The Trump administration has decided to cut more than $200 million in bilateral aid to the Palestinians, following a review of the funding for projects in the West Bank and Gaza, the State Department said Friday.

The department notified Congress of the decision in a brief, three-paragraph notice sent first to lawmakers and then to reporters. It said the administration will redirect the money to "high priority projects elsewhere."

The move comes as President Donald Trump and his Middle East pointmen, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, staff up their office to prepare for the rollout of a much-vaunted but as yet unclear peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians.

"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. "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."

"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 notice said, without providing additional details.

One main issue the U.S. has had with support for the Palestinian Authority had been its stipends paid to the families of Palestinians killed, injured or jailed for attacks on Israel. Israel and the Trump administration, have repeatedly demanded that those payments from a so-called "martyrs' fund" be halted because they encourage terrorism. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has refused to do so.

The Palestine Liberation Organization quickly denounced the decision, calling it "the use of cheap blackmail as a political tool. The Palestinian people and leadership will not be intimidated and will not succumb to coercion."

"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."

The notice did not give an exact amount of the funds to be cut, but said they had been approved in 2017 as part of a $230.1 million package in economic support funds for the Palestinians.

One official said the specific amount had not yet been determined because $25 million in planned 2017 funding for the East Jerusalem Hospital Network, which provides health care to Palestinians, remains on hold and under review. All or part of that could still be released or reprogrammed, the official said.

The U.S. had planned to give the Palestinians $251 million for good governance, health, education and funding for civil society in the current 2018 budget year that ends on Sept.30. But with just over a month to go before that money must be used, reprogrammed to other areas or returned to Treasury, less than half has actually been spent.

Earlier this month, the department had released about $60 million of the 2018 money for security projects that encourage cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Israel and Jordan, in particular, had lobbied for the security assistance to be continued.

The loss of the assistance is almost certain to further provoke the Palestinians against the Trump peace plan. The Palestinian leadership has been openly hostile to any proposal from the administration, citing what it says is a pro-Israel bias, notably after Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December and moved the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv in May. The Palestinian Authority and Abbas broke off contact with the U.S. after the Jerusalem announcement.

The announcement does not include some $65 million in frozen U.S. funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which provides services to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan and Lebanon. However, the Trump administration is extremely skeptical of UNRWA and that money is also likely to be reprogrammed, according to officials.

Friday's decision follows a similar decision last week in which the State Department announced that it was redirecting $230 million dollars in aid that had been planned for stabilization programs in liberated areas of Syria. In that case, however, the department said the loss of U.S. funding would be more than offset by other nations, including Saudi Arabia, which announced a $150 million contribution for Syria stabilization just hours before the American announcement.</s>Washington: United States (US) president Donald Trump has ordered the state department to withdraw $200 million-worth aid which was previously planned for West Bank and Gaza.

"At the direction of the President, we will redirect more than $200 million in FY 2017 Economic Support Funds originally planned for programs in the West Bank and Gaza. Those funds will now address high-priority projects elsewhere," a senior state department official told CNN.

The decision to withdraw the aid comes after Trump ordered a review of "US assistance to the Palestinian Authority and in the West Bank and Gaza to ensure these funds are spent in accordance with US national interests and provide value to the US taxpayer."

Condemning the decision, Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi said the US administration was "demonstrating the use of cheap blackmail as a political tool," and added that the Palestinian leadership would not be intimidated by the same.

"There is no glory in constantly bullying and punishing a people under occupation. The US 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," Ashrawi said.</s>According to CNN, President Trump ordered the State Department to revoke over $200 million in economic aid to Palestine on Friday following a department-wide review examining whether or not the funding was in the American taxpayers’ best interests.

A senior official from the State Department claimed that the economic aid, that was later withdrawn, was initially intended to help fund programs in the the West Bank and Gaza.

“At the direction of the President, we will redirect more than $200 million in FY2017 Economic Support Funds originally planned for programs in the West Bank and Gaza,” the official said. “Those funds will now address high-priority projects elsewhere.” In addition to sending funds to help provide and maintain local law enforcement in Palestine, many cultural and educational programs are created and kept afloat through the Middle East Partnership Initiative.

This announcement comes after the president instructed the State Department to conduct a review to ensure that U.S. assistance to Palestine corresponds with America’s own national interests.

“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,” according to a notice relayed from the State Department.

