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US Congress blocks £128m in aid for Palestinians


Vertigo

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No surprise at all. Still foul as shit though.

The Palestinian Authority has accused the US of "collective punishment", after the US Congress blocked $200m (£128m) in aid in response to President Mahmoud Abbas' bid for UN statehood.

The decision to freeze the payments was reportedly made by three congressional committees on 18 August, before Abbas' planned bid for statehood recognition at the UN the following month.

The funds, intended for food aid, health care, and infrastructure projects, were supposed to have been transferred within the US financial year, which ends today. The Obama administration is reportedly negotiating with congressional leaders to unlock the aid.

"It is another kind of collective punishment which is going to harm the needs of the public without making any positive contribution," Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib told the Independent.

"It is ironic to be punished for going to the United Nations."

USAid has already started scaling back its aid operations in the West Bank and Gaza, and there are fears it may be forced to end all humanitarian work and distribution of financial support to the Palestinian Authority by January.

There are also fears the move could lead to a security crisis in the Palestinian territories.

"Security co-operation with the Palestinians is excellent at the moment and we do not want to jeopardise that," a senior Israeli military official official told the Independent.

Republican Gary Ackerman, member of the House sub-committee on the Middle East and South Asia, told a meeting of representatives and leaders of Jewish organisations outside the UN headquarters on Monday that "there may need to be a total cut-off of all aid to the Palestinians for pursuing this course of action which is very dangerous and ill advised."

Former president Bill Clinton recently warned Congress to leave the issue of aid to the Obama administration. He said: "Everybody knows the US Congress is the most pro-Israel parliamentary body in the world. They don't have to demonstrate that."

A UN security council panel on admitting new members to the UN met to discuss the Palestinian bid for the first time on Friday. After the meeting, Lebanese UN ambassador Nawaf Salam said the committee unanimously agreed to hold further meetings next week.

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I don't think they do, the Israeli PR machine is so aggressive and successful, that most people abroad in the US are under the impression that Israel, is the victim of the conflict (a point of view that is regularly and vigorously pushed by Israel and it's allies).

While suicide bombings and 'terrorist mastermind generals' from Hamas and Hezbollah are regularly repoted and are widespread knowledge, relatively few people are aware of the illegal annexation of the westbank, the blockade of Gaza, the numerous human rights violations which include deliberate targeting of civlians, use of white phospherus gas, torture of Palestinian detainees, demolition of Palestinian houses and so forth.

Instead, the reason, that many Americans and indeed British people, believe the conflict endures, is because of anti-semitism. (Another fallacy that Israel spouts to the rest of the world in an attempt to not only condemn Palestine and the Arab states, but as a defence mechnism against anyone who attempts to criticize their actions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict).

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Poor Israel, all they are doing is defending themselves, They are killing supporters or potential supporters of Hamas who may mount an attack on them.

They are being hit everyday with rockets, terrifying the people of Israel.

The land if for the Jews only, as Germany is not a good place as it haunts them of the acts of hitler so want to go to the land where the jews were promised.

They are doing nothing wrong and are only defending themselves. The Arabs are the ones causing havoc and harber terrorist,

They are being bullied by the arab states and they can't have one arab state?

Disclaimer: I do not believe what I have written about, above.

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