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WASHINGTON – The US Agency for International Development will lay off more than half of its employees in the West Bank and Gaza in the coming weeks, with the intention of completely shutting down its facilities by next year.
According to the Haaretz daily, the US State Department told USAID, one of the largest humanitarian organizations operating in the Middle East, that it will have to provide from here December a list of 60% of its employees in the West Bank and Gaza that can be released as the first step of closing operations.
A Trump administration official contacted by the Times of Israel has neither confirmed nor denied this development.
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"We will evaluate the future badistance of the United States in the West Bank and Gaza in a global context, focusing on areas where we can best defend US national interests and guarantee value to US taxpayers." "said a state department official. "No decision has been made regarding the future size of the USAID mission of the Jerusalem embbady."
USAID officials told Haaretz that the policy of stopping funding was an attempt to put pressure on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, so that he would be safe. 39, engages in peace talks with Israel organized by Trump.
In July and August, US President Donald Trump ordered a series of cuts to Palestinian aid initiatives supported by the United States, including nearly $ 200 million that the United States planned to devote to humanitarian programs.
"We pay Palestinians HUNDRED DOLLARS a year and have no appreciation or respect. They do not even want to negotiate a long-awaited peace treaty with Israel, "Trump tweeted at the time. "We removed Jerusalem, the most difficult part of the negotiations, but Israel, for that, should have paid more. But as Palestinians no longer want to talk about peace, why should we pay them these huge future payments? "
… Treaty of peace with Israel. We took Jerusalem off the table, the most difficult part of the negotiation, but Israel, for that, should have paid more. But while the Palestinians no longer want to talk about peace, why should we pay them these huge future payments?
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018
Since the president officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last year and moved the Tel Aviv embbady in Tel Aviv, the Palestinians refused to dialogue with the White House, saying that They had lost their ability to act as honest mediators in the negotiations.
Palestinian Authority officials were provocative when Washington announced cuts in funding.
"The US administration demonstrates the use of cheap blackmail as a political tool," said Hanan Ashrawi at the time. "The Palestinian people and its leaders will not be intimidated and will not give in to coercion".
A Palestinian student pbades by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and USAID, a humanitarian aid, on June 6, 2010 in the Shatie refugee camp in Gaza City. (AP Photo / Lefteris Pitarakis, File)
USAID is responsible for providing civil badistance to developing countries around the world. Its offices in the West Bank and Gaza opened in the 1990s, after the Oslo Peace Accords, to help Palestinians gain access to safe drinking water, health programs and education. educational programs. It has spent about $ 5.5 billion in the Palestinian territories for various construction projects, including school construction.
The decision laid off the vast majority of its staff and eventually closed the USAID offices was criticized by leftist advocacy groups in the United States.
J Street, the liberal Jewish organization, said in a statement that the initiative was "a cruel and dangerous act designed to promote the radical program of the Israeli right.
"These measures seem to have been tailored to exacerbate suffering, destroy confidence and hinder the search for peace," added the official. "Any so-called" peace plan "presented by the administration as a result of these measures will be an absolute sham."
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