Palestinian Plight: Updates & Discussions

[BLACKEAGLE]

Israel says will seize West Bank land; demolishes EU structures
JERUSALEM | By Maayan Lubell

A view shows Jordan Valley near the West Bank city of Jericho January 20, 2016.
Reuters/Mohamad Torokman

Israel confirmed on Thursday it was planning to appropriate a large tract of fertile land in the occupied West Bank, close to Jordan, a move likely to exacerbate tensions with Western allies and already drawing international condemnation.

In an email sent to Reuters, COGAT, a unit of Israel's Defence Ministry, said the political decision to seize the territory had been taken and "the lands are in the final stages of being declared state lands".

The appropriation, covers 154 hectares (380 acres) in the Jordan Valley close to Jericho, an area where Israel already has many settlement farms built on land Palestinians seek for a state. It is the largest land seizure since August 2014.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon denounced the move and Palestinian officials said they would push for a resolution at the United Nations against Israel's settlement policies.

"Settlement activities are a violation of international law and run counter to the public pronouncements of the government of Israel supporting a two-state solution to the conflict," Ban said in a statement.

The land, in an area fully under Israeli civilian and military control and already used by Jewish settlers to farm dates, is situated near the northern tip of the Dead Sea.

Palestinian officials denounced the seizure.

"Israel is stealing land specially in the Jordan Valley under the pretext it wants to annex it," Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, told Reuters. "This should be a reason for a real and effective intervention by the international community to end such a flagrant and grave aggression which kills all chances of peace."

The United States, whose ambassador angered Israel this week with criticism of its West Bank policy, said it was strongly opposed to any moves that accelerate settlement expansion.

"We believe they're fundamentally incompatible with a two-state solution and call into question, frankly, the Israeli government's commitment to a two-state solution," Deputy State Department spokesman Mark Toner said on Wednesday.

In a development likely to further upset Europe, Israeli forces demolished six structures in the West Bank funded by the EU's humanitarian arm. The structures were dwellings and latrines for Bedouins living in an area known as E1 - a particularly sensitive zone between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea.

Israel has not built settlements in E1, with construction considered a "red line" by the United States and the EU. It could potentially split the West Bank, cutting Palestinians off from East Jerusalem, which they seek for their capital.

"This is the third time they demolished my house and every time I rebuilt it, this time also I will rebuild it and I am not leaving here. If we leave they will turn the place into a closed military zone," said Saleem Jahaleen, whose home was razed.

RISING TENSION

Israeli officals did not respond to requests for comment on the demolitions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week the EU was building illegally in the area.

"They're building without authorization, against the accepted rules, and there’s a clear attempt to create political realities," he told the foreign media.

Netanyahu was scheduled to address the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday. He met U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry there but it was not clear if the issue was raised.

The Palestinians want to establish an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War.

There are now about 550,000 Jewish settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem combined, according to Israeli government and think-tank statistics. About 350,000 Palestinians live in East Jerusalem and 2.7 million in West Bank.

Israel is hoping that in any final agreement with the Palestinians it will be able to keep large settlement blocs including in the Jordan Valley, both for security and agricultural purposes. The Palestinians are adamantly opposed.

The last round of peace talks broke down in April 2014 and Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged in recent months.

Since the start of October, Palestinian stabbings, car-rammings and shootings have killed 25 Israelis and a U.S. citizen. In the same period, at least 148 Palestinians have been killed, 94 of whom Israel has described as assailants.

Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said on Thursday he had revoked the residency rights of four Jerusalem Palestinians involved in two fatal attacks on Israelis, one in September and one in October, a spokeswoman said.

The measure, described as rare, was meant to deter others from carrying out attacks, Deri said in a statement.

(Reporting by Maayan Lubell, Luke Baker, Ali Sawafta; Nidal al-Mughrabi; editing by Luke Baker and Angus MacSwan)
Israel says will seize West Bank land; demolishes EU structures| Reuters

 

[silentwarfare]

Sometimes you have to wonder if Israel is running the US through AIPAC and turning the United States into a third world country so that Israel can rise as the world's smallest buy most mighty superpower as the result.

 

[Redheart]

If the conspiracy theories are to be believed, Jewish bankers control the Federal Reserve and if they control the money then the U.S government will do whatever Israel wants or ignore all the bad things they do. Whether that's true or not is debatable but I believe it's time the U.S terminated its alliance with Israel because Israel is slowly getting to be very much like Hitler's Germany.

