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How did Twitter react to Trump’s threats of aid cuts to the PA?

January 4, 2018 at 4:21 pm

US President Donald Trump [Gage Skidmore/Flickr]

In a series of tweets on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump threatened to withhold future aid payments to Palestinians, accusing them of being “no longer willing to talk peace” with Israel”.

Trump’s tweets are set against the backdrop of a unilateral decision taken by the US President last month to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in recognition of the Holy City as the capital of Israel, generating outrage across the Arab and Muslim world and concern within the international community.

While Trump had previously stated that the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital would not impact the final status of Jerusalem in peace negotiations, in his tweets he said: “we have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table.”

The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) responded to Trump’s threats in a thread on Twitter, saying that ‘Palestinian rights are not for sale’. Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the PLO, accused Trump of sabotaging the peace process, indicating that he has ‘single-handedly destroyed the very foundations of peace.’


The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, also condemned the threats, describing them as “cheap political blackmail.”

“The US president’s threats to cut off aid to UNRWA and the Palestinian Authority until we return to negotiations with the occupation is cheap political blackmail which reflects barbaric American behaviour.”

Trump’s tweets were cheered by many of his American followers who were against the idea of American foreign aid:

However, many twitter users called him out on his threats.

If the Palestinian leadership were to dissolve the Palestinian Authority due to the lack of funds, a distinct possibility if Trump cuts off all aid, Israel would have to assume its obligations under international law as the administrator of the occupied territories, making it responsible for delivering services to the Palestinians.

In fact, the majority of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are in favour of dissolving the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian American writer and political analyst Yousef Munayyer pointed out.

Munayyer maintained that it is Israeli lobby groups that would be most interested in stopping Trump from carrying out his threats.