Trump Tweets Threat to Cut Off U.S. Aid to Palestinian Authority

• January 02 2018
• Jennifer Jacobs

President Donald Trump threatened to cut off U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority after its leaders said the president’s unilateral decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel disqualified America as a Middle East peace mediator.

President Donald Trump threatened to cut off U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority after its leaders said the president’s unilateral decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel disqualified America as a Middle East peace mediator.

Trump said in a series of tweets Tuesday that U.S. pays “the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year” yet gets “no appreciation or respect.” He added that “with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”

The U.S. disbursed about $616 million in foreign aid for the Palestinian Authority in 2016, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development’s website. That funding included support for debt payments, water supply and sanitation and health projects, according to the agency.

Palestinian leaders said Trump’s decision to declare Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel and move the U.S. embassy there disqualified the U.S. from being a mediator in any Israel-Palestinian negotiations.

The international community also condemned Trump’s decision, with the United Nations General Assembly voting 128-9 to back a resolution critical of the move. Palestinians consider East Jerusalem to be their capital and any final decision about the city has long been considered something to be worked out in joint peace talks.