US’ Blackmail: Trump Cuts $200m in Aid to Gaza, WB

Local Editor

The United States announced Friday that it will slash over $200 million in economic aid to the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank.

The move came after Congress passed the Taylor Force Act, which aimed to force the PA to terminate its “pay-for-slay” policies of paying stipends to Palestinian prisoners in “Israeli” jails and to the families of martyrs.

A senior State Department official said the decision, made "at the direction of the president," was the result of a review into aid programs to the Palestinian territories.

The move "takes into account the challenges the international community faces in providing assistance in Gaza, where Hamas control endangers the lives of Gaza's citizens and degrades an already dire humanitarian and economic situation," the official claimed.

The official said the money would be put into "high-priority projects elsewhere."

"The US administration is demonstrating the use of cheap blackmail as a political tool," PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi said in response. "The Palestinian people and leadership will not be intimidated and will not succumb to coercion. The rights of the Palestinian people are not for sale."

"There is no glory in constantly bullying and punishing a people under occupation. The US administration has already demonstrated meanness of spirit in its collusion with the Israeli occupation and its theft of land and resources; now it is exercising economic meanness by punishing the Palestinian victims of this occupation."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team