‘Al-Quds Is Not For Sale’: Palestine to Trump after Threats to Cut $300mn Aid

Local Editor

A spokesperson for President of the Palestinian Authority [PA] Mahmoud Abbas said that al-Quds is not for sale, responding to a threat by US President Donald Trump to cut annual aid to the PA.

Trump's threat came in a tweet on Tuesday, which said the US could cut its $300 million annual aid to Palestinians because it gets "no appreciation or respect" in return.

"They don't even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with ‘Israel'... with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?" it read.

Trump's remark was widely condemned by the Palestinian side, which is angry over his decision to recognize occupied al-Quds as the so-called capital of the Zionist entity.

‘Israel' annexed the eastern part of the occupied city after capturing it during the 1967 war, but the Zionist move was rejected by the world community until 2017.

"Al-Quds is not for sale, neither for gold nor for silver," Nabil Abu Rdainah said on Wednesday. He added: "If the United States is keen about peace and about its interests, it must abide by that." Hanan Ashrawi, a senior executive of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said that Palestinians "will not be blackmailed."

For their part, some ‘Israeli' officials welcomed Trump's aid cut plan, saying it put due pressure on the Palestinians.

Earlier the US announced its plan to cut funding to various UN bodies for an alleged anti-‘Israeli' bias and said it would cut aid to nations, which voted for a non-binding UN Assembly resolution, which condemned US recognition of al-Quds as so-called ‘Israeli' capital.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team