President Trump ignited liberal meltdowns when he seemed to suggest he would be cutting off funding to the Palestinian Authority as they were no longer willing to negotiate in peace talks.
With stalled negotiations on Middle East peace, Trump tweeted Tuesday about how Washington gives Palestinians “HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS” a year but gets “no appreciation or respect” in return.
The president’s remark about Palestinian funding followed comments he made about billions of dollars in aid payments to Pakistan, which had resulted in only “lies and deceit” for the U.S.
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 HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018
…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?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018
Palestinians were angered over the Trump administration decision in December to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and recognize the city as the capital.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called the decision “a declaration of withdrawal” by the U.S. from “the role it has played in the peace process,” according to ABC News. The move was also condemned in the United Nations last month as 128 countries voted against the decision by Trump.
U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, seemed to hint at Trump’s warning on Tuesday when she told the governing body that president doesn’t want to give any more funds “until the Palestinians are willing to come back to the negotiation table.”
#BREAKING: NIKKI HALEY SAYS U.S. TO WITHHOLD U.N. FUNDING FOR PALESTINIAN REFUGEES…
**UNTIL PALESTINIAN OFFICIALS REJOIN PEACE TALKS.**pic.twitter.com/MGetHTC1yp
— Cyrus Toulabi (@CyrusToulabi) January 2, 2018
“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, according to ABC News. “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.”
For almost a year, Trump’s team had held meetings with Israeli, Palestinian and Arab leaders ahead of an expected peace proposal. The Jerusalem decision, however, seemed to throw a wrench into the proceedings as Palestinians feel the U.S. is siding with Israel in the conflict. Occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, east Jerusalem is sought by Palestinians to be the capital of their future state.
“We will not be blackmailed,” Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee, responded, according to CNN. “By recognizing Occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital Donald Trump has not only violated international law, but he has also singlehandedly destroyed the very foundations of peace and condoned Israel’s illegal annexation of the city.”
A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said: “Jerusalem is not for sale, neither for gold nor for silver.”
TIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not yet responded to Trump’s tweets, but Culture Minister Miri Regev said: “You cannot on the one hand receive $300m in American aid per year and at the same time close the door on negotiations.
“We are dealing with a president who says what he thinks clearly and does not resort to diplomatic convolutions that mean nothing,” she told Israel’s Army Radio, BBC News reported.
The United States is the largest donor to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency which provides humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees, with a pledge of nearly $370 million as of 2016, according to UNRWA’s website, CNBC reported.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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