RAMALLAH: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s office said on Wednesdaythat Jerusalem is “not for sale” after the United States (US) PresidentDonald Trump threatened to cut annual aid of more than $300 million in anattempt to force them to come to the negotiating table.
“Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the state of Palestine and it is notfor sale for gold or billions,” Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP,referring to Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The December 6 declaration led Abbas to say the US could no longer play anyrole in the Middle East peace process.
“We are not against going back to negotiations, but (these should be) basedon international laws and resolutions that have recognised an independentPalestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital,” Abu Rudeina said.
Trump on Tuesday tweeted: “We pay the Palestinians hundreds of millions ofdollars a year and get no appreciation or respect.”
“With the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we makeany of these massive future payments to them?”
It was not immediately clear whether Trump was threatening all of thebudget, worth $319 million in 2016, according to US government figures.
The US has long provided the Palestinian Authority with much-neededbudgetary support and security assistance, as well as an additional $304million for the UN’s programs in the West Bank and Gaza.
Unless Trump follows through on his customary tough talk, the message islikely to be seen as primarily political.
A senior Palestinian official hit back at Trump’s funding threat, sayingthe Palestinians would not be “blackmailed” by Washington.
“We will not be blackmailed,” senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawisaid in a statement. “President Trump has sabotaged our search for peace,freedom and justice. Now he dares to blame the Palestinians for theconsequences of his own irresponsible actions!”
US pressure on Palestine
Trump came to office boasting that he could achieve the “ultimate deal”that secures peace in the Middle East, something that has eluded presidentssince the late 1960s.
For most the last half century the US has been seen as an indispensable ─if sometimes imperfect ─ arbiter of the peace process.
Trump’s actions are likely to cast that further in doubt.
He has heaped pressure on Palestinians to do a deal by threatening to closethe de facto “embassy” in Washington, recognising Israel’s contested claimon Jerusalem and now threatening aid.
Efforts to harness improved Arab-Israeli relations to push a peace dealhave been at least temporarily derailed by his decision to recogniseJerusalem as Israel’s capital, breaking with decades of American policy.
The decision sparked almost universal diplomatic condemnation and deadlyprotests in the Palestinian territories.
It also prompted Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas ─ 82-years-old andfacing the prospect of entering the history books as the leader who “lostJerusalem” ─ to cancel a planned meeting with Vice President Mike Pence.
Christian and Muslim leaders in Egypt took similar steps.
New Israeli law
Pence was forced to delay his December visit to the Middle East until laterthis month, and aides were on Tuesday forced to reject rumours of furtherdelays.
“As we’ve said all along, the vice president is going to the Middle East inJanuary,” said Pence Spokeswoman Alyssa Farah. “We’re finalising detailsand will announce specifics of the full trip in the coming days.”
In another blow to remaining hopes for a two-state solution to theIsraeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel’s parliament on Tuesday gave finalapproval to legislation aimed at making it more difficult for thegovernment to hand the Palestinians parts of Jerusalem under any futurepeace agreement.
Legislators approved the measure 64 to 51.
The new law determines that any ceding of lands considered by Israel to bepart of Jerusalem would necessitate a two-thirds majority vote inparliament — 80 out of 120 members of the Knesset.
It also enables changing the municipal definition of Jerusalem, which meansthat sectors of the city “could be declared separate entities,” a statementfrom parliament read.
Israeli right-wing politicians have spoken of unilaterally breaking offoverwhelmingly Palestinian areas of the city in a bid to increase itsJewish majority.
Israel occupied east Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967. It later annexedeast Jerusalem in a move never recognized by the international community.
It claims all of Jerusalem as its united capital, while the Palestinianssee the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.
The issue is among the most contentious in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.