturated with zionist cultural influence, dual citizens in seats of power, etc..
We need to drive them off this continent!
We are the new Germany saturated with zionist cultural influence, dual citizens in seats of power, etc..
I really could not say it better myself. I’ve been trying to warn people of this for a long time. Usually to be called a conspiracy theorist.
Yes, Jamal. Exactly. We are reliving the sexual decadence of the Weimar republic. The pushback of that was to expel those parasites and all the German govt did was help them and lead their people into defeat, one “bad decision” after another, and to genocide of their own. The American people as a whole don’t possess the ethnic or national unity the Germans did, but I am not concerned. WE still have enough potential soldiers to win this as there has always been sideliners in every revolution. It’s the spreading of truth that does the recruiting.
Beautiful Martist.
Thank you, Katie. I didn’t see Jamal’s post re Germany but this is SO history repeating itself. It’s uncanny and one for the coincidence theorists, unlike the “conspiracy theorists” that Jamal mentioned!
It’s the spreading of truth that does the recruiting
100% right martist! That’s why I love the trenches.
Jew Bounty, $3.00 per ear.
I think you can make more money by turning them into soap and lampshades.
again Jamal, spot on!
Thank you Mary
Don’t blame the Trumpster….. he’s just following Netanyahu’s orders.. as usual.
Who writes those “tweets” anyway?
Lol, exactly
You know who “writes” the tweets, Jolly–it’s the Chabad Lubavitcher that resides in the shabots goy (or what those mf’ers call it), that is, Frump. Give that wannabe Talmudist a Hrumph!
And thanks, Jamal, for that excellent comment. As with We the People, the Palestinians will win in the end. The Synagogue of Satan aka Israel will perish (as per the Book of Revelation, chapters 19 and 20). Every honest Isreali geneticist knows Palestinians have more Israelite DNA in them than the Khazar “Jews” do.
Thanks everyone all the comments are spot on