Trump Regime Freezes All Aid to Palestinians
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Throughout Israel’s history, it’s had one-sided support from Washington – Palestinian rights, needs and welfare ignored, things worse than ever today.
Trump exceeds the ruthlessness of his predecessors on this and most other issues – “zero tolerance” on his watch extending far beyond his racist immigration policy and harshness toward Palestinians.
Last year, he withheld $65 million of a $125 million payment to UNWRA, the agency providing humanitarian aid to millions Palestinian refugees – imposing unlawful collective punishment on them, tweeting:
“(W)e pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect.”
“They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with Israel…(W)ith the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”
Washington and Israel want unconditional Palestinian surrender, subjugation under Tel Aviv’s repressive boot, not peace both countries abhor.
On Tuesday, i24NEWS said the Trump regime “quietly frozen its aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) pending review.”
The action was taken three months after the so-called Taylor Force Act rider to an omnibus spending bill was enacted into law to avoid a government shutdown.
Taylor Force was a US army veteran killed while visiting Israel – daily violence instigated in the territories because of its state terror, wrongfully blamed on Palestinians.
Legislation in Force’s name is one of countless examples of US indifference to their suffering. The family of his alleged attacker receives PLO financial aid, uninvolved in his death.
Taylor Force legislation was enacted to cut it off for all families of Palestinians accused of crimes against Israelis, most often holding them responsible for Israeli high crimes committed against them.
The vast majority of incarcerated Palestinians are political prisoners, guilty of praying to the wrong god, wanting to live free on their own land, opposing oppressive occupation harshness, wanting Israeli officials held accountable for their high crimes.
Taylor Force legislation calls for withholding aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) unless it meets four unacceptable conditions:
— terminating financial aid to families of Palestinians (unjustly) called terrorists by Israel;
— revoking laws authorizing the aid;
— taking “credible steps” to end (justifiable Palestinian resistance against a ruthless occupier falsely called) terrorism; and
— investigating alleged Palestinian violence and publicly condemning it.
Not a word in Taylor Force legislation about horrific Israeli state terror, preemptive wars of aggression at its discretion, occupation harshness, unlawful settlement construction, land theft and displacement, torture as official policy, and overall persecution of a long-beleaguered people.
According to a US official, “(w)hile the Taylor Force Act restricts aid to the Palestinian Authority, with very limited exceptions, the Palestinian Authority has the ability to ease those restrictions by ending the abhorrent policy of inciting violence against Americans and Israelis through payments to terrorists and their families.”
The abhorrent statement reflects longstanding US and Israeli policy of blaming innocent victims for crimes committed against them – the Trump regime more hostile to Palestinian rights than his predecessors.
US funds to the PA were suspended at end of May, perhaps to stay frozen indefinitely.
The freeze contrasts with billions of dollars in military aid and much more given Israel annually – so it can ruthlessly brutalize Palestinians, terrorize neighboring countries at its discretion, and govern extrajudicially without accountability.
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