Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s announcement this afternoon that the Trump administration no longer regards West Bank and East Jerusalem settlements as illegal under international law, thereby repudiating global opinion and 50 years of U.S. policy, was widely condemned, including by presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The AP laid the decision at the feet of Sheldon Adelson, Trump’s biggest donor.
US officials are capitalizing off of a scandal surrounding the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees after an ethics report accusing organizational leadership of abuse of power and creating a toxic work environment was leaked to the media. “This is exactly why we stopped their funding,” Trump’s former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said over Twitter.
The US blocked on Wednesday an attempt by United Nations member states to get the UN Security Council to formally condemn Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes in the occupied East Jeruslaem town of Sur Bahir earlier this week.
Donald Trump’s supposed “deal of the century”, offering the Palestinians economic bribes in return for political submission, is the endgame of western peace-making, the real goal of which has been failure, not success.
After US Ambassador David Friedman said Israel has a right to annex parts of the West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it may file a complaint with the International Criminal Court. “What reasoning could justify Friedman’s logic? International law prohibits the annexation of a land by force,” it said.
Twenty-five years ago James Zogby led the Clinton White House effort to build economic growth for the Palestinians as part of Oslo accords. He says the project failed –as the Bahrain economic conference organized by the Trump administration will — because Palestinians never gained the political freedom, including an end to occupation, that is a prerequisite to business growth.
The buzz surrounding President Trump’s “deal of the century” is reaching a fever pitch. With countless speculations as to what the plan will include and very little confirmation from the administration, not much is actually known about the elusive plan. What we do know, is Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, a staunch supporter of Israel and the Netanyahu government, plans to emphasize Israeli “security” and “economic opportunities” for Palestinians. With no mention so far of Palestinian sovereignty and statehood, we asked Palestinians in the West Bank what they think of the peace proposal and its impending release.
In the latest blow dealt by the American government to the Palestinians, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which was responsible for millions of dollars of aid projects in the occupied Palestinian territory, will be laying off some 85% of its local staff in the coming weeks. There has been speculation that the Trump administration ordered the job cuts as part of the lead up to unveiling its peace plan, which is set to be released in the coming months.
The Mueller Report was released today, and one section reveals that “multiple members” of the Trump transition team, led by Jared Kushner, the President’s son-in-law, sought to undermine the Obama White House’s decision to allow the passage of a UN Security Council resolution in December 2016 that was sharply critical of Israeli settlements.
After 24 years the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s diplomatic mission in Washington DC closed yesterday, following orders from the Trump administration to shutter their operations in the U.S.