 

[Redheart]

Israel hears details of French peace initiative, slams Palestinian objection to talks - Arab-Israeli Conflict - Jerusalem Post


Israel still supports the prospect of direct diplomatic negotiations with the Palestinians despite their "predisposition" to oppose attempts at reaching peace, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

"This principle [of talks], which has accompanied the process from its beginning, has won the support of the international community over the years and also stood as the basis for peace negotiations with Jordan and Egypt," the ministry said in a statement.

The remarks came following a meeting between French Ambassador to Israel Patrick Maisonnave and the head of the Foreign Ministry's diplomatic office Alon Ushpiz.

During the meeting, the French envoy presented the Foreign Ministry with details on a French initiative to convene a peace conference in Paris this coming summer, with the aim of relaunching the diplomatic process that last broke down in April 2014.

The meeting between the French and Israeli officials came the day after a senior Palestinian Authority official rejected the possibility of a return to the negotiating table.

On Monday during a visit to Japan, PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said the Palestinians would never reengage in direct talks with Israel.

"Israel supports the direct negotiating process with the Palestinians, and opposes any predisposed attempt to determine the outcome of the talks," the Foreign Ministry said in reference to Malki's comments.

In January, outgoing French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius originally presented the French initiative, threatening that Paris would formally recognize a Palestinian state should its efforts to renew the peace process fail.

“France will engage in the coming weeks in the preparation of an international conference bringing together the parties and their main partners to preserve and achieve the two-state solution,” Fabius told a conference of French diplomats in Paris.

In response, Israeli officials blasted the initiative as "an erroneous approach" that gives Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas an excuse not to negotiate with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli officials said Netanyahu would decide whether or not to participate in the conference only after receiving an invitation.

Meanwhile, Abbas has welcomed the latest French initiative.

 

[John Snort]

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/2...nsives-and-siege-force-gaza-children-to-work/

Dozens of Palestinian children across the Gaza Strip have been obliged to leave school in order to go to work and help their family finances because their fathers have been killed during Israeli offensives or are unemployed as a result of the Israeli-led siege.

Palestinian statistics show an increase in child labour over the past five years, with an estimated 9,700 children aged between 10 and 17 now working across the coastal enclave.

To the international community and organizations such as Amnesty International the global "human rights" organization this doesn't get their attention.

I look forward to the day when Israeli arrogance and cruelty is put to an end.

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Gaza man shot dead in protest near border with Israel

Israeli troops shot and killed a 26-year-old Palestinian during a rock-throwing protest near the Gaza-Israel border. (AFP)
Reuters, Gaza Friday, 18 November 2016

Israeli troops shot and killed a 26-year-old Palestinian during a rock-throwing protest near the Gaza-Israel border on Friday, a Palestinian health official said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said troops had fired shots to disperse Palestinians trying to breach the Gaza border fence and authorities were investigating reports that one person had been killed.

The Gaza health officials said Mohammad Abu Seada was killed by Israeli gunfire and that two others were wounded. Dozens of protesters hurl rocks at Israeli soldiers every Friday along the border with Gaza.

At least 227 Palestinians have been killed in violence in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip since October 2015. Israel says 154 of them were assailants. Others died during clashes and protests.

Palestinians, many of them acting alone and with rudimentary weapons, have killed at least 33 Israelis and two visiting Americans.

Palestinian leaders say assailants have acted out of desperation over the collapse of peace talks in 2014 and Israeli settlement expansion in Israeli-occupied territory that Palestinians seek for an independent state.

Palestinians have accused Israeli police and soldiers of using excessive force in many cases, saying the assailants could have been stopped or detained without being shot and killed. Israel has opened investigations into several incidents.

Last Update: Friday, 18 November 2016 KSA 21:49 - GMT 18:49
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...i-attack-on-Makkah-to-be-referred-to-UN-.html

 

[Scorpion]

Establishing the tomb of Solomon is nothing but a dream that will never become a reality so Israel should get over it.

