\nWASHINGTON : The United States has said that it had canceled more than $200 million in aid for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, leading their ambassador to accuse President Donald Trump\u2019s administration of being \u201canti-peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
A senior State Department official said the decision, made \u201cat the direction of the president,\u201d came after a review of aid programs to the Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n
The funding previously allocated for programs in the West Bank and Gaza will \u201cnow address high-priority projects elsewhere,\u201d said the official.<\/p>\n
The move \u201ctakes into account the challenges the international community faces in providing assistance in Gaza, where Hamas control endangers the lives of Gaza\u2019s citizens and degrades an already dire humanitarian and economic situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In January, the United States had already made drastic cuts to its contribution to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA.<\/p>\n
Relations between the US administration and the Palestinian Authority took a nosedive after Trump announced the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n
The Palestinians have suspended contacts with the administration and consider that it can no longer play a mediation role in the Middle East peace process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis administration is dismantling decades of US vision and engagement in Palestine,\u201d Husam Zomlot, head of the Palestinian General Delegation to the United States said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter Jerusalem and UNRWA, this is another confirmation of abandoning the two-state solution and fully embracing (Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin) Netanyahu\u2019s anti-peace agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n
The decision to cut Palestinian funding comes amid a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which has seen a surge of violence since Palestinian protests began in March.<\/p>\n
At least 171 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire during demonstrations near the border with Israel.<\/p>\n
The US administration is pressing on with work on a peace plan that has been under discussion for months, leaving a vacuum in the Middle East in the meantime.<\/p>\n
\u201cWeaponizing humanitarian and developmental aid as political blackmail does not work,\u201d Zomlot said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly a recommitment from this administration to the long-held US policy of achieving peace through the two-state solution on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem, the capital of the state of Palestine, and respecting international resolutions and law will provide a way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy accused the White House of engaging in a \u201cseries of provocative and harmful acts\u201d instead of coming up with a coherent policy to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.<\/p>\n
Trump has tasked his son-in-law Jared Kushner and lawyer Jason Greenblatt to draft the peace proposals, saying earlier this week that there would be something \u201cvery good\u201d for the Palestinians.<\/p>\n
The Palestinians see the eastern part of the disputed city as the capital of their future state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON : The United States has said that it had canceled more than $200 million in aid for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, leading their ambassador to accuse President Donald Trump\u2019s administration of being \u201canti-peace.\u201d A senior State Department official said the decision, made \u201cat the direction of the president,\u201d came […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30204,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-news","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n