Following US president Donald Trump’s tweets earlier this week in which he threatened to cut financial aid to the Palestinians the White House is now considering cutting that aid and will hold a discussion on the matter on Friday.
“We are reviewing our assistance to the Palestinians in light of their recent conduct per the president’s recent message” a senior White House official told Haaretz on Thursday.
Haaretz also claimed that informed sources in Washington told it that the US support for UNRWA the United Nations agency in charge of aiding Palestinian refugees and their descendants in the Middle East is at the center of today’s debate.
However a spokesperson for UNRWA said Thursday night his organization was still not informed of any specific cuts by the US administration to their budget adding that there were contacts with American diplomats on this subject.
Trump tweeted on Tuesday “It’s not only Pakistan that we pay billions of dollars to for nothing but also many other countries and others. As an example we pay the Palestinians hundreds 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. We have taken Jerusalem the toughest part of the negotiation off the table but Israel for that would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”
His comments came on the same day that US ambassador to the US Nikki Haley said in reply to a question about America’s funding of UNRWA that Trump wants to stop that funding until the Palestinians return to peace talks with Israel under American mediation.
“He doesn’t want to give any additional funding until the Palestinians agree to come back to the negotiation table and what we saw with the resolution was not helpful to the situation” Haley said. “We’re trying to move for a peace process but if that doesn’t happen the president is not going to continue to fund that situation.”
In response to the Trump’s tweets Hanan Ashrawi a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee said that Trump had “not only violated international law” but had “singlehandedly destroyed the very foundations of peace.”
Ashwari accused Trump of sabotaging the Palestinians’ “search for peace freedom and justice” adding that the US president was now blaming the Palestinians “for the consequences of his own irresponsible actions.
