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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump has ordered $ 25 million for Palestinian care in East Jerusalem hospitals to be delivered elsewhere as part of a revised aid package. Saturday a head of the state department.
FILE PHOTO – The President of the United States, Donald Trump, goes to Marine One as he leaves the White House in Washington, United States, on September 6, 2018. REUTERS / Chris Wattie
Trump called for a review of US assistance to Palestinians earlier this year to ensure that funds were spent according to national interests and added value to taxpayers.
"As a result of this review, under the leadership of the President, we will re-route approximately $ 25 million originally planned for the East Jerusalem Hospital Network," said the State Department official. "These funds will go to high priority projects elsewhere."
The cut in aid is the latest in a series of Trump administration actions that have alienated the Palestinians, including the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the displacement from the United States Embassy in Jerusalem Tel Aviv.
This decision overthrew long-standing US policy and led Palestinian leaders to boycott Washington's peace efforts led by Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Last month, the Trump administration announced it would redirect $ 200 million of Palestinian economic support funds to programs in the West Bank and Gaza.
And at the end of August, the Trump administration suspended all funding from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which further increased tensions with Palestinian leaders .
Palestinian refugees reacted with dismay to funding cuts, warning that they would lead to more poverty, anger and instability in the Middle East.
A statement from the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said the latest humanitarian aid was part of an American attempt to "liquidate the Palestinian cause" and that it would threaten the lives of thousands of Palestinians and the livelihoods of thousands of Palestinians. 39, hospital employees.
"This dangerous and unjustified American escalation has crossed all the red lines and is considered a direct aggression against the Palestinian people," the statement added.
At the gates of two affected East Jerusalem hospitals, the medical staff was aware of the decision but declined to comment.
One of the centers, the Al Makassed Islamic Charitable Society Hospital, said in a statement that US aid cuts occur as the hospital suffers a suffocating crisis due to lack of financial aid flow and lack of funds. accumulation of debts and funds. retained by the Palestinian government.
He said he received 45 million shekels ($ 12.5 million) of US money to treat patients in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. In his statement, the hospital's CEO, Dr. Bassam Abu Libdeh, "questioned the rationale for combining political issues with medical and humanitarian issues."
The latest round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks brokered by the United States collapsed in 2014.
Report by David Brunnstrom in Washington; Additional report by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and Maayan Lubell and Stephen Farrell in Jerusalem; edited by Paul Simao and Jason Neely
