Palestinians Fire Back at Trump Admin, Claim Aid Cut Is Over Jerusalem
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ spokesman said Saturday that the U.S. decision to cut more than $200 million in aid is meant to force the Palestinians to abandon their claim to Jerusalem.
Nabil Abu Rdeneh told The Associated Press the move is part of continuing political and financial pressure on the Palestinian leadership.
He said the Americans must be fully aware that there will be no peace without east Jerusalem as capital of a Palestinian state.
“This administration is dismantling decades of U.S. vision and engagement in Palestine,” Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s general delegation to the United States, said in a statement via The New York Times.
“This is another confirmation of abandoning the two-state solution and fully embracing Netanyahu’s anti-peace agenda,” Zomlot said.
The Palestinians were outraged by President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and his moving of the U.S embassy there in May.
The Trump administration announced it is cutting bilateral aid to the Palestinians after a review of funding for projects in the West Bank and Gaza and will redirect the money to “high priority projects elsewhere.”
The State Department notified Congress of the decision in a brief, three-paragraph notice sent first to lawmakers and then to reporters on Friday.
The move comes as Trump and his Middle East pointmen, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, staff up their office to prepare for the rollout of a peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians.
One main issue the U.S. has had with support for the Palestinian Authority is the stipends paid to the families of Palestinians killed, injured or jailed for attacks on Israel.
Israel and the Trump administration have repeatedly demanded that those payments from a so-called martyrs fund be halted because they encourage terrorism.
Abbas has refused to do so.
Some former U.S. officials said cutting aid to the Palestinians would only strengthen Abbas’ more radical rivals in the militant Hamas movement that rules Gaza.
“The U.S. is ceding space to Hamas in Gaza,” tweeted Dave Harden, until recently was the USAID director in the Palestinian territories.
“No security professional recommends an aid cut off in Gaza,” Harden said. “None.”
It should be noted, however, that the $200 million the Trump administration freed up can be applied to various other security measures in the Middle East.
It’s also worth mentioning that while people like Harden can certainly be considered experts in their field, until the peace plan is fully revealed, it will be difficult to gauge just how much, if any, space the United States is ceding.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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