While the decision is widely supported by the Trump administration, congressional Democrats have already voiced their opposition to the move, claiming that it would only cause further damage to the growing conflict between Israel and Palestine. The vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Patrick Leahy, asserted that, after well over a year and a half in office, President Trump has failed “to announce anything remotely resembling a coherent policy to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

“Inhabitants of Gaza are already suffering severe hardships under the tyranny of Hamas and border restrictions imposed by Israel,” Leahy continued. “It is the Palestinian people, virtual prisoners in an increasingly volatile conflict, who will most directly suffer the consequences of this callous and ill-advised attempt to respond to Israel’s security concerns.”

An executive committee member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hanan Ashrawi, also denounced President Trump’s order to withdraw funds from the Palestinian territories of both the West Bank and Gaza.

“The U.S. administration is demonstrating the use of cheap blackmail as a political tool. The Palestinian people and leadership will not be intimidated and will not succumb to coercion,” Ashwari said, in a statement released to CNN.

“There is no glory in constantly bullying and punishing a people under occupation,” Ashrawi continued, adding that the United States “has already demonstrated meanness of spirit in its collusion with the Israeli occupation…now it is exercising economic meanness by punishing the Palestinian victims of this occupation.”</s>The United States is cutting more than $200 million in aid to the Palestinians, the State Department said on Friday, amid a deteriorating relationship with the Palestinian leadership.

A senior State Department official said without elaborating that the funds, originally planned for programs in the West Bank and Gaza, would address "high-priority projects elsewhere."

"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 official said in a statement.

"As a result of that review, at the direction of the president, we will redirect more than $200 million in FY2017 Economic Support Funds originally planned for programs in the West Bank and Gaza."

Asked where the money would be redirected and whether it would go to other Palestinian projects, another State Department official said: "We will work with Congress to redirect these funds to other policy priorities."

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

The announcement came at a time when the Palestinian leadership has angered the White House by boycotting its peace efforts since President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moved the embassy there, reversing decades of U.S. policy.

The status of Jerusalem - home to sites holy to the Muslim, Jewish and Christian religions - is one of the biggest obstacles to any peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

Palestinians claim East Jerusalem for the capital of an independent state they seek. Israel says Jerusalem is its eternal and indivisible capital.

Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner is leading an effort to craft a peace plan meant to launch negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians to end a decades-long conflict. A decision on when the initiative would be rolled out has not yet been made.

The State Department cited the Islamist militant group Hamas' control of Gaza as part of its justification for reallocating the funds. The United States and Israel designate Hamas as a terrorist group.

The decision is almost certain to exacerbate the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. More than 2 million Palestinians are packed into the Gaza Strip, which suffers deep economic hardship.

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi accused the Trump administration of using "cheap blackmail as a political tool."

"The Palestinian people and leadership will not be intimidated and will not succumb to coercion," she said.

Ambassador Husam Zomlot, head of the PLO General Delegation to the United States, said in a statement: "Weaponizing humanitarian and developmental aid as political blackmail does not work."

The United States had in January announced it would withhold $65 million of $125 million that it had planned to send to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from U.N. states, with the United states as the largest contributor.

UNRWA and the Palestinians have warned that cuts could exacerbate hardship in Gaza, an enclave that has been under Israeli and Egypt blockades designed to isolate its Islamist Hamas rulers.

U.S. National Security adviser John Bolton told Reuters this week that UNRWA was "a failed mechanism" that violated standard international law on the status of refugees.

UNRWA was founded in 1949 after the first Arab-Israel war, which led to 700,000 Palestinians being forced to leave their homes or flee. It helps around 5 million Palestinian refugees, a figure that includes descendants of those displaced by the fighting

Jordan, which hosts the largest number of Palestinian refugees in the Middle East outside Palestinian territories, warned this month that a severe financial shortfall facing UNRWA could have a "catastrophic" impact on the lives of millions of refugees in the region.

U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, criticized the Trump administration's decision.

"Inhabitants of Gaza are already suffering severe hardships under the tyranny of Hamas and border restrictions imposed by Israel. It is the Palestinian people, virtual prisoners in an increasingly volatile conflict, who will most directly suffer the consequences of this callous and ill-advised attempt to respond to Israel's security concerns."</s>The United States has cut more than $200 million (approximately Rs 1,400 crore) in aid to Palestinian Authority, just months after it reduced its contribution to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, Al Jazeera reported on Saturday.

