The United States will no longer give funding to Gaza that empowers the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas or fund Palestinian incitement towards Israel, the U.S. Special Representative for International Negotiations, Jason Greenblatt, said on Thursday in New York at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
JNS reported on Sunday that Greenblatt told the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, which consists of countries and institutions coordinating global financial aid to the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, that “The United States will not use the hard-earned tax dollars of its citizens to subsidize anti-normalization” efforts against Israel.
Greenblatt called the boycotts campaign against the Jewish State “a failed political philosophy” and vowed that “We will not fund a situation that empowers Hamas, an unrepentant terrorist organization.”
The White House’s envoy continued: “We have had enough of the status quo. We have had enough of Hamas diverting funds donated by the generous, well-meaning countries sitting around this table, and using those funds for illicit activity.”
Greenblatt added that “We have had enough of Hamas taking all of our and your generous donations to the Palestinians, and then failing to provide even the most basic services—safe water, electricity and hospitals to those who they purport to govern.”
Greenblatt is part of a team currently formulating a yet to be released Middle East peace plan, which the Palestinians are boycotting. U.S. President Donald Trump has heralded the plan as “the deal of the century,” while Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas derided it as the “slap of the century.” The PA and Abbas have previously defied other efforts of the administration to facilitate peace with Israel.
The administration has criticized Abbas and the PA for blocking peace efforts. Since becoming president, Trump has repeatedly called on the PA to stop incitement to violence. The PA has consistently refused to tone down its rhetoric or end the “Pay to Slay” program that incentivizes terror against Israel.
In August, the U.S announced that it would cut $200 million in annual aid from the PA, the impetus for which was “to ensure these funds are spent in accordance with US national interests and provide value to the US taxpayer.” The cut in aid to the PA came amid nearly $3 billion in overall foreign aid cuts by the administration.
[Photo: U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv / YouTube]