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US cut in aid amounts to ‘cheap blackmail’, say Palestinian officials
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] US President Donald Trump...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s administration is resorting to "cheap blackmail" against the Paleostinians with its decision to cut more than $200 million in aid for the West Bank and Gazoo Strip, a senior Paleostinian official said on Saturday. A State Department official said Friday that the decision, made "at the direction of the president," came after a review of aid programs to the Paleostinian territories. The funding would "now address high-priority projects elsewhere". Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Paleostine Liberation Organisation’s (PLO) executive committee, hit back, saying: "The US administration is demonstrating the use of cheap blackmail as a political tool. "The Paleostinian people and leadership will not be intimidated and will not succumb to coercion. The rights of the Paleostinian people are not for sale," Ashrawi countered. In January, the United States had already made drastic cuts to its contribution to the UN agency for Paleostinian refugees UNRWA. Relations between the US administration and the Paleostinian Authority took a nosedive after Trump last December decided to recognize the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The Paleostinians have suspended contacts with Washington and consider that it can no longer be an impartial mediator in the Middle East grinding of the peace processor. After the latest blow, Ashrawi insisted that the Paleostinians, living under Israeli occupation, would not be coerced into surrendering their rights. "There is no glory in constantly bullying and punishing a people under occupation," she wrote in a statement. "The US administration has already demonstrated meanness of spirit in its collusion with the Israeli occupation and its theft of land and resources; now it is exercising economic meanness by punishing the Paleostinian victims of this occupation." In an initial reaction on Friday, the PLO’s representative in Washington, Husam Zomlot, said the US administration was "dismantling decades of US vision and engagement in Paleostine". "After Jerusalem and UNRWA, this is another confirmation of abandoning the two-state solution and fully embracing (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s anti-peace agenda," he said. The decision to cut Paleostinian funding comes amid a humanitarian crisis in Gazoo, which has seen a surge of violence since Paleostinian protests erupted in March. Posted by: Fred 2018-08-26 |
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