An unidentified senior official of the US State Department said the decision to cut the aid was taken after a review of US assistance to the Palestinian Authority and “at the direction of the president”.

The funds, which were originally planned for programmes in West Bank and Gaza, would be redirected to “high-priority projects elsewhere”, the official said. “We have undertaken a review of US assistance to the Palestinian Authority and in the West Bank and Gaza to ensure these funds are spent in accordance with US national interests and provide value to the US taxpayer,” the official said in a statement, according to Reuters.

The official said the decision also considered “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”.

“We will work with Congress to redirect these funds to other policy priorities,” another State department official said.

The Palestine Liberation Organization termed the US move as the use of “cheap blackmail” as a political tool. “The rights of the Palestinian people are not for sale,” Al Jazeera quoted a statement by PLO executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi. “The Palestinian people and leadership will not be intimidated and will not succumb to coercion.”

“The US 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,” Ashrawi said.

The relationship between the US and the Palestinian leadership has deteriorated since Palestinians boycotted US peace efforts following the relocation of the US Embassy in Israel’s Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Over 50 people were killed in clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian protestors along the Gaza border after the relocation.</s>'The rights of the Palestinian people are not for sale,' says a member of PLO's executive committee

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories – US President Donald Trump's administration is resorting to "cheap blackmail" against the Palestinians with its decision to cut more than $200 million in aid for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a senior Palestinian official said Saturday.

A State Department official said Friday that the decision, made "at the direction of the president," came after a review of aid programs to the Palestinian territories. The funding would "now address high-priority projects elsewhere."

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) executive committee, hit back, saying: "The US administration is demonstrating the use of cheap blackmail as a political tool.

"The Palestinian people and leadership will not be intimidated and will not succumb to coercion. The rights of the Palestinian people are not for sale," Ashrawi countered.

In January, the United States had already made drastic cuts to its contribution to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA.

Relations between the US administration and the Palestinian Authority took a nosedive after Trump last December decided to recognize the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The Palestinians have suspended contacts with Washington and consider that it can no longer be an impartial mediator in the Middle East peace process.

After the latest blow, Ashrawi insisted that the Palestinians, living under Israeli occupation, would not be coerced into surrendering their rights.

"There is no glory in constantly bullying and punishing a people under occupation," she wrote in a statement.

"The US 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."

In an initial reaction on Friday, the PLO's representative in Washington, Husam Zomlot, said the US administration was "dismantling decades of US vision and engagement in Palestine".

"After Jerusalem and UNRWA, this is another confirmation of abandoning the two-state solution and fully embracing (Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin) Netanyahu's anti-peace agenda," he said.

The decision to cut Palestinian funding comes amid a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which has seen a surge of violence since Palestinian protests erupted in March.

At least 172 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, the vast majority of them during demonstrations near the border. – Rappler.com</s>WASHINGTON—The U.S. has decided to cut more than $200 million in aid to the Palestinians following a review ordered by the Trump administration, U.S. officials said Friday.

A State Department official said the funds earmarked for the West Bank and Gaza would be redirected to “high-priority projects elsewhere.”</s>The US State department has said the Trump administration has decided to cut more than $200 million in bilateral aid to the Palestinians, following a review of the funding for projects in the West Bank and Gaza.

In a short notice sent to lawmakers on Friday, it said the administration will redirect the money to "high-priority projects elsewhere."

"At the direction of President Trump, we have undertaken a review of US assistance to the Palestinian Authority and in the West Bank and Gaza to ensure these funds are spent in accordance with US national interests and provide value to the US taxpayer," the department said.

The notice did not provide an exact amount of the funds to be cut.

The cuts come just as President Donald Trump and his Middle East point men, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, prepare to present a long-awaited but as yet unclear peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians.

The US had initially planned to give the Palestinians $251 million for good governance, health, education and funding for civil society in the current 2018 budget year that ends on September 30.

Read more: Gaza feels bite of US cuts to Palestinian aid

The Palestine Liberation Organization was quick to denounce the decision. "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 US 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."

Loss of the funds is almost certain to further provoke the Palestinians and set them against the Trump peace plan. The Palestinian leadership has been openly hostile to any proposal from the administration, citing what it says is a pro-Israel bias. Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December, and the US moved its embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv in May.

The Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, broke off contact with the US after the Jerusalem announcement.

Friday's move to cut aid does not take into account some $65 million in frozen US funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which provides services to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan and Lebanon. But officials have said the Trump administration is extremely skeptical of UNRWA, and said the money is also likely to be redirected.

The funding decision comes after a similar decision last week in which the State Department announced it was going to redirect $230 million in aid that had been planned for stabilization programs in liberated areas of Syria.

In that case, however, the department said the loss of US funding would be more than offset by other nations, including Saudi Arabia, which announced a $150 million contribution for Syria stabilization just hours before the American announcement.

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.</s>The United States, a major ally of Israel, has cut more than $200m in economic aid to Palestinians, in a move that comes months after also drastically cutting its contribution to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

A senior US official said on Friday that President Donald Trump had ordered the State Department to “redirect” the funding for programmes in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip to unspecified “high-priority projects elsewhere”.

The official added that the decision took 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 Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) quickly denounced the US move, calling it “the use of cheap blackmail as a political tool. The Palestinian people and leadership will not be intimidated and will not succumb to coercion.”

“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 US 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.”

The decision to cut Palestinian funding comes amid a severe humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, where more than 160 Palestinians protesting for their right to return to the areas from which they were forcibly expelled from in 1948 have been killed by Israeli gunfire since March 30 during weeks-long demonstrations near the fence with Israel.

Officials in the Gaza Strip, which has been administered by Hamas since 2007, have previously blasted the US for its support to Israel, saying that Washington has long lost its regional credibility.

The US had planned to give the Palestinians $251m for good governance, health, education and funding for civil society in the current 2018 budget year that ends on September 30.

Washington gives Israel annual military aid of $3.1bn. Next year, that figure will increase to $3.8bn under a 10-year deal agreed by Barack Obama shortly before he stepped down as US president.</s>RAMALLAH: US President Donald Trump's administration is resorting to "cheap blackmail" against the Palestinians, revealing its true intentions by cutting more than US$200 million in aid for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, senior Palestinian officials said Saturday.

A State Department official said on Friday that the decision, made "at the direction of the president", came after a review of aid programmes to the Palestinian territories.

The funding would "now address high-priority projects elsewhere", it added.

Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), said the decision amounts to an "admission of the true intentions behind American aid policy of intervening in the internal affairs of other peoples".

US aid "is not a gift to our people but a duty of the international community to take responsibility for the continuation of Israeli occupation, preventing the development of the Palestinian economy and society," he said.

By slashing its aid to the Palestinians, the US "once again reaffirms its disregard for its international commitments", Erekat added.

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO's executive committee, accused the US of using "cheap blackmail as a political tool".

"The Palestinian people and leadership will not be intimidated and will not succumb to coercion. The rights of the Palestinian people are not for sale," she said.

The United States had already made drastic cuts to its contribution to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in January.

Relations between the US administration and the Palestinian Authority took a nosedive after Trump in December decided to recognise the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The Palestinians have suspended contacts with Washington and believe it can no longer be an impartial mediator in the Middle East peace process.

After the latest blow, Ashrawi insisted that Palestinians living under Israeli occupation would not be coerced into surrendering their rights.

"There is no glory in constantly bullying and punishing a people under occupation," she said in a statement.

"The US administration has already demonstrated meanness of spirit in its collusion with the Israeli occupation and its theft of land and resources," she said.

"Now it is exercising economic meanness by punishing the Palestinian victims of this occupation."

The Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, also denounced the aid cut.

Facing "the American policy of blackmail" necessitated "unifying the Palestinian ranks", spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told AFP.

In an initial reaction on Friday, the PLO's representative in Washington, Husam Zomlot, told the US administration was "dismantling decades of US vision and engagement in Palestine".

He said Friday's move was "another confirmation" that Washington was "abandoning the two-state solution and fully embracing (Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin) Netanyahu's anti-peace agenda."

The decision to cut Palestinian funding comes as a humanitarian crisis deepens in Gaza, which has seen a surge of violence since Palestinian protests erupted in March.

At least 172 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, the vast majority of them during demonstrations near the border.
The United States Department of State redirects more than $200 million in aid for the Palestinian National Authority to "high priority projects elsewhere". The Palestine Liberation Organization denounces the "use of cheap blackmail as a political tool".