Palestinians to Trump: Al-Quds Not for Sale

Date: 03 January 2018 - 22:18

News ID: ۴۸۴۶۹

RAMALLAH (Dispatches) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's office said on Wednesday that Jerusalem Al-Quds is "not for sale" after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to cut annual aid of more than $300 million to force them to the negotiating table.
"Al-Quds is the eternal capital of the state of Palestine and it is not for sale for gold or billions," Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP, referring to Trump's recognition of Jerusalem Al-Quds as the so-called capital of Israel.
UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness said on Wednesday that his organization "has not been informed by the United States administration of any changes in U.S. funding to the agency".
The December 6 declaration has sparked protests over recent weeks. Fourteen Palestinians have been killed including a 17-year-old in a village north of Ramallah on Wednesday.
Musab Firas al-Tamimi was shot dead during clashes with the Israeli army in Deir Nizam, the Palestinian health ministry said. Ma'an News reported that three other Palestinian youths were injured with rubber-coated steel bullets during the clashes.
On Tuesday night, Trump tweeted that the U.S. has taken Jerusalem Al-Quds "off the table" and said Palestinians were "no longer willing to talk peace".
Earlier on Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said that the U.S. might halt funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) – the UN body tasked with helping Palestinian refugees – until the Palestinians agree to engage in "peace” talks with the Zionist regime.
"(Trump) doesn't want to give any additional funding until the Palestinians agree to come back to the negotiation table, and what we saw with the resolution was not helpful to the situation," Haley said at the United Nations.
On Monday, the Israeli Knesset passed a bill which will make it more difficult for the occupying regime to hand over parts of Jerusalem Al-Quds to Palestinians under any future deal.
The bill also paves the way for Palestinian neighborhoods in East Al-Quds to be hived off into a separate local council, reducing the city’s Palestinian population by a third.
Abbas condemned the bill, calling is "a brutal war on the Palestinian people and their land and holy sites".
Trump also plans to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem Al-Quds from Tel Aviv.
In late December, Trump threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that voted in favor of the UN resolution calling for the United States to withdraw its decision to recognize Jerusalem Al-Quds as Israel's "capital”.
"They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. Well, we're watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We'll save a lot. We don't care," Trump told reporters at the White House.
Haley, in a letter to dozens of UN states last month, warned that Trump had asked her to "report back on those countries who voted against us".
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence had been set to visit Occupied Palestine during the week of December 17, but according to the White House rescheduled his trip to focus on the tax bill then up for a vote in Congress.