 

[UAE]

Israeli troops kill 4, injure 367 in Jerusalem protests

GAZA/AMMAN: Israeli troops shot dead four Palestinians and wounded 367 with live ammunition on Friday, medical officials said, as protests over US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital entered a second week.
Most of the casualties were on the Israel-Gaza border, where thousands of Palestinians gathered to throw stones at Israeli soldiers beyond the fortified fence. Medics said two protesters, one of them wheelchair-bound, were killed and 150 wounded.
In the occupied West Bank, medics said two protesters were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli gunfire.
One of the dead was a man whom Israeli police said was shot after he stabbed a member of their unit.
Washington’s European allies and Russia have also voiced concern.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Trump’s decision is a “bomb” thrown at the entire Middle East, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
“The Jerusalem decision is a harbinger of new operations targeting the Islamic world,” he added.
“If Muslims fail to show the necessary reaction on this issue within the law, believe me there will be more to come.”
Palestinians are planning to appeal to the UN Security Council, and Erdogan said Muslim nations will ask the UN for an “annulment” of Trump’s decision.
The initiative will start at the Security Council, and if it is vetoed there, “we will work within the UN General Assembly for the annulment of this unjust and lawless decision,” he added.
Ziad Khalil Abu Zayyad, a Fatah spokesman for international affairs, told Arab News that the US will not be able to use its veto power on this issue because it is involved in the dispute.
The UN Charter gives the Security Council’s five permanent members veto powers with one exception: Article 27-3 states that “a party to a dispute shall abstain from voting.”
But Anis F. Kassim, publisher of the Palestinian Year Book for International Law, expressed doubt over whether the world body will agree that the US is party to the dispute, or refer to it as a “situation rather than a dispute.”
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told a summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) that Israel’s legitimacy is in question because of its failure to declare its borders.
“International law stipulates that to be recognized as a state, a country has to meet three conditions: Sovereignty, population and borders. This third condition is not declared in Israel, and I challenge it to say where its borders are… Its recognition is void,” Abbas said.
Kassim said Israel’s recognition by the UN in 1949 was conditional. “Recognition followed commitments made by its representative to honor the partition plan and the right of Palestinian refugees to return,” he told Arab News.
He said while borders are a major issue in terms of recognition, it is not a deciding factor. “Many countries have been recognized without their borders being totally clarified,” he added.
But Kassim believes that recognition of Israel was conditional on the commitments made by its then-ambassador to the UN regarding resolutions 181 of 1947 and 194 of 1948.
The 1947 partition plan (resolution 181) declared Jerusalem a corpus separatum (special entity), Kassim said.
After the 1967 war, the world recognized the east of the city as “occupied territory,” and continued to reject Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, he added.
Former Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told Arab News that UN Security Council resolutions refer to all areas seized by Israel in 1967, including East Jerusalem, as “occupied territories.”
Resolution 476 condemned Israel’s 1980 Jerusalem Law, which declared the city its united capital, as a violation of international law, Judeh said.
He added that the resolution says the Security Council “will not recognize this law, and calls on member states to accept the decision of the council. It also called upon members states to withdraw their diplomatic missions from the city.”
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1209436/middle-east

 

[Khafee]

Trump administration prepares to cut UN money for Palestinian refugees
US president Donald Trump will likely to send only $60 million of the planned $125 million first installment to the UN Relief and Works Agency

Associated Press
January 15, 2018

A Palestinian refugee sits outside his home in a narrow street of the Balata refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus, on January 9, 2018. US officials said the Trump administration is preparing to withhold tens of millions of dollars from UNRWA. Alaa Badarneh / EPA


The Trump administration is preparing to withhold tens of millions of dollars from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, cutting the year's first contribution by more than half or perhaps entirely, and making additional donations contingent on major changes to the organisation, according to US officials.

President Donald Trump has not made a final decision, but appears more likely to send only $60 million (Dh220.4m) of the planned $125 million first installment to the UN Relief and Works Agency, said the officials, who were not authorised to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Future contributions would require the agency, facing heavy Israeli criticism, to demonstrate significant changes in operations, they said, adding that one suggestion under consideration would require the Palestinians to first re-enter peace talks with Israel.

The State Department said on Sunday that "the decision is under review. There are still deliberations taking place". The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the matter.

The administration could announce its decision as early as Tuesday, the officials said. The plan to withhold some of the money is backed by secretary of state Rex Tillerson and defense secretary James Mattis, who offered it as a compromise to demands for more drastic measures by UN ambassador Nikki Haley, the officials said.

