The Trump administration is cutting more than $200 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority, the State Department said Friday.
“At the direction of President Trump, we have undertaken a review of U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority and in the West Bank and Gaza to ensure these funds are spent in accordance with U.S. national interests and provide value to the U.S. taxpayer,” the department said, according to the Associated Press. “As a result of that review, at the direction of the president, we will redirect more than $200 million … originally planned for programs in the West Bank and Gaza.”
The Trump administration cited Hamas control of the Gaza Strip as reason for its decision.
“This decision 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 announcement said.
The U.S. has provided support to the Palestinian Authority to help it provide law enforcement and maintain the rule of law, in addition to funding for “programs implemented by the Middle East Partnership Initiative as well as educational and cultural programming through the US Consulate General in Jerusalem,” the consulate’s website says.
The website notes that “while funding levels change from year to year, the U.S. Government will remain active in each of these fields.”
The Palestine Liberation Organization denounced the decision, calling it “cheap blackmail.”
“The rights of the Palestinian people are not for sale,” PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi said in a statement. “There is no glory in constantly bullying and punishing a people under occupation. The U.S. 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.”
