US Congress blocks $200 Million in aid for Palestinians
01. Oct, 2011
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Palestinian Authority accuses Congress of holding back aid to punish Mahmoud Abbas’ bid for UN statehood
A group of Palestinians rally in New York while President Mahmoud Abbas calls for the UN to formally recognise the Palestinian state. Photograph: Gary Dwight Miller/ Zuma Press/Corbis
The Palestinian Authority has accused the US of “collective punishment”, after the US Congress blocked $200m (£128m) in aid in response to President Mahmoud Abbas’ bid for UN statehood.
The decision to freeze the payments was reportedly made by three congressional committees on 18 August, before Abbas’ planned bid for statehood recognition at the UN the following month.
The funds, intended for food aid, health care, and infrastructure projects, were supposed to have been transferred within the US financial year, which ends today. The Obama administration is reportedly negotiating with congressional leaders to unlock the aid.
“It is another kind of collective punishment which is going to harm the needs of the public without making any positive contribution,” Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib told the Independent.
“It is ironic to be punished for going to the United Nations.”
US Aid has already started scaling back its aid operations in the West Bank and Gaza, and there are fears it may be forced to end all humanitarian work and distribution of financial support to the Palestinian Authority by January.
There are also fears the move could lead to a security crisis in the Palestinian territories.
“Security co-operation with the Palestinians is excellent at the moment and we do not want to jeopardise that,” a senior Israeli military official official told the Independent.
Republican Gary Ackerman, member of the House sub-committee on the Middle East and South Asia, told a meeting of representatives and leaders of Jewish organisations outside the UN headquarters on Monday that “there may need to be a total cut-off of all aid to the Palestinians for pursuing this course of action which is very dangerous and ill advised.”
Former president Bill Clinton recently warned Congress to leave the issue of aid to the Obama administration. He said: “Everybody knows the US Congress is the most pro-Israel parliamentary body in the world. They don’t have to demonstrate that.”
A UN security council panel on admitting new members to the UN met to discuss the Palestinian bid for the first time on Friday. After the meeting, Lebanese UN ambassador Nawaf Salam said the committee unanimously agreed to hold further meetings next week.
- guardian.co.uk, Saturday 1 October 2011 12.09 BST
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This is truly a crime against humanity. Why doesn’t the congress just have the balls to admit we have to do what Israel tells us to do. Is it worth the dollars for a political career to see a people especially the children going hungry & living in squalor. Does Israel have the divine right to oppress an entire people. They say God gave us this land & we are the chosen people. If God really did this He must be wringing His hands and saying I really fucked up.This is not the God I would want to believe in. Again why do not the other rich countries of the middle east help their brothers? Are they beholden to Israel? Or do they not just care? The only thing dangerous about seeking statehood is that Israel & the settlers will try to make the Palestinians life a hell all the shades of the holocaust.Is it worth it Mr. Obama & congress to gain the world & lose your soul? This is not the America I was raised in.
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The US congress should consider diverting the funds to satan’s minions in israel. Let evil show itself in the most open way possible and hasten the inevitable reset of the US and global political systems.
The Palestinians will continue to strengthen their faith in the heavenly Father to see them through, as He always has and will continue to do so.
[Reply]
pete Reply:
October 2nd, 2011 at 10:14 pm
I sure they will divert the funds to Israel. They will need the extra money to put swimming pool in the yard of every settler. Who cares that the Palestinians dont have clean water to drink. Every Israeli deserves a swimming pool & piss on the Palestinian people. If they are luckey,make nice by acting like the slaves & cockroaches born only to serve Israel perhaps they will build them a reservation to stay on. Israel cares about the palestinians. If they are dying of starvation Israel will eat for them. HEIL BIBI
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