Ms Haley wants a complete cutoff in US money until the Palestinians resume peace talks with Israel that have been frozen for years. But Mr Tillerson, Mr Mattis and others say ending all assistance would exacerbate instability in the Mideast, notably in Jordan, a host to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees and a crucial US strategic partner.

_______________

Read more

Palestinians reject Trump threat to halt US aid over Jerusalem crisis

Sweden warns US against cutting UN aid to Palestinians

_______________

In another sign of the growing tensions, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas railed at Mr Trump in a fiery, two-hour-long speech on Sunday, saying "shame on you" for his treatment of the Palestinians and warning that he would have no problem rejecting what he suggested would be an unacceptable peace plan. The speech by Mr Abbas ratcheted up what has been more than a month of harsh rhetoric towards Mr Trump since the president's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital

The US is the UN agency's largest donor, supplying nearly 30 per cent of its total budget. The agency focuses on providing health care, education and social services to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians either fled or were forced from their homes during the war that led to Israel's establishment in 1948. Today, there are an estimated 5 million refugees and their descendants, mostly scattered across the region.

Eliminating or sharply reducing the US contribution could hamstring the agency and severely curtail its work, putting great pressure on Jordan and Lebanon as well as the Palestinian Authority. Gaza would be particularly hard hit. Some officials, including Israelis, warn that it might push people closer to the militant Hamas movement, which controls Gaza.

The US officials said any reduction in American assistance could be accompanied by calls for European nations and others to help make up the shortfall.

The US donated $355 million in 2016 and was set to make a similar contribution this year; the first installment was to have sent this month.

But after a highly critical January 2 tweet from Mr Trump on aid to the Palestinians, the State Department opted to wait for a formal policy decision before sending any of the $125 million.


Mr Trump's tweet expressed frustration over the lack of progress in his attempts to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and he pointed the finger at the Palestinians. "We pay the Palestinians HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect," he said. "But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?"

Although Trump referred to all US assistance to the Palestinians, the contribution to refugee agency would be the first to be affected.

Three days after the tweet, at a January 5 White House meeting, senior national security officials try to find a way forward. Led by representatives from the State Department and Pentagon, all but one of the members of the "Policy Coordination Committee" agreed to continue the funding, officials said.

The lone holdout was Ms Haley's representative, who insisted that Mr Trump's tweet had set the policy and the money must be cut off, the officials said.

The meeting ended in a stalemate.

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Interview: Head of UNRWA in Lebanon defends work as US threatens to cut aid

_______________

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu then weighed in, telling his cabinet that he agreed with the critique of the agency. He said the agency only perpetuates problems and should cease operating in the region. Mr Netanyahu and other Israelis accuse it of contributing to Palestinian militancy and allowing its facilities to be used by militants. They have also complained that some of its staff are biased against Israel.

Mr Netanyahu suggested transferring the agency's budget to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which aids refugee matters everywhere in the world. It was not immediately clear whether any withheld US assistance would be shifted.

Mr Netanyahu's position, coupled with Ms Haley's firm opposition to the funding, led Mr Tillerson, with the support of Mr Mattis, to propose the $60 million compromise, the officials said.

Mr Trump, whose recognition last year of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and announcement of plans to move the US embassy to the holy city had upset the Palestinians, was said by one official to have expressed cautious backing of the compromise.

https://www.thenational.ae/world/me...ut-un-money-for-palestinian-refugees-1.695402

 

[Khafee]

Ideology, financial interests guide Trump’s Israel policy
In the past, the Arab-Israeli conflict was guided by internal US politics but Trump has made it about family politics
Published: January 15, 2018 - 19:31 (GMTT+4)
Jumana Al Tamimi, Associate Editor

Trump aides Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt along with US envoy to Israel, David Friedman, during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in occupied Jerusalem last year.

Dubai: The assignment of Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt as President Donald Trump’s envoys to the peace talks was not surprising to many American political scientists.

“They are both right-wing Jews who have strongly supported the ...[colonist] movement in Palestinian land,” said Nabil Khoury, non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Centre for the Middle East and a former American official with years of experience at the State Department.

In addition to his ideology, Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, has deep financial ties with Israeli businessmen.

