The Trump administration cannot talk about a historic agreement, and then allow the Netanyahu government to continue with its colonisation project
In 1994, the United States had allowed the PLO (as the official
representative of all Palestinians) to open an office in Washington.
Former US president Bill Clinton had waived a law that
required renewal of certification every six months. In December 2015,
the US Congress passed a law imposing conditions on the PLO office,
stipulating that the organisation cannot run its office if it pursues
prosecution of Israeli officials in the ICC on crimes against the
Palestinians. Trump administration used this law to blackmail the
Palestinian side, informing the PLO that its office will be closed,
citing statements by Palestinian officials pledging to prosecute Israel
at the International Criminal Court. A week after this decision, the US
State Department notified the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) that
it didn’t plan to recertify its office in Washington, unless the PNA
resumes peace negotiations with Israel and halt moves to prosecute
Israeli officials.
“While we all know that the US administration cannot be a fair mediator between Palestinians and Israelis, the Trump administration persists in being unjust.”-Professor As’ad Abdul Rahman
The Trump administration is the first since the 1993 Oslo agreements,
which has not explicitly stated that the achievement of peace is based
on the two-state solution and the establishment of an independent
Palestinian state in the 1967 Palestinian Territories (with occupied
East Jerusalem as its capital), and did not even care to explicitly
condemn Jewish colonisation drive. Saeb Erekat, the Secretary of the
PLO, has referred to “27 draft resolutions in the US Congress to punish
the Palestinian people, foremost of which is cutting aid to the
Palestinian people, halting certification of the PLO office and moving
the American Embassy to occupied Jerusalem. Though, the American
extortion is not new in principle, since it was practised by former
American administrations against the Palestinians, yet the new
development is that the Trump administration did not hesitate to declare
its real purpose behind this step. The American intention is to force
the Palestinian leadership to return to the negotiating table with
Israel according to Israeli conditions, on top of which is avoiding to
freeze Jewish colonisation of Palestinian lands by building colonies.
In fact, a few weeks ago, the Foreign Relations Committee in
Washington passed a bill that would stop $300 million (Dh1.10 billion)
in annual aid from the US to the PNA, “unless it stops spending what the
bill described as money that rewards perpetrators of acts of violence
against Israeli and American citizens”. In a parallel move, 16
Republican and Democratic members of the Committee have asked the US
Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, to “lead international
efforts so that other countries take similar actions”. It is known that
the US provides $500 million to the PNA annually, and if the legislation
becomes effective, the PNA will be granted only $60 million, which is
originally earmarked for security coordination with the Israeli
occupation authorities.
It is strange that while the US recognises the PLO, it still
classifies the organisation as a terrorist group. When Democrats formed a
majority in Congress during previous administrations, the six-month
waiver, allowing the PLO office to remain open, was brought up at times
without taking effect. The White House administrations that link their
moves to the country’s higher interests used to show some understanding
earlier on. However, nowadays, the Congress, with a Republican majority,
is more dominated by Zionist forces, which increased its antagonism
towards the PLO. The present White House administration, regardless of
the Congress animosity, receives and negotiates with the Palestinian
official leadership, while taking a hard-line position towards it. While
we all know that the American administration cannot be a fair mediator
between Palestinians and Israelis, the Trump administration persists in
being unjust. The world can see that the Palestinians always demonstrate
their readiness to engage in serious negotiations to achieve peace on
the basis of a two-state solution, while Israel hinders efforts towards
such a goal. So, it is Israel that should be punished and not the
Palestinians. In this context, the recent testimony provided by former
US secretary of state John Kerry attests to such facts.
It is remarkable that recent American actions, such as the
recognition of occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, are
inconsistent with what Trump is talking about to achieve the “Deal of
the Century”. Therefore, the entire American-Palestinian relationship
must be reconsidered. Trump cannot talk about a historic agreement, and
then indulge in political blackmailing of the Palestinians, even as the
Netanyahu government continues with its nefarious acts such as land
theft and colonisation, ethnic displacement and systematic repression of
Palestinians.
Professor As’ad Abdul Rahman is the chairman of the Palestinian Encyclopaedia.
The original source of this article is Gulf News
Copyright © Prof. As’ad Abdul Rahman, Gulf News, 2017