“This administration, in general, and not just in this case [the Palestinian issue], is strong on ideology and personal financial interests and has disrespected traditional institutions of government, especially the State Department,” Khoury told Gulf News in an exclusive interview.

In the past, experienced and professional American Jewish peace negotiators were sent to play the role of peace brokers in the complicated Palestinian-Israeli talks under presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

The envoys, namely, Dennis Ross, Martin Indyk, Aaron David Miller and James Steinberg, were “receptive” to the extent that Palestinians thought at one point that it was a trick. Some Arab media reports described them as ‘four Rabbis running the US foreign policy’.

“But eventually [Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas (and, before him, Yasser Arafat), concluded that there was an advantage to dealing with diplomats who went to great lengths to display their objectivity,” wrote American-Israeli writer Zev Chafets in an opinion piece published by Bloomberg.

This administration, in general, and not just in this case [the Palestinian issue], is strong on ideology and personal financial interests and has disrespected traditional institutions of government, especially the State Department,”
- Nabil Khoury | Non-resident senior fellow at Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Centre for the Middle East


However, when Abbas met with Kushner and Greenblatt, one senior Palestinian official complained “the envoys sounded like [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s advisers, not fair minded arbiters”.

The peace talks, launched in Madrid in 1991, moved after few rounds from Europe to Washington.

Later, US administrations appointed envoys to the peace talks with the aim of reaching a final solution.

Though the past 26 years of intermittent peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis produced several agreements, their implementation faced several obstacles.

Each side accuses the other of putting obstacles in the way of peace.

Palestinians also accused Washington of being biased towards Israel.

In 2011, George Mitchell, the former senator who brokered peace in Northern Ireland, resigned from his position as a peace envoy amid growing frustration over the impasse in talks.

He was appointed on Obama’s second day in office in 2009.

In his resignation letter, Mitchell said he had agreed to do what the president described as “the toughest job imaginable” for only two years.

Reports said Mitchell quit after his efforts to convince Israel to freeze its colony-building activities in the West Bank failed.

Today, political analysts believe, finding a solution to the Palestinian question seems even more distant than before, especially with the decisions taken by the current US administration.

Trump announced on December 6 that he was recognising occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, disregarding nearly 70 years of US policy of seeing the status of occupied Jerusalem as part of a solution between Israelis and Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

“Trump doesn’t understand the complications and the details needed to work out an agreement. The Middle East peace process is all about details, and he has shown very little interest in details … he thinks as long as Israel is happy, he is likely to achieve peace,” said Khoury.

Trump’s appointments are based on family and friendships, regardless of the experience, Khoury added.

Other analysts agreed.

“In the past, the Arab-Israeli conflict guided by internal US politics but now it is about family politics,” said Ghassan Al Khatib, a former Palestinian information minister and currently a political scientist at West-Bank-based Beir Zeit University.

He was referring to how issues related to the Palestinian question, such as the fate of occupied East Jerusalem and the borders of Israel, were part of the US election campaigns.

Today, the issues are with people from the inner circle of the US president.

“It is not logical to hold Kushner and [David] Freedman soley responsible for the deterioration [in peace efforts],” said Al Khatib in an interview with Gulf News.

“He who appointed them should be held responsible,” he said of Trump, “because when he picked the two men, he knew where he was heading, and accordingly he selected the people who would agree with his policies… to draw solutions compatible with his convictions,” Khatib said.

Trump also appointed David Freedman as US Ambassador to Israel—a man who has openly given financial support to Jewish colonies in the West Bank.

The Palestinians have refused to meet with him and say Trump to blame the Palestinians for refusing to negotiate is like the pot calling the kettle black.

http://gulfnews.com/news/mena/pales...terests-guide-trump-s-israel-policy-1.2157108

 

[Khafee]

After $65M U.S. aid cut, UNRWA launches global fundraising effort
By Susan McFarland
Jan. 17, 2018

(UPI) -- The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees has launched an international fundraising campaign to make up for millions in lost aid that was to come from the United States.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency on Wednesday sent a plea to other members of the world body to take a stand and join the UNRWA in showing Palestine refugees "their rights and future matter."

The UNRWA statement also called on host countries and "people of good will in every corner of the globe" to respond to this crisis.

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday said it will withhold more than half of its funding to the UNRWA this year, sending $65 million instead of its previously planned $125 million.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the other half of the funding is being held due to concerns about how the UNRWA is managed. The additional funding will be dependent on changes made at the agency, she said.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley previously said the United States would freeze UNRWA funding unless Palestinians returned to negotiations with Israel after President Donald Trump moved to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl said the reduced funding will have a negative impact on about 525,000 children in UNRWA schools, as well as emergency food assistance and healthcare to millions of Palestine refugees.

"At stake is the dignity and human security of millions of Palestine refugees, in need of emergency food assistance ... At stake is the access of refugees to primary health care, including pre-natal care and other life-saving services. At stake are the rights and dignity of an entire community," Krähenbühl said.

The statement said the reduced contribution also will impact regional security "at a time when the Middle East faces multiple risks and threats, notably that of further radicalization."

In the past, the United States contributed $364 million annually in two installments to the agency, which provides healthcare and social services to Palestinians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and neighboring countries.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-...lobal-fundraising-effort/3601516190326/?nll=1

 

[Lieutenant]

As far as I know the US can not cut those fund. It will be a violation to Oslo accords. Palestine can then rip the agreement apart and here you go start from scratch.

 

[Khafee]

Palestinian Central Council votes to end recognition of Israel
By Brooks Hays
Jan. 15, 2018

(UPI) -- The Palestinian Central Council has voted to end Palestine's recognition of Israel until Israel recognizes the Palestinian state. The central council also voted to cease security cooperation with Israel.

Members of the Palestine Liberation Organization's policy body met in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday to discuss how to respond to actions taken by Israel and the United States.

PLO leaders are upset with President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's official capital.

On Monday, the central council issued a statement backing Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas, who blamed Trump and Israel for undermining the peace process. Abbas also accused Trump of threatening to close the PLO's diplomatic outposts in Washington, D.C.

"Today is the day that the Oslo Accords end. Israel killed them," Abbas said on Sunday, according to Haaretz. "We are an authority without any authority, and an occupation without any cost. Trump threatens to cut funding to the authority because negotiations have failed. When the hell did negotiations start?!"

The central council's latest statement echoed the speech made by Abbas over the weekend. The body said Trump and the United States could no longer serve as the mediator of peace negotiations between Palestine and Israel.

"He's taken us hundreds of miles back," Qais Abd al-Karim, a Palestinian official who attended Monday's meeting, told the Washington Post. "The Trump decision on Jerusalem completely destroyed the immediate prospects of any peace process."

The council also called for the nonviolent protest of Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands to continue with the financial and political support of other Arab nations.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-...nd-recognition-of-Israel/3081516062262/?nll=1

 

[Khafee]

As far as I know the US can not cut those fund. It will be a violation to Oslo accords. Palestine can then rip the agreement apart and here you go start from scratch.

Abbas says Israel 'killed' Oslo Accords
By Ray Downs
Jan. 14, 2018

(UPI) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday blamed Israel for ruining the ongoing Oslo Accords and said President Donald Trump's handling of the peace talks was a "slap in the face" to Palestinians.

"Today is the day that the Oslo Accords end. Israel killed them," Abbas said in Ramallah, according to Haaretz. "We are an authority without any authority, and an occupation without any cost. Trump threatens to cut funding to the authority because negotiations have failed. When the hell did negotiations start?!"

Abbas went on to say that any future negotiations would require an international committee in the framework of an international conference to minimize U.S. influence.

"We will not accept for the U.S. to be a mediator, because after what they have done to us -- a believer shall not be stung twice in the same place," Abbas said, according to The New York Times.

Abbas also criticized U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who he described as "an offensive human being, and I will not agree to meet with him anywhere," and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who he said "threatens to hit people who hurt Israel with the heel of her shoe."

As the United States, Isrrael and Palestine continue talks, details on formal deals have not been released.

However, The New York Times reported earlier that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman may have attempted to offer Abbas a deal that would likely not be popular among Palestinians because they would not be given East Jerusalem for their capital Palestinian refugees and their descendants wold not be given the right to return.

Abbas referenced the deal and said that the Palestinian leadership had been offered Abu Dis, an East Jerusalem neighborhood they already control, as a potential capital.

"If we lose Jerusalem, what do you want to do? Have a state with Abu Dis as its capital? This is what they're offering now: Abu Dis," Abbas said.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-...o-Accords/6841515989758/?st_rec=3081516062262